Raja Viram Dev

This painting shows Viram Dev of Ghanerao visiting a shrine to the Hindi god Shiva. Viram Dev (r.1743-1778) is seated at the left of the picture, while two priests officiate at the shrine, of which the principal deity is represented by a five-faced lingam. An image of Shiva's bull, Nandi, is placed in front of the lingam.

The rulers of Ghanerao, a small town on the borders of the Rajasthani regions of Mewar and Marwar, were patrons of painting from the early 18th to mid-19th century, and as a result we have an unusually complete picture of the painting style in this small, provincial town. Painting in Ghanerao is an offshoot of the Jodhpur (Marwar) style, and artists from Jodhpur itself, as well as local artists, are known to have painted several of its rulers.