The Goddess Kaushiki and the Seven Mothers fight the demon Raktabija (recto), The Goddess Fights a Titan, Text (verso), Folio from a Devimahatmya (Glory of the Goddess)

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The Goddess Kaushiki and the Seven Mothers fight the demon Raktabija (recto), The Goddess Fights a Titan, Text (verso), Folio from a Devimahatmya (Glory of the Goddess)

India, Karnataka, Mysore, circa 1825-1850
Drawings; watercolors
Opaque watercolor, gold, and ink on paper
Double Sheet: 12 1/4 x 16 1/2 in. (31.12 x 41.91 cm); Double Image: 9 7/8 x 14 1/8 in. (25.08 x 35.88 cm)
Purchased with funds provided by Dorothy and Richard Sherwood (M.88.29.1a-b)
South and Southeast Asian Art
Not currently on public view

Curator Notes

Dating from circa 550 CE, the Devimahatmya (Glory of the Goddess) is a devotional text of 700 Sanskrit verses that extol the Goddess (Devi) as the supreme power and creator of the universe....
Dating from circa 550 CE, the Devimahatmya (Glory of the Goddess) is a devotional text of 700 Sanskrit verses that extol the Goddess (Devi) as the supreme power and creator of the universe. The verses were interpolations to the earlier Markandeya Purana dating from circa 250 CE and then extracted as a stand-alone text. The Devimahatmya describes the Goddess in her various aspects triumphing over the demons Madhu and Kaitabha, Mahishasura, Dhumralochana, Chanda and Munda, Raktabija, and Shumbha and Nishumbha. This double-sided folio is from a dispersed Devimahatmya attributed by Robert J. Del Bontà to circa 1825-1850 during the reign of Mummadi Krishnaraja Wodeyar (or Krishnaraja Wodeyar III, r. 1799-1831; titular ruler: 1831-1868). The text is a Kannada translation by Krishnaraja Wodeyar of the Sanskrit Devimahatmya. Recto: This double-page illumination from Chapter 8 of the Devimahatmya was formed by pasting two pages together (some detail is lost in the spine). The right-side scene depicts the Seven Mothers (Sapta Matrika) fighting the demon Raktabija. The left-side scene depicts the goddess Kaushiki on her lion mount and two blue-skinned multiarmed aspects of the goddess subsequently fighting (and then killing) the demon Raktabija and his calvery and infantry. Winged celestials observe the battle. Verso: The eight-armed goddess on her lion battles a forty-armed titan in a battlefield strewn with the bodies of his demonic forces. Winged celestials observe the battle.
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