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Lot 6

 

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Opaque watercolour heightened with gold on paper

Mewar, c. 1760-1770

Image: 13.5 x 11 in (33.75 x 27.5 cm)
Folio: 15.5 x 12.5 in (38.75 x 31.25 cm)


The present miniature is an emblematic representation of the intimate and private world of the zenana, the part of the household reserved for the women of the family. The foliage surrounding it helps preserving the secrecy and intimacy of the place.

In this miniature the scene revolves around the jhula, or swing, where a Mewar ruler is being amused by the ladies of the zenana. The ruler is wearing a red jama and is depicted while smoking hookah on the swing. The jama, or jacket, was first introduced to India by the Mughals and soon became a traditional piece of menswear in the country. It is mainly identified by its long sleeves, tight-fitting chest, tie closures at the sides and flared skirt.

The senior Ranis are seated next to the ruler. The other women of the zenana are represented singing and dancing around them while one lady is playing the dholki, a two-headed hand drum. The women are wearing traditional Rajasthani clothes including very colourful bandhani textiles made using the tie-dye technique, lehnga-cholis, long skirts embroidered and pleated, and odhnis or long scarves.

Maharana Ari Singh (r. 1761-1773) was a keen patron of the Mewar School of painting and actively employed artists producing miniatures depicting portraits, court scenes and horses and elephants with their grooms and mahouts in the royal stables and enclosures. Shiva, Bhima and Bakhta were all artists at Ari Singh's court in the first years of his reign before an economic and political decline of Mewar in the late 1760s.

For further discussion see A. Topsfield, Paintings from Rajasthan in the National Gallery in Victoria, 1980, nos. 154-165, and for a similar, slightly earlier illustration of Rana Pratap Singh II seated with his queen on a swing in a garden, flanked by their attendants, see S. C. Welch, A Flower from Every Meadow: Indian Paintings from American Collections, New York, 1973, no. 9, p. 30.

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