A summer month, possibly Vaisakh, folio from a <em>Barahmasa</em> series
date: label: Date
content: ca. 1750
notes: label: School/Tradition
content: Bundi or Kota school
label: Label
content: Barahmasa (the song of twelve months) songs relating to the twelve months, a genre popular over all of north India. It is a way of describing the passage of time in relation to personal feelings, typ. the agony of separation felt by women through the seasonal cycle of a year. Originally a folk genre. Then literary. Then visual in 17th and 18th century. Barah masas might have 4, 6, 8 or 12 months.
label: Label
content: Aditya Behl translates it as "The Suffering of the Twelve Months" because it is about Viraha. Love's Subtle Magic: An Indian Islamic Literary Tradition, 1379-1545, p. 105.
label: Label
content: For more, see Charlotte Vaudeville, Barahmasa in Indian Literature, 1986.
label: Label
content: The yellow garb of the women in the hut indicate that they are (idealized) yoginis. yogini and her companions take shelter from the heat in a hut by the side of a lotus pond and fountain. Lush trees surround them. The interior of the hut is yellow and the ladies are dressed in yellow. A dry, parched landscape full of tree stumps and four hunters is behind them.
label: Provenance
content: To 1967
label: Provenance
content: Nowlakah, Calcutta [1]
label: Provenance
content: From 1967 to 2001
label: Provenance
content: Ralph Benkaim (1914-2001), purchased from Nowlakah, Calcutta in December 1967 [2]
label: Provenance
content: From 2001 to 2018
label: Provenance
content: Catherine Glynn Benkaim, Beverly Hills, California, by inheritance from Ralph Benkaim in 2001
label: Provenance
content: From 2018
label: Provenance
content: Arthur M. Sackler Gallery, partial gift and purchase from Catherine Glynn Benkaim
label: Provenance
content: [1] Ralph Benkaim purchased the painting from Nowlakah, a dealer based in Calcutta, in December 1967, several years before Indian paintings were classified as antiquities by the Indian government, according to his personal records, as relayed by Catherine Glynn Benkaim.
label: Provenance
content: [2] See note 1.
label: Collection
content: National Museum of Asian Art Collection
label: Previous custodian or owner
content: Nowlakah
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: Bundi or possibly Kota, Rajasthan state, India
topic: label: Topic
content: landscape
label: Topic
content: summer
label: Topic
content: woman
label: Topic
content: yogini
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: S2018.1.33
objectType: label: Type
content: Painting
objectRights: label: Restrictions & Rights
content: CC0
physicalDescription: label: Medium
content: Opaque watercolor on paper
label: Dimensions
content: H x W (overall): 28 × 17.8 cm (11 × 7 in)