#damayanti

[classic-art-favourites]

Talk with Swan and Damayanti by Raja Ravi Varma, 1890.

[pollyj]

The Marital Bliss of Nala and Damayanti: Folio from a Nala-Damayanti Series (detail)

Attributed to Ranjha , first generation after Manaku and Nainsukh

ca. 1800–10, India (Kangra, Himachal Pradesh)

In this painting based on the poem of Shrisharsh, the Naishadhacharita, the marital happiness of Nala and Damayanti is described. It is one of a larger group of pictures that remained unfinished but nonetheless are among the most accomplished works of the first generation after Manaku and Nainsukh.

About the Artist:

First Generation after Manaku and Nainsukh: Fattu, Khushala, Kama, Gaudhu, Nikka, and Ranjha

Active at a number of Pahari region courts, mainly in the Kangra Valley, ca. 1740–1830; sons of Manaku (Fattu and Khushala) and Nainsukh (Kama, Gaudhu, Nikka, and Ranjha)

The four sons of Nainsukh and two sons of Manaku are known collectively as the first generation after Nainsukh and Manaku. Building on the artistic legacy of their grandfather Pandit Seu and their fathers, the six younger artists left behind an extensive oeuvre that attests to the family’s consistent artistic vision and uniformly impressive output.

A relatively small court like Guler, the family’s home in Himachal Pradesh, could not provide a living for so many talented artists. Nainsukh left the atelier around 1740; he first worked in Jasrota, then in Basohli, and was ultimately joined there by his nephew Fattu and his youngest son, Ranjha. There were numerous small courts in the region, and they offered opportunities for talented painters seeking new opportunities. Surprisingly little is known about the authorship of individual series of paintings, and works cannot be assigned confidently to specific artists.

[sambhavami]

Women in Mahabharata - Damayanti

She is a princess of Vidarbha, married to the Nishada King Nala. When Nala misguidedly abandons her, she faces a string of hardships before reuniting with her maternal aunt, and then her parents.

Once she announces her intentions to remarry (as a ploy), Nala reemerges from where he was hiding and they reunite.

To me, one of the more important parts of the story is her public declaration of a second swayamvara citing her husband's abandonment, and her parents and society's support for it.

Another interesting caveat is that the conditions that she sets for her service in Chedi are almost identical to the ones Draupadi sets, as a sairindhri in Matsya. The story too is recounted not too long before the start of the thirteenth year of their exile.

Her children are the twins Indrasena and Indrasenaa.

[twosquareroti]

Trying to use an AI to visualize scenes and people from the Mahabharata. It’s fun but a little harder than I thought it would be! The pictures are: 

Yudhishthira and the yaksha (Yama/Dharmaraja)

Damayanti hears about Nala from a swan messenger

Karna without kavach and kundal

Savitri and Satyavan 

[arjuna-vallabha]

Nala and Damayanti by Raja Ravi Varma

[margalotta]

Raja Ravi Varma, Hamsa Damayanti, 1899 (x)

[ladysunshard]

CHARACTERS THAT INSPIRE | Triss Merigold (The Witcher)

“No! I will not give in and I won’t be swayed! I am the “Fourteenth of the Hill!” I am not a little frightened girl from a dark Maribor Tower anymore...”

[tamovicha]