The deity Ganesha is venerated for removing material and spiritual obstacles, so it is fitting that this opening folio from a Gita Govinda series depicts the god Indra’s reverence for him. Sitting on a low throne within a pavilion, Ganesha is treated like an icon in a temple rather than as a narrative participant. The painters who produced this work are the descendants of the great artist Manaku (active ca. 1725–60), who created a related Gita Govinda series, and his brother Nainsukh (active ca. 1735–78), who stylistically updated Manaku’s compositions and produced more than 150 drawings of his own that became the basis of this series. After Nainsukh’s death in 1778 the artists’ family and their workshop painted these fully realized masterpieces of late Pahari tradition.
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Title:"Indra Worships the Elephant-Headed God Ganesha, Seated on a Throne." Folio from the Tehri Garhwal Series of the Gita Govinda
Date:ca. 1775–80
Culture:Indian
Medium:Ink and opaque watercolor on paper
Dimensions:9 13/16 × 6 7/8 in. (25 × 17.4 cm)
Classification:Paintings
Credit Line:Gift of Steven Kossak, The Kronos Collections, 2021
Accession Number:2021.435
In Hinduism the elephant-headed god Ganesha is the deity of luck and good fortune. As the Lord of Obstacles, he is commonly invoked at the outset of any venture or journey, for his benign intervention ensures a favorable outcome to whatever goal or destination is desired. Similarly, images of Ganesha, depicted here smelling sweet as the nectarof the mandara (coral) tree, often appear as the opening folio of an extensive series. As the god is particularly interested in literary and educational activities, manuscripts and printed books often begin with the auspicious formula Shri Ganeshaya Namah (Reverence to Lord Ganesha) as well.(1)
The color of the border around this handsome opening image sets it apart from other paintings in the same series: it is red, rather than the more common dark blue (see also cat. 79 in this volume), since the image is the opening folio. The crowned figure kneeling in front of Ganesha is Indra, lord of the heavens and chief of the demigods, whose skin is covered with a pretty pattern of open eyes. In sequential folios, the remaining sheets in this series will unfold from here, once this opening page has been examined and then turned.
There are nine paintings in the Kronos Collections from the famous series to which the present painting once belonged: the so-called "Second" or "Tehri Garhwal" Gita Govinda of ca. 1775–80. (see also cats. 78–85). This collection of paintings originally comprised about 151 illustrated folios,(2) more than 135 of which were extant when it was first “discovered” by N.C. Mehta in 1926.(3) Since Mehta’s day, paintings from the set have been widely scattered in museum and private collections throughout the world.
Paintings from this lyrical, highly valued series have attracted attention and disagreement in equal part. W.G. Archer and M.S. Randhawa believe the series was painted in Kangra in about 1780 on the occasion of the marriage of its youthful patron, Maharaja Sansar Chand (reigned 1775–1823) of Kangra.(4) Songs from the Gita Govinda, written to celebrate the legendary lovers Radha and Krishna, are traditionally sung at Indian weddings, and thus a series illustrating the work was an appropriate gift on such occasions. B.N. Goswamy and Eberhard Fischer, on the other hand, believe the series was painted in neighboring Guler in about 1775, possibly after being commissioned by Maharaja Amrit Pal (r. 1757–76) of Basohli or his Kangraborn wife.(5)
Whatever the case, no one disputes the quality of the individual paintings in the series or the visible compositional and stylistic influence of the masterly painter Nainsukh. (See cats 71 and 72 in this volume.)
Footnotes:
(1) A.L. Basham, The Wonder That Was India. New York: Grove Press, Inc., 1959, p. 315.
(2) For discussion of the complete series, see W.G. Archer 1973, vol. I, pp. 291–93; Goswamy and Fisher in M.C. Beach, Eberhard Fischer and B.N. Goswamy, eds. vol. II, 2011a, pp. 689, 699–702; and M.S. Randhawa 1963.
(3) N.C. Mehta, Studies in Indian Painting (Bombay: D.B. Taraporevala Sons, 1926), pp. ___. Mehta thought the series was made in Garhwal, because it was found in the collection of the Maharaja of Tehri Garhwal—a notion that is dismissed nowadays.
(4) W.G. Archer 1973, vol. 1, op. cit.
(5) Fischer and Goswamy in M.C. Beach, Eberhard Fischer, and B.N. Goswamy, eds. 2011, op. cit.
Inscription: Inscribed on the reverse in black ink in Sanskrit with a one-line invocation to Ganesha (missing the second line): “Glory to the foremost chief of the gods . . .” and a two-line summary of the Sanskrit text in Panjabi, all three lines written in devanagari script
Private Collection , Switzerland (until 1983; sold to Kossak); Mr. and Mrs. Steven M. Kossak , New York (1983–2021; gifted to MMA)
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Divine Pleasures: Painting from India's Rajput Courts—The Kronos Collections," June 13–September 11, 2016.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Seeing the Divine: Pahari Painting of North India," December 22, 2018–July 28, 2019.
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