Raja Surma Sen of Mandi (r. 1781-1788) was the son of Raja Shamsher Sen of Mandi (r. 1727-1781; see M.74.5.10). While a young prince Surma Sen was targeted by Dhurchatia, the ambitious and powerful stepbrother of Shamsher Sen who wished to seize control of the kingdom for himself rather than allow Surma Sen to succeed his father. Consequently, in 1774 Surma Sen fled first to Bilaspur and then to Kangra, both in present-day Himachal Pradesh, where he was generously given refuge by Raja Tegh Chand of Kangra (r. 1774-1775). Surma Sen returned triumphantly to Mandi with Tegh Chand’s military aid and Dhurchatia was exiled to asylum in rival Suket. In this painting, the barefoot Surma Sen and his attendant Nagatu are paying obeisance to the four-armed Hindu goddess of destruction, Kali (“Destroyer of Time”). Kali is a terrifying manifestation embodying the divine wrath of the Hindu goddess Durga (“Unconquerable One”). Kali is envisioned with horrific imagery. She is depicted here with fangs, a lolling tongue, a third eye on her forehead, and Shiva’s crescent moon as a tiara. Kali holds a sword and a cobra in her right hands and her left hands are held in the gestures of fear not and charity (towards Surma Sen). She wears a garland of skulls and an elephant head skirt. She knells on a corpse on a mountain top cremation ground venerated by jackals and crows. A comparable portrait of Surma Sen is in the Harn Museum of Art, University of Florida, Gainesville (PA-69-29).

• Feinblatt, Ebria; G. Knox; S. Gutwirth; C.A. Glynn; G. Kuwayama and Stephanie Barron.  Los Angeles County Museum of Art Bulletin, 1979.  Los Angeles:  Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 25 (1980).
• Larson, Gerald et al.  In Her Image:  The Great Goddess in Indian Asia and the Madonna in Christian Culture.  Santa Barbara:  UCSB Art Museum, University of California, 1980.