43 BANI THANI India (Kishangarh), circa 1770 Height: 26 cm Width: 18 cm
Opaque watercolour heightened with gold on paper. A portrait of Bani Thani, the legendary courtesan of Maharaja Savant Singh of Kishangarh (born 1699, reigned 1748-1764). With her luscious black locks of hair and delicate shoulders covered by a diaphanous gossamer veil, translucent to the point of near transparency yet imparting a piquant green to the lobe of her ear and her string of pearls, she faces left holding a carnation in her hennaed finger tips. She wears an earring with a jewelled lotus from which dangles a pendant teardrop jewel and a nose ring embellished with pearls. Who was Bani Thani? According to B. N. Goswamy, who describes the celebrated Kishangarh painting of circa 1735, “The Boat of Love” now at the National Museum, New Delhi, by the greatest painter from the Kishangarh atelier, Nihal Chand, who is credited with the creation of this remarkable visage with long dreamy eyes and finely chiselled features: “Bani Thani was not her real name, but a reference to her delicate form, tall and svelte, and fair of complexion. There has been much difference of opinion about her role, even whether a person like her existed at all, but her name comes up each time that one speaks of Kishangarh painting. That aquiline nose, the thrust-out chin, the thin lips, the high arched eyebrows; but, above all, those lotusbud like eyes that sweep across the face: starting from near the ridge of the nose, they take an upward curve, and end up almost close to the ear. These marked the courtesan’s face as much as Radha’s whenever we see her in paintings of this period from Kishangarh.”1 If she did in fact exist in reality, her striking features would have been
observed, captured, stylised to a heightened degree and exaggerated by the master painter Nihal Chand who was born around 1705-1710 and died in 1782; he was active at Kishangarh over the reign of several rulers during a very long period of circa 1725 to 1782.2 According to Navina Haidar, he probably worked under the guidance of another great Mughal painter Bhavanidas, who also had a major period of work at Kishangarh.3 Haidar observes that Nihal Chand is rightly recognised as the creator of the inspired and influential style of painting that appeared in mid eighteenth century Kishangarh. Our painting is later in date than the famous iconic image of Radha from circa 1740, attributed to Nihal Chand by most scholars and presumably inspired by the features of Bani Thani during its creation. This is in the Kishangarh Durbar Collection and widely published, most recently in Navina Haidar, “Nihal Chand” in Milo C. Beach, Eberhard Fischer and B. N. Goswamy (eds.), Masters of Indian Painting II: 1650-1900, 2011, p. 602, fig. 6. The features here are sharper and more pronounced in every way, with the jutting chin and almond eyes attenuated to a heightened degree of impossible elegance. The more naturalist rendering and softening of features of our painting, though clearly derived from the iconic image, suggest to us the later date of circa 1770.
young slave girl as a singer in her palace and trained her in the art of poetry.4 Though she was twenty years younger than Savant Singh, she came to the notice of the young prince who fell in love with her and made her his mistress (pasvan). It is conjectured that the bloom of her youth and beauty not only aroused unholy thoughts in the hearts of men who saw her, but also provided inspiration to the Kishangarh artists to whom credit is given for invention of the Kishangarh facial formula.5 Stuart Cary Welch, writing at the time of his exhibition, A Flower from Every Meadow: Indian Paintings from American Collections, 1973, p. 56, cat. no. 27, says that the story of Bani Thani was discounted recently by the late Maharaja of Kishangarh. Nihal Chand also created for Savant Singh images of Krishna with the same striking features to complement those of Radha. When Savant Singh relinquished his throne to his ambitious usurping younger brother Bahadur Singh, he retired to Vrindavan with Bani Thani where they wrote poetry together in a continuance of their dream-like existence and undying love. There they were visited by the great artist Nihal Chand. Provenance: Spink and Son, London, 1997 Private English Collection References: 1. B. N. Goswamy, The Spirit of Indian
Besides Bani Thani herself and the painter Nihal Chand, the third component in the genesis of the image is Savant Singh the poet-king of Kishangarh who wrote three books of ardent verse drawing inspiration from the devoted worship of Krishna under the pen name of Nagaridas, which means “Radha’s Slave” or the “Humble Servant of Radha”.
Painting: Close Encounters with 101 Great Works 1100-1900, 2014, pp. 452-454. See also the essay on the “Bower of Quiet Passion” attributed to Nihal Chand in B. N. Goswamy and Caron Smith, Domains of Wonder: Selected Masterpieces of Indian Painting, 2005, p. 94. 2. Navina Haidar, “Nihal Chand” in Milo C. Beach, Eberhard Fischer and B. N. Goswamy (eds.), Masters of Indian Painting II: 1650-1900, 2011, p. 595.
M. S. and D. S. Randhawa recall the local legend of how in 1731, an event took place that had a profound effect on the king’s career. Savant Singh’s stepmother employed a
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3. Ibid. 4. Mohinder Singh Randhawa and Doris Schreier Randhawa, Kishangarh Painting, 1980, pp. 8-9. 5. Ibid.
