A girl worshipping the rising sun (Surya puja) (c. 1810): Art, History and Details

A girl worshipping the rising sun (Surya puja) (c. 1810) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection. The museum's creator attribution is Chokha (Indian, active c. 1799–1824).

The work and its context

The museum's open-access catalogue describes the work:

Clad in only her undergarment, an adolescent girl performs a ritual of morning prayer. She pours a stream of water that splashes down the steps of the platform on which she stands, her garland and orange sari on the ground behind her. Devotional practice in India can occur in nature, in the open air, without the presence of a temple, icon, or a priest. Animals stir in the hills, and a goose has caught a fish. The artist appears to have connected the peace and bounty of the land with the pious act of honoring the sun with water.

Object facts

• Title: A girl worshipping the rising sun (Surya puja)
• Date: c. 1810
• Creator attribution: Chokha (Indian, active c. 1799–1824)
• Culture: Northwestern India, Rajasthan, Rajput Kingdom of Devgarh
• Type: Painting
• Technique: gum tempera and gold on paper
• Dimensions: Page: 23.8 x 17.1 cm (9 3/8 x 6 3/4 in.); Painting: 20.3 x 13.3 cm (8 x 5 1/4 in.)
• Collection: Indian Art
• Department: Indian and Southeast Asian Art
• Accession number: 2018.151

A detail from the museum

One of the two ducks in the lotus pond has a fish in its bill.

Collection credit

Purchase and partial gift from the Catherine and Ralph Benkaim Collection; Severance and Greta Millikin Purchase Fund

View the collection record

See the museum's photographs and full catalogue entry. Catalogue text is reproduced from the Cleveland Museum of Art's open-access data, with HTML formatting removed. This object and its supplied image are designated CC0.