Demons Before Kamsa, preparatory drawing for an illustration from the Bhagavata Purana
Indian
This preparatory drawing features two horned demons conversing with the tyrannical king, Kamsa. In the background, is a charbagh, a quadrilateral garden divided by walkways or water channels, as seen here, into four smaller parts. The channels run from a main fountain at the center.
This preparatory drawing might have been made as an aid for the manuscript of the Bhagavata Purana series prepared at the court of Rao Madho Singh (r. 1631–48) of Kota. Forty folios of this unfinished and uninscribed Bhagavata Purana series are now in the Government Museum of Kota collection, and two additional folios at the Victoria and Albert Museum and Los Angeles County Museum of Art. Rajput, Rajasthani, Kota School.
Ink and opaque watercolor on paper