A night scene of Shiva puja (recto); Calligraphy (verso)

Under golden stars and a crescent moon, a royal woman offers a flower garland at an open-air shrine to the Hindu god Shiva. Installed on a platform under a sapling, the stone linga believed to contain Shiva’s presence bears the bright orange traces of devotional anointments. Orange kumkum (red turmeric powder) and yellow saffron are in tiny trays before her, and she has used them to mark her forehead with the signs of her piety. The small brass ewer would contain purified water to bathe the linga. On the platform are offerings of fragrant blossoms and the light of clarified butter lamps.

The front and back of a vertically oriented paper depicts two scenes. On the left, a woman with medium-light skin tone wears a lime green with gold patterned wrap uncovering her breasts. She kneels before a stone platform scattered with objects, holding a flower garland. A mountain, crescent moon and distant cityscape extend behind her. On the right, is a gold calligraphy in a central dark blue square with a red, then light blue "U"-shaped band around it.

A night scene of Shiva puja (recto); Calligraphy (verso)

c. 1760–70

Muhammad Rizavi Hindi, Ahmad al-Husaini

(Indian, active mid-1700s)

Mughal India, Lucknow

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