Depicting the Muharram festival, the Hindu ceremony of charak puja (hook swinging), a Muslim wedding, and the veneration of the ta'ziya during Muhurram
Opaque pigments on mica
7 ¼ x 9 in. (18.4 x 23 cm.), the largest

77.180a-b: Christie's London, 9 November 1977, lot 4.
77.181a-b: Christie's London, 9 November 1977, lot 6.

(77.180a) P. Pal, V. Dehejia, From Merchants to Emperors: British Artists and India 1775-1930, Pierpont Morgan Library, Cornell University Press, 1986, fig. 167.
(77.181a) P. Pal, V. Dehejia, From Merchants to Emperors: British Artists and India 1775-1930, Pierpont Morgan Library, Cornell University Press, 1986, fig. 166.

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Lot Essay

These mica paintings are fine examples of the Patna style and bear many resemblances to the watercolours of the Murshidabad artist Sewak Ram who came to Patna at the turn of the century and clearly had access to drawings of western artists. Paintings of the Muslim festival of Muharram and the other of the Hindu festival of Charak Puja (hook-swinging) are characteristic examples of the type of illustrations that the British took home as the pictures simultaneously revolted and intrigued them. (P. Pal, V. Dehejia, From Merchants to Emperors: British Artists and India 1775-1930, Pierpont Morgan Library, New York, 1986, pp.161-163.