The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of December 18, 2025

A Night Scene of Shiva Puja (recto)

c. 1760–70

attributed to Muhammad Rizavi Hindi

(Indian, active mid-1700s)
Mughal India, Lucknow
Gum tempera and gold on paper
Painting only: 14.5 x 11.1 cm (5 11/16 x 4 3/8 in.); Page: 28.2 x 24.1 cm (11 1/8 x 9 1/2 in.)
Gift in honor of Madeline Neves Clapp; Gift of Mrs. Henry White Cannon by exchange; Bequest of Louise T. Cooper; Leonard C. Hanna Jr. Fund; From the Catherine and Ralph Benkaim Collection 2013.350.a
Location: Not on view

Did You Know?

The linga is a stylized phallic symbol denoting the creative capacities of Shiva.

Description

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.
  • before 1811–1849
    Sir Charles Forbes, 7th Baronet [1773–1849], Bengal, London, and Scotland, by descent to his great-grandson, Colonel Sir John Forbes
    ?–1962
    Colonel Sir John Stewart Forbes [1901–1984], Baronet, DSO, DL, Allargue House, Strathdon, Aberdeenshire, Scotland, UK, consigned to Sotheby's London for sale
    December 10, 1962
    (Sotheby’s, London, Western and Oriental Manuscripts and Miniatures, 10 December 1962, lot 2, sold to Ralph Benkaim)
    1962–2013
    Ralph Benkaim [1914–2001] and Catherine Glynn Benkaim [b. 1946], Beverly Hills, CA, sold to the Cleveland Museum of Art
    2013–
    The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
  • Mace, Sonya Rhie, Mohsen Ashtiany, Catherine Glynn, Pedro Moura Carvalho, Marcus Fraser, and Ruby Lal. Mughal Paintings: Art and Stories: the Cleveland Museum of Art. London: D Giles Limited, 2016. Mentioned and Reproduced: cat. no. 88, p. 274
  • Temples and Worship in South Asia. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (September 14, 2024-March 9, 2025).
    Art and Stories from Mughal India. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (July 31-October 23, 2016).
    Art of the Indian Subcontinent from Los Angeles Collections. University of California Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA (March 4-31, 1968).
  • {{cite web|title=A Night Scene of Shiva Puja (recto)|url=false|author=Muhammad Rizavi Hindi|year=c. 1760–70|access-date=18 December 2025|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}

Source URL:

https://www.clevelandart.org/art/2013.350.a