Accession Number
1970/2.166

Title
Women Greet a Horseman from the Mahâbhârata

Artist(s)
Artist Unknown, India, Maharashtra, Paithan School

Object Creation Date
early - mid 19th century

Medium & Support
ink and opaque watercolor on paper

Dimensions
11 in x 16 3/8 in (27.9 cm x 41.6 cm)

Credit Line
Gift of Professor Walter M. and Nesta R. Spink for the James Marshall Plumer Memorial Collection

Label copy
This painting, along with two others in UMMA's collection (1975/.2.150 & 1975/2.151) is an example of a double-sided folio from an illustrated series of scenes from the Mahâbhârata, one of the great epic tales of South Asia. Paintings of this type are known as 'Paithan' paintings, after the town where they were discovered in the twentieth century. Such works are large in scale and exceptionally bold in style. The pages would have been held aloft for an audience to view while a narrator would recite the Mahâbhârata in song and verse.
Two pages of a similar manuscript are published in Simon Ray, 'Indian & Islamic Works of Art, April 2007, catalog no. 60. See also Anna L. Dallapiccola, 'Die Paithan Maleri,' (Wiesbaden, 1980).

; Label copy
Anonymous
Women Greet a Horseman from the Mahâbhârata
India, Maharashtra, Paithan school
Early to mid-19th century
Ink and opaque watercolor on paper
Gift of Professor Walter M. and Nesta R. Spink for the
James Marshall Plumer Memorial Collection, 1970/2.166

Subject matter
This painting depicts a scene from the Mahâbhârata, a sanskrit epic poem about the Kurukshetra War. Paintings of this type are known as 'Paithan' paintings, after the town where they were discovered in the twentieth century. Such works are large in scale and exceptionally bold in style. The pages would have been held aloft for an audience to view while a narrator would recite the Mahâbhârata in song and verse.

Physical Description
Three women look toward a man and white horse. The man holds a sword with his left hand and his body is in frontal view while his face is in profile. The horse is ornately decorated; its body has orange and green vegetal motifs all over. The horse's saddle is decorated with a green mustached face with large round eyes. The horse and the other figures have prominant almond shape eyes.

Primary Object Classification
Painting

Collection Area
Asian

Rights
If you are interested in using an image for a publication, please visit http://umma.umich.edu/request-image for more information and to fill out the online Image Rights and Reproductions Request Form.

Keywords
Figures
Mahabharata
horses
sword