Shiva and Parvati on a tiger skin: Anakūl Nayaka folio from a <em>Rasamanjari</em>
date: label: Date
content: ca. 1710 - ca. 1715
name: label: Artist
content: Attributed to Golu, son of Devidasa
notes: label: School/Tradition
content: Nurpur school
label: Description
content: Close to the image are two thin black lines framing the image. Against a red background, on the left, Shiva walks with Parvati past a large tree. On the right, the couple lie down on a tiger skin. Yellow border.
label: Inscriptions
content: Verso: takri number 1; in takri “anakūla=favorable, compatible, agreeable”
label: Label
content: Invoking the blessings of Shiva, this is the opening page of the Rasamanjari series of c. 1710-15, which was painted at the workshop of Golu, an artist of Nurpur, in the first quarter of the eighteenth century. The Rasamanjari (Bouquet of Rasa) is a poetic classification of lovers (nayakas and nayikas) and love situations. Composed ca. 1500 by Maithili Brahmin Bhanudatta, probably in Ahmednagar, Deccan, its Sanskrit verses had a significant impact on Hindu court painting and the development of the Hindi literary tradition (ritikal).
label: Label
content: Shiva is personified here as the anakūl nayaka or the lover devoted solely to his beloved, here, his wife Parvati. Bhanudatta's verse relates the tender actions of a smitten lover:
label: Label
content: "He [Shiva] looks at the uneven ground, first hesitates, [then] extends his foot. Roaming about in the forest, he plucks wild flowers with his raised right hand. Relaxed in the comfort of his bed [covered with] a tiger's pelt, he presses his beloved to his body's side. In this manner Shiva fully enjoys the pleasure and causes Parvati's side to gracefully tremble."
label: Label
content: The divine couple appears twice in the painting, once standing near a large tree picking flowers and again lying down on a tiger skin. Concerned and caring, Shiva takes on himself whatever involves effort and fatigue. He puts his right step forward to check the uneven ground for Parvati and sleeps with the weight of his body to the right.
label: Provenance
content: ?-?
label: Provenance
content: Mian Katar Singh of Nurpur, by descent [1]
label: Provenance
content: ?-?
label: Provenance
content: Raja of Lambragaon, acquired from Mian Katar Singh of Nurpur [2]
label: Provenance
content: ?-1967
label: Provenance
content: Sona, New York, New York. [3]
label: Provenance
content: 1967-2001
label: Provenance
content: Ralph Benkaim (1914 2001) purchased from Sona Gallery in New York City [4]
label: Provenance
content: From 2001 to 2018
label: Provenance
content: Catherine Glynn Benkaim, Beverly Hills, California, by inheritance from Ralph Benkaim in 2001. [5]
label: Provenance
content: From 2018
label: Provenance
content: Arthur M. Sackler Gallery, partial gift and purchase from Catherine Glynn Benkaim. [6]
label: Provenance
content: Notes:
label: Provenance
content: [1] B. N. Goswamy (1933-2023) attributed this painting to Golu, son of Devidasa as the frontispiece of the c.1715 Rasamanjari series done at Nurpur. See Milo Cleveland Beach, Eberhard Fischer, and B. N. Goswamy, “Masters of Indian Painting” [exhibition catalogue] Vol 2 (Zurich: Artibus Asiae Publishers, 2011), 11. Beach reports that the series was in the ancestral collection of Mian Katar Singh of Nurpur, from whence Raja Dhruv Dev of Lambargraon acquired it.
label: Provenance
content: [2] See note 1.
label: Provenance
content: [3] In the early 1960s, the Handicrafts & Handlooms Exports Corporation of India Limited (HHEC), a subsidiary of the State Trading Corporation of India, opened several SONA stores in in India, where they sold traditional handicraft and cultural heritage objects. SONA, New York opened in 1966 along East 55th Street in midtown Manhattan. This branch catered to high-end clientele and counted Jacqueline Kennedy amongst its clients. By the 1970s, SONA had branches in Paris, Hamburg, and Cambridge, Massachusetts. The American and European stores closed in the 1990s. SONA still operates in Delhi, Kolkata, Mumbai, and Chennai, India and now focuses on the sale of homewares and the wholesale export of Indian handicraft.
label: Provenance
content: [4] Ralph Benkaim was an entertainment lawyer from Los Angles who started collecting Indian and Islamic art in 1961.
label: Provenance
content: [5] See note 4.
label: Provenance
content: Catherine Glynn Benkaim is a collector and scholar in the field of Indian painting. Dr.
label: Provenance
content: Benkaim met her husband, Ralph Benkaim, in the 1970s when she was the curator of Indian painting at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. The couple were married 1979 and together they amassed a collection of Indian paintings, which included examples from most courts. They collected objects for their collection through dealers and auctions. Objects from their collection may also be found in the Cleveland Museum of Art, Williams College Museum of Art, the Museum of Fine Arts Boston, and the Minneapolis Institute of Art, among others.
label: Provenance
content: [6] See “Appendix B Bill of Sale” and “Appendix C Donor Substantiation Letter,” dated January 2, 2018, copy in object file. From 2018-2023, the object the object was part of the National Museum of Asian Art’s Arthur M. Sackler Gallery Collection and on March 21, 2023, the work was internally transferred to the National Museum of Asian Art Collection.
label: Provenance
content: Research updated April 3, 2025
label: Collection
content: National Museum of Asian Art Collection
label: Exhibition History
content: Wonder of the Age: Painters of India (September 28, 2011 to January 8, 2012)
label: Exhibition History
content: Masters of Indian Painting (April 28, 2011 to January 8, 2012)
label: Exhibition History
content: Gods and Demons (2000 to 2001)
label: Exhibition History
content: Painting in the Punjab Hills (1999-2000)
label: Exhibition History
content: Selections for the Opening of The Florence and Herbert Irving Galleries (1994)
label: Exhibition History
content: Art of the Indian Subcontinent from Los Angeles Collections (March 4 to March 31, 1968)
label: Previous custodian or owner
content: Raja of Lambagraon
label: Previous custodian or owner
content: Sona Gallery
label: Previous custodian or owner
content: Ralph and Catherine Benkaim
label: Previous custodian or owner
content: Catherine Glynn Benkaim (born 1946)
place: label: Origin
content: Nurpur, Himachal Pradesh state, India
topic: label: Topic
content: tiger
label: Topic
content: Parvati
label: Topic
content: Shiva
label: Topic
content: India
label: Topic
content: South Asian and Himalayan Art
label: Topic
content: Catherine and Ralph Benkaim Collection
setName: label: See more items in
content: Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery Collection
creditLine: label: Credit Line
content: Purchase and partial gift from the Catherine and Ralph Benkaim Collection — funds provided by the Friends of the National Museum of Asian Art
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery
identifier: label: Accession Number
content: S2018.1.13
objectType: label: Type
content: Painting
objectRights: label: Restrictions & Rights
content: CC0
physicalDescription: label: Medium
content: Opaque watercolor and gold on paper
label: Dimensions
content: H x W (painting): 16.9 × 27.3 cm (6 5/8 × 10 3/4 in)
label: Dimensions
content: H x W (overall): 21.3 × 31.7 cm (8 3/8 × 12 1/2 in)