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Find the Maharana’s halo and the hookah pipe in his hand, then the black sun disc at upper right, the leashed cheetah and the falcon on a wrist.
Maharana Bhim Singh of Mewar, who reigned from 1778 to 1828, rides out amid his retinue, jeweled and tattooed, holding his horse’s reins and the mouthpiece of a hookah, an image of power joined with pleasure. One standard is a black disc with a gold sun, emblem of his Sisodia clan. The Art Institute of Chicago notes what the splendor hides: Mewar, once the strongest Rajput state for its long resistance to the Mughals, had been forced in 1818 to accept British protection.
Opaque watercolor and gold on paper · Image: 57.1 × 41.6 cm · Art Institute of Chicago
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Details and source
- Museum title
- Maharana Bhim Singh in Procession
- Artist
- India Rajasthan, Mewar, Udaipur, attributed to Ghasi (active c. 1820-36)
- Date
- c. 1820
- Medium
- Opaque watercolor and gold on paper
- Dimensions
- Image: 57.1 × 41.6 cm (22 1/2 × 16 3/8 in.); Paper: 60.7 × 45.6 cm (23 7/8 × 18 in.)
- Credit line
- Everett and Ann McNear Collection
- Image license
- CC0 1.0 · Public domain
- Museum record
- Art Institute of Chicago
Galler’s rooms and hanging scale are imagined. The image is the museum’s original digital reproduction.