"A Heroine (Nayika) Bathing, Attended by Her Confidante," Folio from the dispersed “Nurpur" Rasamanjari (Bouquet of Delights)

Anyone interested in the depiction and function of limitless space in a flat picture will
delight in Indian painting, as this impulse to describe is one of its principal features. A limitless
expanse of green fills the background of this painting, which ostensibly depicts a nayika, one of
the embodied personifications of love play. In a rigidly frontal composition, our nayika stands
beside a lotus­filled expanse of water, attended by her sakhi, or confidante, who holds her
discarded clothing. The gentle curve of the water’s edge re­enforces the lazy rhythms of the
nayika’s beautiful, half­clothed body. She has just finished bathing, yet stands at the center of
the painting, wringing wet, for our inspection. It is as if she has been conjured from the
limitless green background. Like a godly manifestation ( a dhyana), she has become a focus
for our delectation, as well as a focus for our meditation.
Nayikas were generally divided into categories according to their age, experience,
status, or situation in love. This painting probably illustrates Ajnata Yauvan­Mugdha, the
inexperienced nayika unconscious of her youth and beauty. According to the Sanskrit poem
describing this lady: “The Nayika with moonlike face stands drying herself beside the pool. Her
full­blown eyes look like lotuses in the reflection, and thinking perhaps the flowers have stuck to
her ears, she moves her hand to brush them away Next her eyes drift to the downy hair on her
person which she mistakes for algae and tries to wipe off. Her hips feel heavy, and in virginal
innocence she asks her companion again and again, ‘Can it be that I am tired?’” (1)
The Rasamanjari (Bouquet of Delights) by Bhanudatta (fifteenth century), which this
painting illustrates, is a Sanskrit poem about love in 138 verses. It occupies a pre­eminent
60. SK.055
place in what is often called Shringara literature, or love poetry. The nayika­bheda themes
famously described in the sixteenth century Rasikapriya (cat. no. 21) and other later texts in
Hindi were earlier treated in the Rasamanjari for their own sake for the first time in Indian
literature. (2)
The Series to which this painting once belonged is called the “Nurpur Rasamanjari”, for
the court and kingdom in the Punjab Hills where it was made in circa l700­l7l0, probably for Raja
Daya Dhatta (r. ca. 1700­30), This very same ruler plays the role of the hero (nayaka) in the
Series as a whole . Golu, the artist responsible for this Series along with his workshop, was the
son and grandson of the Basohli artists (originally from neighboring Nurpur) Devidasa and Kripal
(see cat. nos. 37­38).
For other paintings from this same Series see Sotheby’s New York, “Indian, Himalayan
and Southeast Asian Works of Art” (l7 March 2015), no. 1166. For a closely related painting of
dubious authenticity, see Kalpana Desai and Pratapaditya Pal, A Centennial Bouquet: The
Khandalavala Collection of Indian Art (Mumbai: Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Vastu
Sangrahalaya, 2004), no. 95.
(2) M.S. Randhawa and S.D. Bhambri, Basohli Paintings of the Rasamanjari (New
Delhi: Abhinav Publications, 1981), pg. 1
(1) M.S. Randhawa and S.D. Bambri 1981, pg. 13. For a Basohli illustration of the
same subject, see ibid,

Inscription: Inscribed on the reverse with a short identification in Hindi written in takri script: “mugdhatam. jovanam. . . .” (the immature youth . . . ); also inscribed in pencil with the numbers “2 / 7” and in blue ink with the number “11” and the note “Hegap / con / 11 — 28 x 18 cms”

Terence McInerney 1992

New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Divine Pleasures: Painting from India's Rajput Courts—The Kronos Collections," June 13–September 11, 2016.