AN ILLUSTRATION FROM A BIHARI'S SATSAI SERIES
PROPERTY FROM A PRIVATE AMERICAN COLLECTION
Mewar, Rajasthan, North-Western India, 18th century

Opaque pigments and ink heightened with gold on paper, the vertical composition depicting two different moments in the illustrated narrative of the Satsai, a famous 17th-century literary work exploring the romance of Radha and Krishna and discussing the concepts of Bhakti (devotion), Neeti (moral policies), and Shringara (love) written in Braj Bhasha by the Hindi poet Bihari, in the upper right corner Krishna getting educated and instructed by his female companion, in the lower left corner the couple enjoying a moment of tenderness and intimacy, at the top of the illustration two lines of black and red ink Devanagari script against an ochre yellow ground, set within black rules, and yellow and bright red borders, the back with later-added notes in pencil and pen, one of them reading Raga Kanada in Hindi, a likely erroneous attribution, 25cm x 21.8cm.

Provenance: Private Maryland Collection.

For similar examples recently sold at auctions, please see Bonham's New York, 13 March 2017, lots 3129 and 3132.