Dhruva Narayana

Here, the god Vishnu appears as a radiant vision before a young devotee, Dhruva, who had been praying on the god’s name in the forest since he was a child. The legend is ancient, mentioned in such texts as the Vishnu Purana and the Bhagavata Purana. Born into royalty, Dhruva was denied parental affection and instead sought comfort from Vishnu. The verdant landscape, with its waterfalls and mountains, echoes the studio backdrops used by commercial photographers from this period. Like many works from this press, it is based on an oil painting by Ravi Varma. However, the image was produced well after the artist sold the company to the German printmaker Fritz Schleicher in 1903.