Painting

This folio is a fine example of illustrated manuscript art from Orissa, eastern India. With the text incised on palm-leaf, it illustrates scenes from an Oriyan poem, the ‘Lavannyavati’. A colophon indicates that this edition was created for the Subudhi family, who were Orissan merchants.

The scene here depicts a woman devotee taking ‘darsana’ before the linga ([phallic symbol of Shiva) in a temple sanctuary, freshly decorated with flowers. A sculpture of Nandi faces the sanctuary, which is surmounted by a tapering tower (‘sikhara’) in the Orissan style of medieval temple architecture.