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Lot Essay
The present lot is a superbly-conserved example of a complete painted narrative scroll, or pata-chitra, used by itinerant story tellers to relate genealogies and Hindu epics. This particular scroll dictates the genealogy of the Padmasali weaver community, through the Markandeya Purana and the feats of the celestial weaver Bhavana Rishi.
The opening scene of this scroll begins with a dedication to Ganesha and Vishnu. Ganesha sits forward facing and snacking, rats begging at his feet and flanked by his consorts Riddhi and Siddhi. Vishnu lies below him, reclined, Sri Devi and Bhu Devi by his feet. Brahma sprouts from Vishnu’s garland within a lotus flower, while a banyan tree, depicting seven rishis within their leaves grows behind the reclined deity. After the introduction of Vaishnava worship, the scroll goes on to narrate the genealogy of the Padmasali weaver community, as told through the Markandeya Purana and story of the celestial weaver Bhavana Rishi. Bhavana is depicted throughout the scroll riding on his tiger and interacting with the gods. At the end of the narration, he defeats the demon Kalavasenudu and uses the body of the defeated demon to produce new dyes for the Padmasali weavers.
The sophisticated style of painting of this scroll recalls the royal paintings produced for the Vijayanagara rulers in the fifteenth through sixteenth centuries, preserved as murals in Andhra temples such as Lepakshi. An early scroll dated to 1625 painted in Mahbubnagar district of Andhra Pradesh in the Mittal Museum, published by Stuart Carey Welch in India Art and Culture from 1300-1900 (1985, p. 51, no. 19), showcases strikingly similar stylistic and iconographic consistencies to the present lot. From the 1600s to present, painter families lived in the villages and temple towns of Telangana where a majority of these narrative works were created. Surviving scrolls from the seventeenth and nineteenth centuries are however remarkably consistent as commissions for new scrolls would be made as copies of old, weathered versions. The gradual changes, which compiled overtime, tend to reflect changing social norms. For example, in the earliest examples, only kings were dressed in Deccani jama; the previously bare-chested men in slightly later examples such as the present are dressed in splendidly woven jama coats, as they became more popularized amongst the population.
At base, however, the works heavily reflect the original South Indian tradition. The style here is defined by agile, thick-limbed characters colored in deep ochres, indigos and whites contrasting on a bright red background. The men, women, gods, and goddesses are lavishly bejeweled and crowned. Most important to the weaver community, they wear vibrantly patterned dhotis, jamas and saris. Each panel is separated with floral borders, yet rhythmically connected as crowns and trees occasionally pierce through their upper register.
The end of the narrative is inscribed, dating the transfer of ownership of the scroll to the year vrisha nama and the seventh month, ashweeyaja (October). In the Telugu calendar, the year vrisha nama repeats every 60 years, so the inscribed date could be referring to the years 1701, 1761, or 1821. The stylistic and iconographic consistency of these works makes the task of dating the painting unfortunately difficult; however, as noted by Anna Dallapiccola, the natural cinnabar red pigment was used until circa 1840, afterwards synthetic pigments from Europe came into use (see A. Dallapiccola 'Telegana Scrolls,' in South Indian Paintings: A Catalogue of the British Museum Collection, London, 2010, pp. 226-239). This allows us to date the present work to 1821 at the latest.
Comparable scrolls are in the collection of the British Museum (acc. no 1996,0615,0.1), the Jagdish and Kamla Mittal Museum (acc. no. 76.469), while fragmentary sections are kept at the Seattle Art Museum (acc. nos. 76.41 and 76.42) and the Philadelphia Museum of Art (acc. no. 1971-270-1). A modern twentieth-century narrative scroll dictating the genealogy of the Dhobi Caste sold at Christie’s London, 24 May 2017 for 10,000 GBP.
The opening scene of this scroll begins with a dedication to Ganesha and Vishnu. Ganesha sits forward facing and snacking, rats begging at his feet and flanked by his consorts Riddhi and Siddhi. Vishnu lies below him, reclined, Sri Devi and Bhu Devi by his feet. Brahma sprouts from Vishnu’s garland within a lotus flower, while a banyan tree, depicting seven rishis within their leaves grows behind the reclined deity. After the introduction of Vaishnava worship, the scroll goes on to narrate the genealogy of the Padmasali weaver community, as told through the Markandeya Purana and story of the celestial weaver Bhavana Rishi. Bhavana is depicted throughout the scroll riding on his tiger and interacting with the gods. At the end of the narration, he defeats the demon Kalavasenudu and uses the body of the defeated demon to produce new dyes for the Padmasali weavers.
The sophisticated style of painting of this scroll recalls the royal paintings produced for the Vijayanagara rulers in the fifteenth through sixteenth centuries, preserved as murals in Andhra temples such as Lepakshi. An early scroll dated to 1625 painted in Mahbubnagar district of Andhra Pradesh in the Mittal Museum, published by Stuart Carey Welch in India Art and Culture from 1300-1900 (1985, p. 51, no. 19), showcases strikingly similar stylistic and iconographic consistencies to the present lot. From the 1600s to present, painter families lived in the villages and temple towns of Telangana where a majority of these narrative works were created. Surviving scrolls from the seventeenth and nineteenth centuries are however remarkably consistent as commissions for new scrolls would be made as copies of old, weathered versions. The gradual changes, which compiled overtime, tend to reflect changing social norms. For example, in the earliest examples, only kings were dressed in Deccani jama; the previously bare-chested men in slightly later examples such as the present are dressed in splendidly woven jama coats, as they became more popularized amongst the population.
At base, however, the works heavily reflect the original South Indian tradition. The style here is defined by agile, thick-limbed characters colored in deep ochres, indigos and whites contrasting on a bright red background. The men, women, gods, and goddesses are lavishly bejeweled and crowned. Most important to the weaver community, they wear vibrantly patterned dhotis, jamas and saris. Each panel is separated with floral borders, yet rhythmically connected as crowns and trees occasionally pierce through their upper register.
The end of the narrative is inscribed, dating the transfer of ownership of the scroll to the year vrisha nama and the seventh month, ashweeyaja (October). In the Telugu calendar, the year vrisha nama repeats every 60 years, so the inscribed date could be referring to the years 1701, 1761, or 1821. The stylistic and iconographic consistency of these works makes the task of dating the painting unfortunately difficult; however, as noted by Anna Dallapiccola, the natural cinnabar red pigment was used until circa 1840, afterwards synthetic pigments from Europe came into use (see A. Dallapiccola 'Telegana Scrolls,' in South Indian Paintings: A Catalogue of the British Museum Collection, London, 2010, pp. 226-239). This allows us to date the present work to 1821 at the latest.
Comparable scrolls are in the collection of the British Museum (acc. no 1996,0615,0.1), the Jagdish and Kamla Mittal Museum (acc. no. 76.469), while fragmentary sections are kept at the Seattle Art Museum (acc. nos. 76.41 and 76.42) and the Philadelphia Museum of Art (acc. no. 1971-270-1). A modern twentieth-century narrative scroll dictating the genealogy of the Dhobi Caste sold at Christie’s London, 24 May 2017 for 10,000 GBP.