Page 225 - March 23 2022 Boinghams NYC Indian and Himalayan Art

PROPERTY FROM A DISTINGUISHED WEST COAST COLLECTION
493
A PAINTING OF NOBLEWOMEN VISITING A SHAIVITE SHRINE
INDIA, RAJASTHAN, KOTAH, CIRCA 1770
Folio 11º x 8 in. (28.6 x 20.3 cm.)
Image 9¿ x 6 in. (23.2 x 15.2 cm.)
$8,000-12,000
PROVENANCE:
M. Durga Lahari Sharma, before 18 January 1919.
J. H. Bridges, Esq., after 1919.
Christie’s New York, 20 March 2012, lot 261.
Simon Ray Ltd., London, November 2012, cat. no. 44.

In this unusual scene, a group of woman sit by a Shaivite shrine at sunset.
One woman with matted plaits emulating Shiva’s hair, kneels facing a maiden
holding a Mughal-style vina, Shiva’s favorite instrument. Another reads
from a manuscript page, as her fellow devotee, wielding a bejeweled crutch,
listens intently to her every word. A fifth woman, in a patchwork coat, sits in
a balanced position with a yagapatta, yoga band, wrapped around her knees
and waist. From within the wooden structure, another woman pours oils down
a Shiva linga and yoni. While aspects of their dress, particularly the tattered
robe and matted locks, might suggest the women are humble mendicants,
they are, at the same time, all splendidly bejeweled in gold and pearls. The
scene likely represents a group of noblewomen attempting to dress down to
pay their respects to lord Shiva.

While this painting is of a similar subject to Bhairavi Ragini, a woman visiting a
Shaivite shrine, the present painting is likely too elaborate and personalized to
belong to the ragamala type, which generally adheres to a stricter composition.
Bhairavi Ragini depictions themselves focus on a woman making an offering
directly to the Shiva Linga, which in the present scene is only a secondary
subject in the shadowy background. The present painting may have been
commissioned as a standalone image.

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