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AN ILLUSTRATION FROM A BHAGAVATA PURANA SERIES: KRISHNA AND BALARAMA PLAYING WITH GOPAS IN THE FOREST MEWAR, CIRCA 1700 image 1
AN ILLUSTRATION FROM A BHAGAVATA PURANA SERIES: KRISHNA AND BALARAMA PLAYING WITH GOPAS IN THE FOREST MEWAR, CIRCA 1700 image 2
Lot 833

AN ILLUSTRATION FROM A BHAGAVATA PURANA SERIES:
KRISHNA AND BALARAMA PLAYING WITH GOPAS IN THE FOREST
MEWAR, CIRCA 1700

Indian, Himalayan & Southeast Asian Art
23 July 2020, 10:00 EDT
New York

US$10,000 - US$15,000

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AN ILLUSTRATION FROM A BHAGAVATA PURANA SERIES:
KRISHNA AND BALARAMA PLAYING WITH GOPAS IN THE FOREST

MEWAR, CIRCA 1700
Opaque watercolor and gold on paper; verso with two lines of devanagari text in black ink.
Image: 7 1/2 x 14 1/2 in. (19 x 36.8 cm);
Folio: 10 1/8 x 16 in. (25.7 x 40.6 cm)

Footnotes

In vibrant colors, the painting shows Krishna and Balarama dancing, wrestling, and playing practical jokes with their friends the gopas (cowherds). Several chapters in Book X of the Bhagavata Purana, dedicated to Krishna, begin with this idyllic scene before it is interrupted by the need to quell a demon. Chapters 12 and 18 are examples. An excerpt from chapter 18 follows:

"The forest was beautiful, full of flowers and echoing with the sounds of various animals and birds, singing peacocks and bees, and the noises of cuckoos and cranes. Preparing to play, Bhagavan Krishna entered that forest vibrating his flute. He was accompanied by Balarama and surrounded by the gopas and their cows, which were their riches [...] They danced, wrestled and sang [...] Sometimes (they played) with [fruits] [...] Sometimes they bound their eyes, and [played tag] and other such games, and sometimes they pretended to be animals and birds."

Adapted from Bryant (trans), Krishna: The Beautiful Legend of God (Srimad Bhagavata Purana Book X), London, 2013, p.92.

The painting's landscape format, busy narrative, and bold colors are exemplary of the illustrated Bhagavata Puranas produced by Mewar's royal atelier under the reign of Amar Singh II (r.1698-1710). For a full discussion of the production of such popular narratives under his reign, see Topsfield, Court Painting at Udaipur, Zurich, 2001, pp.94-5, figs.57-62.

Compare related pages from earlier series in: Rawson, Indian Painting, Paris, 1961, p.123; Chandra, Mewar Painting, New Delhi, 1979, pls.8-9; Sharma (ed.), Indian Art Treasures: Suresh Neotia Collection, 2006, no.85; Sotheby's, New York, 21 March 2012, lot 235; and Sotheby's, New York, 17 March 2015, lot 1134.

Provenance
Estate of William and Josephine Roth (1916-2014), San Francisco

Additional information

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