Original Painting From Victoria London

Salwa king contemporary to Krishna

king salwa visiting kalayawana
Yet another Salwa king (3:12, 7:11) attacked Dwaraka, this Salwa king was an ally of Shishupala, Dantavakra and Rukmi. According to the narration in the epic, he possessed an aircraft known as Saubha Vimana and used it for travel and for aerial warfare

Raja (Raja Jagat Singh II, 1694-1752, possibly of Jaipur) and lady watching from a roof-top the Tij,

Physical description
Painting in opaque watercolour on paper depicting the month of Sawan (July-August). A Raja (Raja Jagat Singh II, 1694-1752, possibly of Jaipur) and lady watching from a roof-top the Tij, or Swing Festival, performed at Bundi in the rains. An illustration to a Barahmasa or set of verses describing the ways of lovers in the twelve months.
Place of Origin
Bundi (made)
Date
ca. 1770 (made)
Artist/maker

In this painting, a Rajput nobleman and his companion watch a celebration of the festival of Teej, held to mark the arrival of the monsoon. The coming of the rains signifies fecundity and renewal, as seen in the verdant depiction of the garden and the snake-like lightening in the sky. In fine clothes and with henna-painted hands, women carry an effigy of the female deity Parvati, holding floral fronds aloft, and swing from a mango tree as lightening flashes across the sky.

Matsya

• Object:Painting
• Place of origin:Kolkata (made)
• Date:ca. 1885 (made)
• Artist/Maker:Unknown
• Materials and Techniques:Painted in opaque watercolour on paper
• Museum number:IS.592-1950
• Gallery location:In Storage

As would be expected of an image of Vishnu's first avatar, Matsya, the lower part of the body is a fish. But the breasts look more female than male, there are only two hands and they are in anjali mudra. which is uncommon in a deity. A hooked prong behind would have fitted into a shrine. Brassy colour, little wear.

the capture of Bundi fort in Rajasthan by the Mughal army in 1577

This painting by the Mughal court artist Tulsi the Elder depicts the battle preceding the capture of Bundi fort in Rajasthan by the Mughal army in 1577. It is an illustration to the Akbarnama (Book of Akbar), commissioned in 1589 by the Mughal emperor Akbar (r.1556–1605) as the official chronicle of his reign.
The Akbarnama was written in Persian by Akbar’s court historian and biographer, Abu’l Fazl, between 1590 and 1596, and the V&A’s partial copy of the manuscript is thought to have been illustrated between about 1592 and 1595. This is thought to be the earliest illustrated version of the text, and drew upon the expertise of some of the best royal artists of the time. Many of these are listed by Abu’l Fazl in the third volume of the text, the A’in-i Akbari, and some of these names appear in the V&A illustrations, written in red ink beneath the pictures, showing that this was a royal copy made for Akbar himself. After his death, the manuscript remained in the library of his son Jahangir, from whom it was inherited by Shah Jahan.
The V&A purchased the manuscript in 1896 from Frances Clarke, the widow of Major General John Clarke, who bought it in India while serving as Commissioner of Oudh between 1858 and 1862.

A large portrait-format page showing the story of the salvation (moksha) of the King of the Elephants (Gajendra) who is saved from the demon crocodile by Vishnu who comes to the rescue on Garuda.

Architectural drawing of Tirumala Nayak at Madura,

• Object:Drawing
• Place of origin:Madura (made)
• Date:ca. 1780 (made)
• Artist/Maker:Unknown
• Materials and Techniques:Pen and Ink
• Museum number:AL.7766:34
• Gallery location:In Storage
• Download image

Many of the British were excited by the Great temple at Madura and it was frequently illustrated. This set of 143 drawings is the most extensive series known of the famous pillared hall ('mandapa') to the east of the Great temple, popularly known as Tirumala Nayak's choultry. These drawings provided detailed architectural descriptions of the pillars, showing various elevations, and betray the hand of an artist trained in the conventions of Dravidian architecture. Some of the drawings relate to, and are on the same scale as, a series of bronze models in the Victoria & Albert Museum (Guy 1990), and in the Ashmolean Museum (Harle and Topsfield, 1987 no. 68). The drawings, and the bronze replicas which show every evidence of having been modelled on the basis of these drawings, are in all probability those which Adam Blackader, resident in Madura in the 1780s, described in a letter of 1789 to his friend Sir Joseph Banks. Blackader records that he spent three years preparing these drawings and models. He had eighteen models made, selected to show the various types of richly-carved pillars. 'These', he wrote, 'were not taken regularly from one end of the choultry but different pillars selected from the whole giving all the principal varieties which occurred in the carvings'. These drawings are very similar to a set prepared at Madura under the supervision of Colin Mackenzie and now in the India Office Library (WD1063/1-57; M. Archer, 1969b, vol. II, pp. 531-2).

Architectural drawing of Tirumala Nayak at Madura,

• Object:Drawing
• Place of origin:Madura (made)
• Date:ca. 1780 (made)
• Artist/Maker:Unknown
• Materials and Techniques:Pen and Ink
• Museum number:AL.7766:139
• Gallery location:In Storage