Bhima’s consultation with the astrologer, from a Nala-Damayanti (c. 1790–1800): Art, History and Details

Bhima’s consultation with the astrologer, from a Nala-Damayanti (c. 1790–1800) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection.

The work and its context

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

In the central pavilion, King Bhima, father of Princess Damayanti, receives favorable signs from his astrologers for her marriage to her beloved, Nala. In the upper left corner, King Bhima tells the good news to his daughter, while messengers inform Nala in the upper right. This lyrical series depicts scenes from an extended romantic poem of the 1100s, based on an episode from the Sanskrit epic Mahabharata. The plan to create a painted series illustrating the story was not fully realized. Forty-seven paintings were completed, but another 65, including this page, remain unfinished, revealing underdrawings and the first application of color.

Object facts

• Title: Bhima’s consultation with the astrologer, from a Nala-Damayanti
• Date: c. 1790–1800
• Culture: Northern India, Pahari kingdoms
• Type: Painting
• Technique: Gum tempera and ink on paper
• Dimensions: Overall: 22.2 x 33.5 cm (8 3/4 x 13 3/16 in.)
• Collection: Indian Art
• Department: Indian and Southeast Asian Art
• Accession number: 1936.684

A detail from the museum

This drawing is part of a series of forty-eight, most of which are held by the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.

Collection credit

Edward L. Whittemore Fund

Further reading listed by the museum

• Eastman, Alvan Clark. The Nala-Damayantī Drawings. A Study of a Portfolio of Drawings Made for Rājā Saṁsār Cand of Kāṅgrā (1774-1823), Illustrating an Early Indian Romance. Boston: Museum of Fine Arts, 1959.
• Leach, Linda York. Indian Miniature Paintings and Drawings. Cleveland, OH: Cleveland Museum of Art in cooperation with Indiana University Press, 1986.
• Peyton, Allysa B., and Katherine Anne Paul. Arts of South Asia: Cultures of Collecting. Gainesville, FL: University of Florida Press, 2019.

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.