An illustration from a Dashavatara series: Kurma avatar
Mandi, circa 1720gouache and gold on paper
196 x 282 mm.注脚Provenance
Arki Royal Collection.
Private German Collection.

Published
Ludwig Habighorst, Der Blaue Gott, Koblenz 2014, p. 87 fig. 37.

Exhibited
Blumen – Bäume – Göttergärten, Völkerkunde-Museum, Hamburg, 17 March - 27 October 2013.
Der Blaue Gott, Mittelrhein-Museum Koblenz, 26 July-5 October 2014.

Vishnu in his avatar, the turtle Kurma, battles the evil demon within a river spaced by large lotus blossoms. A folio of Matsya Avatar in the British Museum is likely to come from the same series (see Ahluwalia, Rajput Painting, London 2008, p. 123, fig. 79). Ahluwalia notes: 'The heavy shading and coarse forms...place the work firmly in the reign of Sidh Sen period of Mandi painting, a period of forty years characterized by this heavy stippled and thus easily recognizable style'.