The Devi Attacks a Demon Army, from a Markandeya Purana series

This vibrant watercolor, in a style from the Pahari or lower Himalayan mountainous kingdoms and Punjab plains, might have been made by the family atelier of the famed painter Nainsukh. The commissioners of these paintings were Rajput courts who were devotees of the Hindu divinities Devi, Vishnu, and Shiva.

Here, the seminude, dark-skinned Kali, a form of Devi, is portrayed in all her ferocity and fury as she loosely clasps a tiger skin. She has ghoulish eyes, a protruding ribcage and flying disheveled hair, and each of her four spindly arms holds something—a blood-stained sword which pierces a horse and its demon-king rider, a horse-drawn chariot, and an elephant that she is about to swallow. Her towering but gaunt frame strides over the diminutive demon army and she has slain and dismembered their generals Chanda and Munda.

While the right register is imbued with terror and might dominated by Kali, the left is the picture of understated transpose and power—rolling hills, a smattering of trees, the horizon, and the ethereal form of Devi as Durga/Chandika riding on her lion varaha or vehicle. Durga is regally attired and studied, with a hand gesturing toward her chin, another on the head of her lion, the third on her knee, and the fourth steering and blessing the battle scene with her graceful, stately, and guiding presence.

—Ayesha Matthan, PhD candidate