A PAINTING FROM A BHAGAVATA PURANA SERIES: THE BIRTH OF BALARAMA
Possibly Guler, Punjab Hills, North India, late 18th - early 19th century

Opaque pigments heightened with gold on paper, the horizontal-format composition depicting different chronological sequences narrating the story of Balarama's birth, the scene divided by a raging river; King Kamsa, wearing a gold crown, firstly depicted outside the palace, standing by a river's bank in conversation with an attendant, portrayed a second time on the right-hand side, seated cross-legged in one of the palace rooms, awaiting; next to him, to the right-hand side of the painting Deviki, Balarama's biological mother, in despair, comforted by attendants; to the left-hand side a cross-section of the previous scene, showing Balarama's surrogate mother, Rohini, holding the pale-skinned newborn, surrounded by weeping women and an attendant preparing henna; a farming scene in the background highlighting Balarama as the God of Farming and Agriculture; the scene overseen by the Hindu deities Vishnu and Lakshmi seated on lotus flowers, framed by a thin gold border, mounted on cream-coloured cardboard, glazed and framed, the folio 23.3cm x 28.4cm excluding the mount.