Return of the Errant Lover, Folio from an Amaru Shataka (Hundred Stanzas of Amaru)

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Return of the Errant Lover, Folio from an Amaru Shataka (Hundred Stanzas of Amaru)

India, Madhya Pradesh, Bundelkhand or Malwa, circa 1650-1660
Drawings; watercolors
Opaque watercolor, gold, and ink on paper
8 5/8 x 5 3/4 in. (21.91 x 14.61 cm)
From the Nasli and Alice Heeramaneck Collection, Museum Associates Purchase (M.71.1.16)
Not currently on public view

Curator Notes

Amaru was an 7th- or 8th-century Sanskrit poet who composed a hundred (shataka) verses about love and its various moods....
Amaru was an 7th- or 8th-century Sanskrit poet who composed a hundred (shataka) verses about love and its various moods. The text verses corresponding to the folio’s imagery are inscribed in the header: “A mark of lac-dye on both sides of the forehead, the impress of the arm-band on the neck, the dark spots of collyrium on the face, the color of the betel standing pre-eminent on the eyes - after the gazelle-eyed one, in the early morning, had long looked at such anger-exciting ornaments of the lover, her sighs got smothered in the chalice of the lotus which she gaily sported in her hand.” (Amaru Shataka 71) Here, the heroine sits in a bedchamber as the errant lover returns. See also its series mate AC1999.127.19. Additional folios from this dispersed series, which is distinguished by a meandering flowering vine along the bottom, are in the Asia Society Museum, New York (1979.58) and National Museum of Asian Art, Washington (F1934.16).
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Bibliography

  • Rosenfield, John.  The Arts of India and Nepal: The Nasli and Alice Heeramaneck Collection.  Boston:  Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, 1966.
  • Pal, Pratapaditya.  Elephants and Ivories in South Asia.  Los Angeles: Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 1981.