Marriage procession in a bazaar; from a Ramayana or Bhagavata Purana series

India, Mandi, Himachal Pradesh

On view at The Met Fifth Avenue in Gallery 693

This panoramic view of a wedding procession through the prosperous bazaar, a masterpiece of descriptive detail and spatial organization, is a folio from a large narrative series illustrating a marriage described in one of the Hindu epics. The unnamed Mandi painter, likely Mughal trained, displays a heightened awareness of Mughal treatments of many components of the picture, such as the striding elephant, the horses in movement, and the clusters of onlookers, who are individualized, as if portraits of known persons. True to Pahari traditions, however, the urban streetscape has multiple points of focus, with rooftops and shop fronts displaying their wares in abundance, all accommodated in a jagged array of projecting structures.

Marriage procession in a bazaar; from a Ramayana or Bhagavata Purana series, Opaque watercolor and gold on paper, India, Mandi, Himachal Pradesh

Due to rights restrictions, this image cannot be enlarged, viewed at full screen, or downloaded.

Open Access

As part of the Met's Open Access policy, you can freely copy, modify and distribute this image, even for commercial purposes.

API

Public domain data for this object can also be accessed using the Met's Open Access API.

Photo © Ashmolean Museum, University of Oxford