ARTS OF INDIA

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AN ILLUSTRATION TO THE BHAGAVATA PURANA: THE
ABDUCTION OF RUKMINI
PROBABLY CHAMBA, NORTH INDIA, CIRCA 1780-90
Opaque pigments heightened with gold on paper, Rukmini enters Krishna’s
chariot having gone to pray at the shrine of Devi, the Kings who oppose that
match expire with fury, set inside red margins with white rules, the reverse with
lines of devanagari and takri text
Painting 10º x 13√in. (25.8 x 35.2cm.); folio 11√ x 15æin. (30.3 x 40.1cm.)
£40,000-50,000 $57,000-71,000
€50,000-62,000
PROVENANCE:
William K. Ehrenfeld
LITERATURE:
Daniel J. Ehnbom, Indian Miniatures: The Ehrenfeld Collection, New York, 1985,
no.113, p.229
The Abduction of Rukmini or Rukmini-Harana is part of the Bhagavata Purana
or story of Krishna. As Princess Rukmini of Vidarbha is unwilling to marry
Prince Sisupala, the man most people expect her to, she goes to pray at the
temple with the high born women of her city. Krishna, her lover, comes to
abduct her. He is shown in the chariot, helping Rukmini into it – a deed that
sends the kings who oppose him into fury (depicted on the left). Krishna’s
companions are shown in the upper right corner waiting for him before
returning to Dwarka where Krishna and Rukmini will be wed. Rukmini is
shown twice, directly to the left of the shrine with her ladies and eloping with
Krishna in his carriage.
The dramatic setting of the scene, with the high temple shikara rising against
a vibrant yellow ground is a convention for landscape painting already seen
in another Rukmini-Harana series, now in the Bhuri Singh Museum, Chamba
and accounted to be by Nikka, the third son of Nainsukh (B.N. Goswamy and
Eberhard Fischer, Pahari Masters, Zurich, 1992, cat. 147, p.345). Although
dated 1790-1800 by Goswamy and Fischer it is dated circa 1775-80 by V.C.
Ohri (‘Nikka and Ranjha at the court of Raja Raj Singh of Chamba’, V.C. Ohri
and R. Craven (ed.), Painters of the Pahari Schools, Marg, Bombay, 1998,
pp.98-114).
The present painting seems infuenced by Nikka and may have been
executed by an artist who had access to Nikka’s work at Chamba. Two other
paintings, originally attributed in 1973 by Archer to Garhwal circa 1770-85
are published in Indian Paintings from the Punjab Hills, London, 1973, vol.
II, cat.12 and 20, p.83 an 85. A later painting of Krishna abducting Rukmini
from the temple, attributed to a Kangra or Mandi artist, circa 1800-20 is
published in Paintings from the Royal Courts of India, exhibition catalogue,
Francesca Galloway, London and New York, 2008, cat. 39.
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