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Kathak dancers Bilaspur, circa 1700
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Kathak dancers
Opaque watercolor on paper with trimmed borders; the two dancers with gazes locked while keeping their bodies frontal, join hands with outer legs raised. Each wears a swaying diaphanous skirt highlights their energetic dance.
Folio: 5 x 4 1/4 in. (12.7 x 10.8 cm.)
Footnotes
Compare with another late Mughal version in The Art Institute of Chicago, 1919.956
Kathak evolved out of a unique blend of Hindu and Islamic cultures. Originally a Hindu devotional dance, performed in the temples of Northern India it combined the arts of dance and story-telling art. Kathak later became a highly sophisticated court-dance under Mughal rule, where it was considerably modified for the purpose of entertainment. The main repertoire of Kathak is based on the divine love between Krishna and Radha and on the Hindu Epics, but also includes a wide variety of other lyrical genre, such as love songs (thumri) or danced poetry (gazal).
Provenance:
Estate of Ananda Kentish Coomaraswamy (1887-1947)














