A Heroine and Her Lover in a Pavilion: Page from a Dispersed Nayikabheda

India (Madhya Pradesh, Malwa)

Not on view

The extensive poetic Nayikabheda literature examines the nature of romantic interactions between idealized male (nayaka) and female (nayika) types. The related paintings translate this poetry into refined visual representations that in Malwa take on formal and iconic qualities. In this work (from the same manuscript as 1979.505), the woman’s gesture of speech or exposition indicates that the two characters are engaged in conversation, as befits the sometimes classificatory nature of the Nayikabheda.

A Heroine and Her Lover in a Pavilion: Page from a Dispersed Nayikabheda, Ink and opaque watercolor on paper, India (Madhya Pradesh, Malwa)

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