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Praudha Adhira Nayika (The Mature Heroine Without Self-Control)

Praudha Adhira Nayika (The Mature Heroine Without Self-Control)

(active about 1680–1720)
1694 or 1695
Object PlaceBasohli or Nurpur, Punjab Hills, India
Medium/TechniqueOpaque watercolor, gold, and beetle wing on paper
DimensionsImage: 19 x 29 cm (7 1/2 x 11 7/16 in.)
Framed: 16 3/4 x 20 3/4 in. (42.5 x 52.7 cm)
Credit LineRoss-Coomaraswamy Collection
Accession number17.2779
On View
Not on view
ClassificationsPaintings
Collections
InscriptionsObverse: at top, inscription of Praudhaadhira then recopied. Reverse: "When the daughter of the King of Mountains (Parvati) saw her reflection in the Moon on Lord Shiva's forehead, she mistook it for another nayika sporting with the Lord. So in anger she raised her trembling hand, adorned with glittering bracelets, to reproach her lord."
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)