Live Auction 1203The India Sale
A ruler receives a petition
Lot 117 OTHER PROPERTIES
REGISTERED ANTIQUITY - NON-EXPORTABLE

A ruler receives a petition

INDIA, BIKANER AFTER A BIJAPUR ORIGINAL, DATED SV 1748/1691 AD

Closed15 December 2015

Price Realised

INR 750,000

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A ruler receives a petition
India, Bikaner after a Bijapur original, dated SV 1748/1691 AD
The ruler wears a striped orange jama, a stole across his chest, his hands rest on a katar and farangi sword, a black-skinned courtier reads a petition in Persian, he wears a diaphanous white jama over striped trousers, on green ground with high sky-line, within grey, black and white ruled boders, red margin, the reverse with devanagri inscriptions, ownership stamps and librarian's signature
Opaque pigments and gold on paper
9½ x 7¼ in. (24.3 x 18.5 cm.)

Royal Collection of Bikaner, (no.2235), before 1 June 1964, from where sold to the present owner.

Specialist note

The image of a courtier presenting a petition to a ruler, or of a ruler reading a petition, is a feature that runs through a number of Bijapur paintings, from the early period of 'Ali Adilshah (r.1558-80) until his namesake 'Ali 'Adil Shah II (r.1652-72) (Navina Najat Haidar and Marika Sardar, Sultans of Deccan India 1500-1700, exhibition catalogue, New York, 2015, no.24, pp.88-89; no.60, pp.140-141, and no.67, pp.148-9). A Mughal copy of a very similar Bijapur scene, a courtier presenting a petition to Sultan Ibrahim 'Adil Shah, is in the Indian Museum, Kolkata (Mark Zebrowski, Deccani Painting, London, 1983, pl.51, p.77).

It is interesting to note that the date on this painting is the same as that on the painting depicting 'Ali 'Adil Shah II and Ikhlas Khan, lot 109 in this sale. Both dates are just after the Mughal conquest of the last stronghold in the Deccan, Adoni, under the army led by Maharaja Anup Singh of Bikaner, with the resulting substantial booty coming back to Bikaner in the following years.