Page 127 - Bonhams Indian and Himalayan Art March 2016 New York

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FOLIO 71 FROM A RAMAYANA SERIES:
KUMBHAKARNA DOWNED BY HANUMAN’S BLOW
Orchha, circa 1650-1660
Opaque watercolor on paper;
verso numbered and inscribed in devanagari.
Image: 6 1/2 x 10 1/2 in. (16.5 x 26.7 cm);
Folio: 7 7/8 x 11 1/4 in. (20 x 28.6 cm)
$8,000 - 12,000

This painting illustrates Book VI, Sarga 55, verses 10-11 of Valmiki’s From a dispersed series of 99 folios, this painting is followed by two
Ramayana. Losing the battle to Rama’s monkeys and bears, published in Seitz, Orchha, Datia, Panna, Vol. 1, Cologne, 2015, pp.
Ravana instructs his attendants to wake the most formidable demon, 317-9, wherein Rama deals the fatal blow to Kumbhakarna. A second,
his gigantic brother Kumbhakarna. This painting shows Kumbhakarna, slightly later series is completely preserved in the National Museum,
storming out of his bedchamber into battle. New Delhi. Whereas these two series have hitherto been misascribed
to “Malwa”, Seitz has convincingly reattributed them to the Bundela
‘But Hanuman stood directly in the path of the charging court at Orchha, which around 1590 - as the heir to nearby Gwalior -
Kumbhakarna...he forcefully struck [him], whose body was took up the early Rajput Chauranpanchasika style (ibid.).
as fearsome as a great mountain. Overwhelmed by that blow,
the blood-splattered rakshasa staggered.’ Provenance
Estate of Richard B. Gump
Sotheby’s, New York, 28 October 1991, lot 257 (part)
Christie’s, New York, 18 March 2015, lot 4051 (part)
Private European Collection

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