INDIA, RAJASTHAN, BUNDI, CIRCA 1750

Whilst going to pick lotus flowers, the elephant-king Gajendra was seized upon by a monstrous crocodile, or makara. Despite a long struggle, the creature would not let go and sensing that death had come to their king, the rest of the elephant herd turned to forsake him. In desperation Gajendra held a lotus flower aloft in a petition to Vishnu. Here we see the moment the god appears, preparing to throw his flaming chakra (disk) to decapitate the makara and rescue Gajendra. Symbolizing the victory of the solar principle over the water creature, Garuda, the man-eagle, is also present. This scene was popular in Vaishnava literature with the plight of the elephant 'symbolizing the inexorable entrapment of the human soul by worldly illusion, from which the invocation to Vishnu brings release’ (Andrew Topsfield, ed., In the Realm of Gods and Kings: Art of India - Selections from the Polsky Collections and The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Asia Society and Museum, New York, 2004, p. 117). A painting of this scene from the Bikaner school sold recently at Christie’s London, 31 March 2022, lot 91 for 37,800 GBP.