AN ILLUSTRATION FROM A BHAGAVATA PURANA SERIES: CELEBRATION OF KRISHNA’S BIRTH IN GOKUL ‡
CENTRAL INDIA, DATIA, LATE 18TH CENTURY
Estimate: £2,000 - £3,000
Auction: 11 June 2025 from 10:00 BST
Description
gouache on paper highlighted in gold, with red border and black margins rules, within the upper corner a devout nobleman is seated against his bolster celebrating the birth of Krishna surrounded by his courtiers, below in the palace bedchamber, Yasoda, the foster-mother of Krishna is nursing the infant Krishna, the sage Shukadeva is in deep discussion with King Parakshit in background on the right hand side, whilst in the foreground musicians and dancing girls performing as the cowherds of Gokula tend their oxen, with identifying nagari inscriptions in black ink, folded to the back of the painting cover paper with title and twelve lines in nagari script, and the library stamp of the State Datia collection
Dimensions
31.5cm x 43.7cm
Provenance
From a Spanish Private Collection, formerly in the collection of the Maharaja of Bikaner.
Footnote
For an example of another lively scene of this period also executed at Datia in Central India see L. York Leach, Mughal and Other Indian Paintings from the Chester Beatty Library, Dublin, London, 1995, Vol II. p. 1019, no. 10.62, and; Detroit Institute of Arts, Michigan, accession number 70.778.