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Chitra Darshana Nayika (The Heroine Who Gazes at a Picture of Her Absent Beloved)

Attributed to: Kripal (active about 1660–1690)
Indian, Pahari
1660–70
Object Place: Basohli or Nurpur, Punjab Hills, Northern India

Medium/Technique Opaque watercolor, gold, silver and beetle wing on paper
Dimensions Overall: 22.3 x 32.6 cm (8 3/4 x 12 13/16 in.)
Credit Line Ross-Coomaraswamy Collection
Accession Number17.2786
NOT ON VIEW
CollectionsAsia
ClassificationsPaintings

InscriptionsObverse: in top margin, in Takri: "Citradarshana" and no. 133. Reverse: at bottom, 2 line inscription in Sanskrit in Devanagari: "Nivim hared urasijan-vilekhen-nakhena damtaschadamca dashanena dasheda kasmat, Itham patesa likhitam dayitam vilokya bala pureva vanaja hara vihara smakam. 133" = "Tearing at her skirt, vehemently marking her breasts with her nails and biting her lips with her teeth, and crying 'When (will he come)?' Thus regarding her lover depicted in the picture, the babe is afraid that he may be taking his pleasure in the groves."
ProvenanceBy 1916, purchased in India by Ananda K. Coomaraswamy (b. 1887 - d. 1947); 1917, sold by Ananda K. Coomaraswamy to Denman Waldo Ross (b. 1853 - d. 1935), Cambridge, MA; 1917, given by Denman Waldo Ross to the MFA. (Accession date: April 5, 1917)