Illustration from a Manuscript of the Bihari Satasai

Title

Illustration from a Manuscript of the Bihari Satasai

Date

early 18th century

Geography

Place made: Mewar, Rajasthan, India

Medium

Opaque watercolor and gold on paper

Classification

Painting

Dimensions

with frame: 16 x 13 1/2 x 1/2 in. (40.6 x 34.3 x 1.3 cm) image: 9 13/16 x 7 11/16 in. (25 x 19.6 cm)

Inscriptions

The inscription at the top can be transliterated as follows: Avata jata na janiye, tejahim taji siyarana / gharahim jamval laum ghatyau, kharo dinamana / 612 The translation of this verse is: As the short days of the Pus month denuded of warmth and hardly noticed Is the welcome made to the man who stays with his in-laws. Translation by Krishna P. Bahadur in Bihari: The Satasai (London: Penguin Books, 1990). In this translation the verse is listed as 702, p. 307. Bahadur comments on the verse, noting that Pus is the winter month, corresponding to December-January, when the days are shortest. The verse refers to the frosty reception a husband receives at the home of his wife's parents, and the brevity of the ideal visit to one's in-laws, but Bahadur notes that commentators have interpreted the verse with a more romantic meaning: "A woman can't show indifference and keep away from her lover for long in the winter month of Pus. Her indifference is as shortlived as the welcome a man gets when he stays too long with his in-laws." (Bahadur p. 396, translating Dr. Desarajasingha Bhati's Hindi commentary to the Bihari Bhasya 1978).

Credit Line

Bequest of Dr. Bertram H. Schaffner

Accession Number

2010.48.19