Lot 75
AN ILLUSTRATION FROM THE BHAGAVATA PURANA: KRISHNA AND THE GOPIS BY THE YAMUNA RIVER ‡
INDIA, MALWA, RAJGARH, EARLY 20TH CENTURY IN THE STYLE OF 17TH CENTURY
Auction: 10 December 2025 from 14:00 GMT
Description
gouache on paper, black margin rule, yellow border inscribed in nagari in black ink, depicting Krishna and Balarama brandishing swords protecting their herd of cows from interlopers, the river Yamuna in the foreground with fish
Dimensions
21cm x 26cm
Provenance
25 Blythe Road, London, 13 November 2013.
The collection of a German enthusiast.
Footnote
Painting flourished at Mandy, the capital of the Central Indian state Malwa, during the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries with the romance of Baz Bahadur (r. 1554-1561) and the Hindu courtesan and poetess Rupmati giving authors and artists key inspiration for their works in this part of Eastern and Central India. Painting at Malwa diminished somewhat following the sack of Mandu by the Mughals in 1561. This was later revived in the first half of the seventeenth century at Rajgarh, a Rajput state in Malwa, with bold colours incorporated in to the earlier style and the illustrating of Hindu religious texts being popular subjects. Interestingly, Malwa artists seem not to have been influenced by Mughal ateliers at this time.
For further discussion, see E. Binney, Rajput Miniatures from the Collection of Edwin Bonney, 3rd, Portland, Oregon, 1968, nos. 42 and 43. For another painting from the same series in the San Diego Museum of Art, see accession number 1990.613.