Draupadi Rescued from Abduction, from a Mahabharata (c. 1615): Art, History and Details

Draupadi Rescued from Abduction, from a Mahabharata (c. 1615) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection.

The work and its context

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

Bhima and Jayadrath, dressed like wrestlers, duel while his four brothers (Pandavas) and their noble attendants look on. Bhima appears to be the wrestler taller in stature and wears a necklace of bells, and Jayadratha is the one wearing an orange loincloth. Draupadi stands behind Bhima, already being rescued from Jayadratha’s clutches.

Object facts

• Title: Draupadi Rescued from Abduction, from a Mahabharata
• Date: c. 1615
• Culture: Northern India, Popular Mughal School, probably done at Bikaner
• Type: Painting
• Technique: gum tempera, ink, and gold on paper
• Dimensions: Page: 14.6 x 19.4 cm (5 3/4 x 7 5/8 in.); Miniature: 11.2 x 16.5 cm (4 7/16 x 6 1/2 in.)
• Collection: Indian Art
• Department: Indian and Southeast Asian Art
• Accession number: 2018.189

A detail from the museum

Draupadi had five husbands, the Pandava brothers.

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.