Unknown
Female Ascetic (recto), Calligraphy (verso), Page from an Albumcirca 1605-1640 (recto); 17th century (verso)

Not on view

Ink and wash drawing of a standing figure with bare torso, layered necklaces, and a trident-like staff, framed by arabesque borders and Persian-script cartouches

Calligraphy album page with a central panel of Persian nasta'liq script in flowing diagonal lines on pale gray ground, surrounded by a layered border of gold, teal, and speckled tan with smaller cartouches of Persian text at corners and sides.

Ink and watercolor manuscript painting on aged paper, full-length standing figure with dark upswept hair adorned with a small trident, wearing a floral shawl, beaded necklaces, and bangles, with a small animal figure at the feet; fine line work with light color washes; mounted on marbled paper border.

Fragmentary album page with marbled red and gold borders and swirling patterns. Central illustration shows a standing figure in light robes holding an object aloft, surrounded by a densely scrolling floral border with cartouches of Persian calligraphy above and below.

Artist or Maker: Unknown
Title: Female Ascetic (recto), Calligraphy (verso), Page from an Album
Place Made: India, Karnataka, Bijapur (recto); Iran or India (verso)
Date Made: circa 1605-1640 (recto); 17th century (verso)
Medium: Opaque watercolor, gold, and ink on paper; Borders: marbled paper
Dimensions: Sheet: 14 1/2 x 10 1/8 in. (36.83 x 25.72 cm); Image (recto): 5 1/4 x 2 3/4 in. (13.34 x 6.99 cm); Image (verso): 7 x 3 1/2 in. (17.78 x 8.89 cm)
Credit Line: Bequest of Edwin Binney, 3rd
Accession Number: M.90.141.3
Classification: Drawings
Collecting Area: South and Southeast Asian Art
Curatorial Notes: Recto: This nim qalam (half-pen) lightly tinted drawing depicts a female ascetic (yogini) devoted to the Hindu god Shiva. She holds her right finger to her mouth in a gesture of amazement. Her Shaivite ascetic nature is conveyed by her tiger skin skirt, ascetic’s topknot, Rudraksha (eye of Rudra/Shiva) beads (elaeo carpus seeds), ascetic’s shoulder bag, and trident (trishula), the lower prongs of which are unusually made in the form of a serpent. Because of her abundant jewelry and luxurious scarf, both non-ascetic attributes, she also symbolizes the Sufic spiritual ideal of the soul (the lover) in search of the divine (the beloved). The calligraphic panels in the margin surrounding the figure are pasted-on cutouts that bear no relation in subject matter. The top panel states it was written by Mir Yadqar Gharib. The bottom panel reads, “The eye is the mirror-holder of his/her countenance.” The six side panels are Persian hemistiches (three verses), probably from different ghazals (amatory poems).

Verso: In the center are two verses from a mathnavi (rhymed couplets). The ten marginal panels contain five versus, possibly from the same mathnavi. At least five of them are from the Yusuf and Zulaykha of Mawlana Abdul Rahman Jami (1414-1492). (Translations by Z. A. Desai.)

The album folio’s exquisite marbled borders (different designs on either side), known in Persian as kaghaz-i abri (clouded paper), were a specialty of Bijapur manuscripts in the late 16th and 17th centuries.
Selected Bibliography: Pal, Pratapaditya. Indian Painting, vol.1. Los Angeles: Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 1993.
Los Angeles County Museum of Art Members' Calendar 1991. vol. 28-29, no. 12-1 (December, 1990-January, 1992).

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