Shiva and Parvati on a tiger skin: Anakūl Nayaka folio from a <em>Rasamanjari</em>
ca. 1710 - ca. 1715
Classification
Painting
Department
Smithsonian Collection
Museum
Smithsonian American Art Museum
Credit
Purchase and partial gift from the Catherine and Ralph Benkaim Collection — funds provided by the Friends of the National Museum of Asian Art
Accession Number
S2018.1.13
Rights
Public Domain
Tags
About this artwork
Nurpur school
Art Historical Context
This folio from the *Rasamanjari*, a 14th-century Sanskrit treatise on the poetics of love, depicts the divine couple Shiva and Parvati seated together on a tiger skin. Created in the Nurpur school of the Pahari region around 1710–1715, the painting illustrates the “Anakūl Nayaka,” a harmonious hero whose union with his beloved exemplifies ideal affection. The tiger skin, traditionally associated with Shiva’s ascetic power, here underscores the balance between spiritual discipline and marital bliss celebrated in the text. Attributed to the artist Golu, son of Devidasa, the work reflects the refined courtly style of early 18th-century Nurpur painting. Delicate line work, luminous colors, and intimate scale were hallmarks of Pahari artists working for local rulers, who commissioned illustrated manuscripts to explore both devotional and romantic themes. The Benkaim Collection acquisition brings this rare example of Himalayan art into the Smithsonian, allowing visitors to appreciate how such folios blended literature, theology, and visual poetry for aristocratic audiences. The painting’s quiet tenderness invites contemplation of love as both human emotion and divine metaphor, a central concern of the *Rasamanjari*.