Nala and Damayanti

Three things come together in the series of paintings depicted in this book: a great text, a delectable old romance, and the work of one of the most talented families of painters.

The text is the 12th century Naishadhacharita of Sriharsha, one of the last great kavyas of Sanskrit literature; the story, told with the utmost delicacy, centres around the intense love that grew – mutual sights heard of, but yet unseen – between King Nala and Princess Damayanti. The painter family that produced this exquisitely painted series came from the small principality of Guler in the “Pahari” hills: today’s Himachal Pradesh. The intent of the painter/s was to cover the story in close to 110 paintings, but only 47 paintings could be completed all of them now in the collection of the Amar Mahal Museum and Library at Jammu, and here published the remaining having survived only in the form of highly finished drawings.