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A Prince Performs Austerities (recto), from a Romance of Chandrabhanu and Lavanyavati of Upendra Bhanja (1670–1740)
1700s
- Medium
- Gum tempera and lampblack on palm leaf
- Classification
- Painting
- Dimensions
- Leaf: 5.1 x 41 cm (2 x 16 1/8 in.)
- Culture
- Eastern India, Odisha (formerly Orissa)
- Museum
- Cleveland Museum of Art, Indian and Southeast Asian Art
- Credit line
- Purchase and partial gift from the Catherine and Ralph Benkaim Collection; Severance and Greta Millikin Purchase Fund
- Rights
- Public domain (CC0), as the museum states it.
- Who can see it
- Teens profiles and older: its museum says too little about what it shows to place it for younger viewers. How works are placed
View at the Cleveland Museum of Art
About this work
In this illustration from the beginning of a popular romance, a prince performed intense austerities and devotions to the Shiva linga in order to obtain a divine woman. He practices yoga surrounded by fires during the hot season and wanders unsheltered during monsoon, as seen on the recto. On the verso, Shiva has answered his prayers and returns home to his "cave on Mount Kailash," as stated in the inscription.
