Lot 222

19th C. Pahari Gouache Painting - Durga Slaying the Buffalo Demon Mahishasura

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Lot 222
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19th C. Pahari Gouache Painting - Durga Slaying the Buffalo Demon Mahishasura
19th C. Pahari Gouache Painting - Durga Slaying the Buffalo Demon Mahishasura
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19th C. Pahari Gouache Painting - Durga Slaying the Buffalo Demon Mahishasura

Estimate: $600 - $900

Starting Bid: $300

(0 Bids)
by Artemis Fine Arts
August 7, 2026 9:00 AM MDT
Live Auction
686 S. Taylor Avenue
Suite 108
Louisville, CO, US 80027

South Asia, India, Pahari school (Himalayan foothills), ca. 1800–1899 CE. A jewel-toned battlefield unfolds across this gouache-on-paper miniature, where the mother goddess Durga rides her tawny lion-tiger into the heart of the fray. Many-armed and haloed in flame, she brandishes a full arsenal, sword, bow, trident, and discus, as she pounces upon the decapitated buffalo demon Mahishasura, who sprawls beneath her mount in a welter of blood. The blue-skinned Bhairava and dark Kala press the attack alongside her, spears leveled, while a pale votary flees. A domed white pavilion and swaying palm anchor the composition against a deep lapis sky and rolling emerald hills. Rendered in the intimate Pahari idiom of the Himalayan hill courts, the scene distills the climactic victory of good over evil at the core of Hindu devotional imagination. Size of frame: 10" W x 13.5" H x 0.75" D (25.4 cm W x 34.3 cm H x 1.9 cm D); illustration: 6.75" W x 10.3" H (17.1 cm W x 26.2 cm H).

The subject derives from the Devi Mahatmya ("Glory of the Goddess"), a sixth-century Sanskrit text embedded in the Markandeya Purana that recounts Durga's cosmic war against the shape-shifting asura Mahishasura. Assuming the form of a buffalo, the demon could not be slain by any god, so the deities pooled their energies to create Durga, arming each of her hands with their own weapons. Here she completes the vanquishing, the buffalo body severed and the demon's inner form exposed. Pahari painting flourished in the small Rajput hill kingdoms of the western Himalayas, among them Guler, Kangra, Basohli, and Chamba, from the seventeenth through nineteenth centuries, prized for lyrical line, saturated mineral pigments, and devotional subjects drawn from Hindu epic and Puranic sources.

Provenance: private Colorado, USA collection, from the estate of Eugene and Iris Rotberg

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Item # 203885

  • Condition: Mounted behind glass in custom matte and frame; has not been examined outside of frame. Some bending to corners with a few small tears to edges, but, otherwise, very nice presentation with suspension wire on verso for display.

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Bid Increments
From: To: Increments:
$0 $299 $25
$300 $999 $50
$1,000 $1,999 $100
$2,000 $4,999 $250
$5,000 $9,999 $500
$10,000 $19,999 $1,000
$20,000 $49,999 $2,500
$50,000 $99,999 $5,000
$100,000 $199,999 $10,000
$200,000 + $20,000