A PICHHWAI TEMPLE HANGING WITH KRISHNA AND HIS MOTHERS
Tamil Nadu, Southern India, late 18th - early 19th century

Of large square shape, the unbleached plain weave horizontally joined cotton ground drawn and painted in russet and blue, featuring Lord Krishna seated between his birth mother, Devaki, and his foster mother, Yashoda, holding two rounded scoops of clarified butter (ghee) in his hands, the group portrayed in a temple setting encased within a russet and pale yellow chevrons border, reserved against eight horizontal figural bands illustrating scenes from the life of Krishna drawn from Hindu mythology, each narrative cartouche accompanied by lines of black text in Tamil script, the outer borders with another two-tone chevron frieze, edged with russet satin tape, lined in white calico, with additional hanging loops, 182cm x 180cm.

A similar but smaller pichhwai temple hanging with Hindu iconography was successfully sold in these Rooms, 29 October 2020, lot 130.