THE HINDU GODDESS DURGA RIDING ON HER MOUNT (VAHANA)
PROPERTY FROM THE DEXTER COLLECTION
Kota, Rajasthan, North-Western India, ca. 1860

Opaque pigments and gold on paper, the vertical composition depicting the ten-armed goddess Durga riding the tiger Gdon, her traditional mount, each hand holding one of her attributes including the head of a demon to the right and the trident (trishula) usually associated with the God Shiva to the left, her serene face ignited by a firing halo and characterised by the typical fish-eyes of Rajput painting schools, her garlands and accessories painted in relief with the stippling technique, birds flying in the high horizon and looking at the Goddess in the pond in the foreground, the scene set within black, ochre and white rules and bright red borders, at the top a golden inscription in Devanagari script referring to the Goddess as the Destroyer of all Evils, the recto with a faded inscription on a fly-leaf, 23.6cm x 19.5cm.