Abhisarika Nayika, folio from a <em>Rasikpriya</em>
date: label: Date
content: ca. 1615-1625
notes: label: School/Tradition
content: possibly Amber school
label: Label
content: This small but richly colored painting is from the dispersed Boston Rasikpriya.
label: Label
content: Court paintings from North India reveal a range of personal, poetic and religious attitudes towards love. The paintings provided their courtly viewers - who were both men and women -- with models for thinking about and acting on feelings of affection and passion. Indian poets explored and classified every stage of romantic relationships, from passionate desire to remorse after quarrels.
label: Label
content: The enormously influential Rasikapriya (1591) transformed the Sanskrit poetic tradition of categorizing romantic types. Keshav Das' text was not only written in the vernacular of literary Hindi (or Braj) it also personalized the classical tradition by identifying the lovers as the Hindu deity Krishna and Radha, a girl from a cow-herder village. In this painting, Radha is depicted as an abhisarika, a woman who fearlessly braves the dangers of the night to meet her lover (Rasikpriya ch. 7, v. 31):
label: Label
content: Serpents were coiling round her legs and their heads were being crushed beneath her feet; and evil spirits ranging abroad could be seen in all directions She didn't notice the torriential rain, nor the terrifying thunder of dark clouds, nor the screaming of cicadas amidst the roaring of the story. She didn't know when her ornaments fell off one by one. Defying the ditches and brambles that tried to stand in her way, she went on. The goblin-wives themselves wondered and are asking her, 'Wherefor have you learnt this yoga-like behavior? O abhisarika, how marvelous this trysting!" [translation M.S. Randhawa, 1962].
label: Label
content: The poet of the Rasikpriya, Keshavdas, transformed the Sanskritic tradition not only by identifying the lovers as Radha and Krishna, but also by writing in the vernacular (Hindi) instead of Sanskrit. Keshavdas was he most eminent of the poets whose vernacular works in the Riti style transformed literary culture. The Rasikpriya, which he wrote for the ruler of the small court of Orchha, seems to have been immedialtely popular, a shift that be tracked because of the swiftness with which it was copied and illustrated across north India.
label: Provenance
content: To 1947
label: Provenance
content: Ananda K. Coomaraswamy (1877-1947) [1]
label: Provenance
content: From 1947 to 1972
label: Provenance
content: Rama Coomaraswamy (1929-2006), Greenwich, Connecticut, by gift or inheritance after his father, Ananda K. Coomaraswamy’s death in 1947 [2]
label: Provenance
content: From 1972 to 2001
label: Provenance
content: Ralph Benkaim (1914-2001), Beverly Hills, California, purchased from Rama Coomaraswamy, Greenwich, Connecticut in May 1972
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: Notes:
label: Provenance
content: [1] Rama Coomaraswamy was the son of Ananda Kentish Coomaraswamy, an important figure in the field of Indian and Sri Lankan art history. Coomaraswamy was largely responsible for providing the conceptual structures through which South Asian art became studied and valued in India and in the west. Because A.K. Coomaraswamy spent the second half of his life in the U.S., it is highly unlikely that any art from his personal collection would have a contested provenance.
label: Provenance
content: [2] According to information from Catherine Glynn Benkaim.
label: Collection
content: National Museum of Asian Art Collection
label: Previous custodian or owner
content: Dr. Ananda K. Coomaraswamy (1877-1947)
label: Previous custodian or owner
content: Rama Coomaraswamy (1929-2006)
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: possibly Amber, Rajasthan state, India
topic: label: Topic
content: Rasikapriya
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: S2018.1.34
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 (overall): 11.7 × 12.7 cm (4 5/8 × 5 in)