Add Or 3663

The gods meet the milkmaid. Balabhadra and Jagannatha, both in semi-human form and riding two prancing horses, encounter a standing female figure with yellow skin and a pot of curds on her head. She holds out her right hand and raises her left arm. Balabhadra with white face and hands but blue foot, coat and trousers rides a black horse; Jagannatha with black face, dark green arms, chest and foot and with yellow trousers rides a white horse. Each has a round face, surrounded with a circular yellow rim and a black headdress with a flaming yellow auriole. Truncated wooden ‘arms’ spring like wings from behind their shoulders. Madder background with white flowers. Borders as in Add.Or.3662.

By a citrakar of Puri, Puri district, Orissa, c.1800 or earlier.

Gouache and earth-colours on prepared cloth; 235 by 2 75 mm.

Acquired by W.G. Archer from members of the painter community in a suburb of Puri, December 1933. Purchased 1974.

Reproduced: M. Archer (1970) pl.46.

Note: The milkmaid Manika received a ring from two mysterious riders, one on a white horse the other on a black and was enjoined to show it to Raja Purusottama Deva (1472-97), Raja of Orissa, and to inform him that she had seen two horsemen riding southwards towards his enemy the Raja of Kanchi (Conjeeveram). Having appealed to Jagannatha for aid and having received Jagannatha’s promise to head a counter-offensive, Purusottama Deva interpreted the milkmaid’s arrival with a ring as a sign that Jagannadia and Balabhadra were indeed coming to his rescue. To celebrate the incident he renamed the village Manikpatana (Manikpatam).