Lot 74
A DRAWING FROM A BHAGAVATA PURANA SERIES: DAKSHA PRAJAPATI PRESENTING HIS TWENTY-SEVEN DAUGHTERS IN MARRIAGE TO SOMA, THE MOON GOD ‡
INDIA, PUNJAB HILLS, ATTRIBUTED TO MANAKU OF GULER, CIRCA 1740-1750
Auction: 09 December 2026 from 14:00 GMT
Description
preparatory drawing, pencil and ink on paper, depicting Daksha seated on a raised platform facing Soma, the moon God, with a halo about his head, with rows of female figures behind him, situated on a terrace with kathra to the sides and mountains, trees and vegetation behind, a line of takri script top left, and a series ‘no. 30’ top center
Dimensions
folio 21.8cm x 32cm, image 17.1cm x 27.8cm
Provenance
Formerly, from a private Dutch collection belonging to a late scholar of Indian studies.
Private American collection.
Footnote
This illustration belongs to an important series of drawings depicting scenes from the Bhagavata Purana, produced at Guler around 1740. The series has been attributed by Goswamy and Fischer to Manaku of Guler (see Goswamy and Fischer, Manaku of Guler: The Life and Work of another great Indian Painter from a Small Hill State', 1992, nos. 109–110, pp. 246, 262–263).
Other drawings from this series are held in several collections, including the Rietberg Museum, Zurich, and the collection of Dr Jyoti and Nona Datta, Los Angeles. For a discussion and a drawing from the same series, see our sale, Islamic and Indian Art, 11 December 2024, lot 72.