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An opaque watercolor painting depicting a seated woman on a blanket with pillows holding a long, narrow instrument in her arms and four women around her. There are bushes of red flowers along the bottom and a field of pink lotuses and green lily pads behind them. The image is framed by a curved, light brown frame and pale colored paper around that.

A rectangular opaque watercolor painting depicting a seated woman on a floral patterned blanket with pillows holding a yellow long, narrow instrument in her arms and four women around her. The seated woman is wearing a pale green dress which ruffles at the bottom. The woman to the right of her wears a long, pink dress. The three women to the left of her are wearing long pink, white, and yellow dresses, the one in pink is kneeling closest to the center. There are four bushes of red flowers along the bottom of the image and a field of pink and green lily pads behind them. There is a green, holly landscape with a small, hite building behind the lily pads. The image is framed by a curved, light brown frame and pale colored paper around that.

Identification and Creation

Object Number
1971.127
Title
Chitrini Nayika, page from a Rasikapriya (Handbook for Poetry Connoisseurs)
Classification
Manuscripts
Work Type
manuscript folio
Date
18th century
Places
Creation Place: South Asia, India, Himachal Pradesh, Kangra
Culture
Indian
Persistent Link
https://hvrd.art/o/216265

Physical Descriptions

Medium
Opaque watercolor and gold on paper; Pahari School, Kangra Style
Dimensions
image with border: 27.4 x 18.3 cm (10 13/16 x 7 3/16 in.)

Acquisition and Rights

Credit Line
Harvard Art Museums/Arthur M. Sackler Museum, Gift of John Kenneth Galbraith
Accession Year
1971
Object Number
1971.127
Division
Asian and Mediterranean Art
Contact
am_asianmediterranean@harvard.edu
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Descriptions

Description
Seated on a yellow floral carpet and against a large, cylindrical gold pillow decorated with purple irises is a female figure. She is known as a chitrini nayika, or a heroine gifted in the arts of music, poetry, singing, and/or dancing. Here, the heroine is shown playing a tumbi, a type of string instrument. She wears a long, sea foam green dress with gold decoration, a translucent green shawl that is draped around her body, earrings, bracelets, and a necklace. Behind her is a female attendant with a pink dress and gold decoration, a pink translucent shawl, and adorned with jewelry. In her right hand, she carries a white scarf, a symbol of the nayika’s royal status. In front of the nayika are three other female attendants. One in a pink dress kneels and pours liquid into a small cup. One in a white dress carries a gold box encrusted with jewels in her left hand. The third attendant, dressed in yellow, carries a tray of roses. The figures are gathered on a white terrace that overlooks a large pond with ducks that weave through large lotus pads, blossoms, and buds. In the background is a vast and rolling landscape with a white structure on the left. Below the terrace are four white niches filled with plants with pink and purple blossoms. Pahari School, Kangra Style.

Publication History

  • Stuart Cary Welch and Milo Cleveland Beach, Gods, Thrones, and Peacocks Northern Indian Painting from Two Traditions, exh. cat., Harry N. Abrams, Inc. (New York, NY, 1965), page 92/figure 53
  • Naveen Patnaik and Stuart Cary Welch, A Second Paradise: Indian Courtly Life, 1590-1947, Doubleday & Co. (Garden City, NY, 1985), page 108, 183/figure 37
  • Abby Sue Fisher, Asia & Spanish America: Trans-Pacific Artistic & Cultural Exchange, 1500 - 1850, ed. Ronald Otsuka and Donna Pierce (Denver, 2009), p. 177, fig. 3

Exhibition History

  • India: From Tribe to Court, Fogg Art Museum, Cambridge, 07/23/1981 - 07/23/1981
  • Out of the Hills: Miniature Painting from Himalayan India, Harvard University Art Museums, Fogg Art Museum, Cambridge, 05/26/1984 - 07/08/1984
  • Ambassador's Choice: The Galbraith Collection of Indian Painting, Harvard University Art Museums, Arthur M. Sackler Museum, Cambridge, 02/15/1986 - 04/06/1986
  • Gods, Thrones, and Peacocks - Revisited: Northern Indian Miniatures from two Traditions, Fifteenth to Nineteenth Centuries, Harvard University Art Museums, Cambridge, 03/31/1990 - 06/10/1990
  • Infancy to Old Age: A Gallery of Indians, Harvard University Art Museums, Cambridge, 02/27/1993 - 04/25/1993
  • From India's Hills and Plains: Rajput Painting from the Punjab and Rajasthan, 17th through 19th Centuries, Harvard University Art Museums, Cambridge, 09/04/1993 - 10/31/1993
  • Rasika, the Discerning Connoisseur: Indian Paintings from the John Kenneth Galbraith Collection, Harvard University Art Museums, Cambridge, 01/31/1998 - 04/05/1998
  • 32Q: 2590 South and Southeast Asia, Harvard Art Museums, Cambridge, 11/07/2018 - 04/17/2019

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Verification Level

This record has been reviewed by the curatorial staff but may be incomplete. Our records are frequently revised and enhanced. For more information please contact the Division of Asian and Mediterranean Art at am_asianmediterranean@harvard.edu