The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of November 7, 2025

Vertically oriented painting of a girl with light skin tone standing on a grey stone platform in front of swirling green and orange-brown mountains dotted with animals. She wears only a sheer orange wrap around her waist, darker orange clothes in a pile behind her, black hair falling down her back as she looks up and pours water from a round, gold container. Two birds float in water at the painting's base.

A girl worshipping the rising sun (Surya puja)

c. 1810

attributed to Chokha

(Indian, active c. 1799–1824)
Northwestern India, Rajasthan, Rajput Kingdom of Devgarh
gum tempera and gold on paper
Page: 23.8 x 17.1 cm (9 3/8 x 6 3/4 in.); Painting: 20.3 x 13.3 cm (8 x 5 1/4 in.)
Purchase and partial gift from the Catherine and Ralph Benkaim Collection; Severance and Greta Millikin Purchase Fund 2018.151
Location: Not on view

Did You Know?

One of the two ducks in the lotus pond has a fish in its bill.

Description

Clad in only her undergarment, an adolescent girl performs a ritual of morning prayer. She pours a stream of water that splashes down the steps of the platform on which she stands, her garland and orange sari on the ground behind her. Devotional practice in India can occur in nature, in the open air, without the presence of a temple, icon, or a priest.

Animals stir in the hills, and a goose has caught a fish. The artist appears to have connected the peace and bounty of the land with the pious act of honoring the sun with water.
  • ?–2018
    Catherine Glynn Benkaim and Barbara Timmer, Beverly Hills, CA, partial sale and gift to the Cleveland Museum of Art
    ?–2018
    The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
  • Temples and Worship in South Asia. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (September 14, 2024-March 9, 2025).
  • {{cite web|title=A girl worshipping the rising sun (Surya puja)|url=false|author=Chokha|year=c. 1810|access-date=07 November 2025|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}

Source URL:

https://www.clevelandart.org/art/2018.151