Important Notice

GARHWAL, CIRCA 1810
Gouache on paper heightened with gold
Image: 8.5 x 6 in (21.5 x 15.2 cm)
Folio: 11 x 8.5 in (27.9 x 21.5 cm)

NON-EXPORTABLE REGISTERED ANTIQUITY

PROVENANCE
The Tandan Collection

PUBLISHED
R K Tandan, Indian Miniature Painting: 16th Through 19th Centuries, Bangalore: Natesan Publishers, 1982, fig. 153 (illustrated)


The Gupta Nayika is a sensitive portrayal of angst and longing, "a simple evocation of feminine charm." (Archer, Punjab Hills, Vol. I, p. xxiii) She speaks of her pain to her companion within the safeconfines of her palace. "Pointing towards a blossoming garden, the distraught Gupta Nayika complains to her confidante that the ketki plants, laden with lovely flowers, give her no joy, and that their fragrance pierces her heart like a thorn, and only causes her pain all day and night." (Tandan, Pahari Ragamalas, p. 122)

Nayika paintings were originally based on the poetic text, Rasikapriya written by Kesava Das, the poet laureate of Raja Inderjit of Orchcha. The many categories of the nayika illustrate different forms of love, ranging from angst to ecstasy, usually in thought of a male lover (nayaka). The present lot is strikingly similar in its composition and depiction of a lonely mistress in longing, to the paintings in the Rasika Priya series at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London.

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