Cleveland Museum of Art

The Heroine Who Waits Anxiously for Her Absent Lover: Utka Nayika

Date: c. 1760–65
Medium: Gum tempera and gold on paper
Culture: Northern India, Pahari kingdoms
Department: Indian and Southeast Asian Art
Institution: Cleveland Museum of Art
Object ID: 314365

From the Cleveland Museum of Art record

In the hilly and verdant landscape all around her, birds and animals are all in pairs—even many of the trees have doubles—but she remains alone, waiting on a bed of leaves for her lover to arrive. She has no way of knowing when he will come, like the devotee has no way to know when god will arrive and bring salvation and bliss. The wildlife has been depicted in pairs to highlight the nayika ’s loneliness.

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Provenance & credit

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Credit line: Purchase and partial gift from the Catherine and Ralph Benkaim Collection; Severance and Greta Millikin Purchase Fund
Provenance: ?–1984: (Doris Wiener Gallery, New York, NY, sold to Ralph and Catherine Glynn Benkaim) | 1984–2001: Ralph Benkaim [1914–2001] and Catherine Glynn Benkaim [b. 1946], Beverly Hills, CA | 2001–2018: 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