SCENES OF DEVOTION: OFFERINGS TO GANESHA AND LORD SHIVA
Possibly Murshidabad, West Bengal, Eastern India, ca. 1780 - 1880

Opaque pigments, ink, pencil and gold on paper, comprising two horizontal-format devotional scenes with haloed female deities (shaktis), possibly Sarasvati and Parvati, seated on lotus flowers and paying their respect to the elephant-headed Hindu god Ganesha at the top, and Lord Shiva at the bottom, each goddess holding a bowl of rice or wheat halwa in front of the male gods, each prasad offering scene overseen by a half-clad pundit with the body covered in Shaiva tripundra marks, wearing a diaphanous white dhoti and wooden clogs, the gods depicted with their attributes including the mala rosary bead, the ankus (goad), and a broken tusk for Ganesha, and the tiger skin and trisula (trident) for Shiva, the reverse plain, 35.5cm x 29cm.