Attributed to Nihal Chand
Portrait of Maharaja Savant Singh with His Consort, Bani Thani
A king, a singer, and the face of Kishangarh.
- Artist
- Attributed to Nihal Chand
- Date
- Mid-1700s
- Medium
- Gum tempera, ink and gold on paper
- Where it is
- Cleveland Museum of Art (2001.172)
- Kind
- Rajput painting
Savant Singh of Kishangarh sits on a white terrace, a sword laid beside him, facing a woman seated a little apart. Attendants stand behind him; a lawn and a pavilion stretch away. The border is dense with gold flowers.
The woman is Bani Thani, a singer in the household of the king’s stepmother who became his companion and later his wife. The name is usually translated as “the decked-out lady”. Both wrote verse, he under the name Nagari Das, and both were devoted to Krishna. When he gave up the throne they moved to Vrindavan.
The painter given credit is Nihal Chand. Paintings of Radha and Krishna made at Kishangarh around this time are thought to use the same pair as models, with arched brows, long eyes and pointed chins. That face became the Kishangarh type, and in 1973 India Post put one version of it on a stamp.
