A heroine waiting for her lover: Vasakasajja Nayika, from the "Nurpur" Rasikapriya (c. 1750): Art, History and Details

A heroine waiting for her lover: Vasakasajja Nayika, from the "Nurpur" Rasikapriya (c. 1750) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection.

The work and its context

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

Vasakasajja has been described as Nayika who arranges the bed for making love. She is seated on a bed of leaves by a pond, anxiously waiting for her lover. The painter has faithfully followed the poet’s description of the scene and depicted the fair-complexioned Nayika radiating against the otherwise dark surrounding, illuminating the tryst.

Object facts

• Title: A heroine waiting for her lover: Vasakasajja Nayika, from the "Nurpur" Rasikapriya
• Date: c. 1750
• Culture: Northern India, Pahari kingdoms
• Type: Painting
• Technique: Gum tempera and gold on paper
• Dimensions: Page: 28.4 x 20.2 cm (11 3/16 x 7 15/16 in.); Image: 24.4 x 16.7 cm (9 5/8 x 6 9/16 in.)
• Collection: Indian Art
• Department: Indian and Southeast Asian Art
• Accession number: 2018.116

A detail from the museum

The deer are depicted in a pair to highlight the Nayika’s separation.

Collection credit

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

Further reading listed by the museum

• Griswold, William, Cameron Kitchin, Chase F. Robinson, Cleveland Museum of Art, Cincinnati Art Museum, and National Museum of Asian Art (Smithsonian Institution). Pahari Paintings: Art and Stories, edited by Sonya Rhie Mace, Sarang Sharma, and Vijay Sharma. Cleveland, Ohio: Cleveland Museum of Art, 2026.

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.