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King Bana in his court, from an Usha-Aniruddha
c. 1760–70
- Medium
- Gum tempera and ink on paper
- Classification
- Painting
- Dimensions
- Overall: 21.9 x 32.1 cm (8 5/8 x 12 5/8 in.)
- Culture
- Northern India, Pahari kingdoms
- Museum
- Cleveland Museum of Art, Indian and Southeast Asian Art
- Credit line
- Gift of Clara Taplin Rankin
- 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
This portrait of a demon king depicts him listening to the report of one of his ministers. He may be hearing the news that his daughter Usha has been secretly receiving Krishna’s grandson Aniruddha in her bedchamber.
The artist has depicted Bana with his 20 arms emerging like tentacles from his body. The members of his multicolored demon court are imaginatively rendered combinations of beasts and humans. In the background, demons harass holy men by burning their huts and chasing them away from their settlements.
