Shiva and Parvati with Ganesha, India, Rajasthan, Bundi, circa 1665

Ex-collection G.K. Kanoria, Calcutta

Indar Pasricha Fine Arts, London, March 2003

W.G. Archer, Indian Painting in Bundi and Kotah, London, 1959, fig.4

This glorious depiction of the family of Shiva was painted in Bundi under the reign of Maharao Chattar Sal (r.1631-59) or his successor, Maharao Bhao Singh (r.1659-82). The blue-skinned god Shiva and his consort, Parvati, are seated on a high, stepped pedestal. Shiva wears a dhoti with a tiger-stripe pattern, a necklace of severed human heads, a serpent around his shoulders, and a further serpent curled around his hair which is swept up into a bun. A serene and beautiful Parvati is seated on his left thigh. They are both gazing adoringly at their son. The red-skinned, elephant-headed Ganesha holds a bowl of sweets, a goad, a scripture, and a water vessel in his multiple hands. The bull, Nandi, is seated below Shiva and Parvati. The figures are flanked by a fleshy plantain tree on the left and a tall cypress with flowering branches on the right. Ducks can be seen swimming in the lotus-filled stream below.

The vibrant palette of glowing reds and oranges, and the luxuriant details in the present illustration are comparable with Mewar painting of this period. W.G. Archer suggests that a group of artists migrated from Udaipur to Bundi around 1660-65 and brought with them a distinct Mewar style which soon adapted to its new environment. Political relations with Mewar were close at this point following the marriage of a Bundi princess to Jai Singh of Mewar in 1660, who went on to become the Maharana of Mewar in 1680 (Archer 1959, p.3).

Few paintings from Bundi are known from this early period. The composition of our painting finds close comparison with a Ragamala illustration, Vasant Ragini, similarly dated, which was also originally in the G.K. Kanoria collection, and is illustrated in ibid., fig.5. The large almond-shaped eyes and long, pointed noses of Shiva and Parvati are similar to those on figures in a Rasikapriya illustration dated to circa 1660-70 in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York (1990.23). The figures are also comparable to two works dated circa 1662 which are in the Bharat Kala Bhavan, Benaras and in the National Museum, New Delhi (illus. in Beach 1974, figs., 17, 19).