Important Notice

KANGRA, CIRCA 1820
Gouache on paper heightened with gold
Image: 7.25 x 11 in (18.7 x 28.3 cm)
Folio: 10 x 13.75 in (26.1 x 35.5 cm)

NON-EXPORTABLE REGISTERED ANTIQUITY

PROVENANCE
Property from a Distinguished Family Collection


This painting illustrates a story from the Markandeya Purana. It shows goddess Kaushiki, identified by her blue skin tone, in conversation with Parvati, from whose body she has emerged. The devas look upon the scene in wonder. Kaushiki is preparing to leave for the Himalayas seen in the distance. On the extreme left are a cluster of devas who have approached Parvati for help after being driven out from the heavens by demons. The snow-clad mountains, river, and green landscape reflects the beauty of the mountainous region that characterises paintings from the Kangra school. "The artists of Guler and Kangra had the colours of the dawn and the rainbow on their palettes." (M S Randhawa and John Kenneth Galbraith, Indian Painting: The Scene, Themes and Legends, Bombay: Vakils, Feffer & Simons Limited, 1968, p. 134)

A closely related painting, part of a larger Guler set, is illustrated in W G Archer, Indian Paintings from the Punjab Hills, Volume II, Delhi: Oxford University Press, 1973, p. 101, fig. 17 (i).

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