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Posthumous portrait of Raja Chhatar Singh of Chamba smoking a hookah with his brother and son
c. 1700
- Medium
- Gum tempera and ink on paper
- Classification
- Painting
- Dimensions
- Image: 16.2 x 26.5 cm (6 3/8 x 10 7/16 in.); Overall: 20.3 x 31 cm (8 x 12 3/16 in.)
- Culture
- Northern India, Pahari kingdoms
- Museum
- Cleveland Museum of Art, Indian and Southeast Asian Art
- Credit line
- Mr. and Mrs. William H. Marlatt Fund
- Rights
- Public domain (CC0), as the museum states it.
- Who can see it
- Teens profiles and older: its subject is for older viewers (war, death, the Passion, drink or the like). How works are placed
View at the Cleveland Museum of Art
About this work
King Chhatar Singh (reigned 1664–90), his thinning facial hair shot through with gray, points to his heart, a gesture common in images of the deceased. With his right hand he grasps the pipe of a hookah, connecting him to his son Udai Singh, who holds the rim of its base. The king’s sword points directly to the boy, further linking them visually. Since hookah smoking connoted elite royal status in Pahari portraiture, this image suggests the passing of power from father to son.
