INDIA, PUNJAB HILLS, KANGRA, CIRCA 1820

Clad in animal skins, the present painting depicts Krishna and Arjuna as they encounter a battle with a group of demons from Nikumbha's army. The Harivamsa (“An Account of the Dynasty of Hari [Vishnu]”) is a work of three chapters appended to the great epic, the Mahabharata. The first chapter contains an account of the creations and the genealogy of the Yadavas, the family of Krishna and Vasudeva descended from their Aryan ancestor, Yadu. The second chapter describes the life of Krishna and his affairs with the gopis, where many of the stories are similar to those in the Bhagavata Purana. The last chapter deals with prophecies of the present age (Kali Yuga) and other matters unconnected with the title of the work.
There are other known series on the Harivamsa attributed to this time from the Kangra Workshop of Purkhu, see for example, a folio sold at Christie's New York, 22 March 2023, lot 384, for $88,200.