Picture Details
A lady visiting a shrine at night
Partner:
British LibraryImage reference:
BL.J.20.1Origin:
North, IndiaArtist / Date:
Maharai, c.1750Size:
242 x 138 mmDescription:
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In this late-Mughal miniature a woman visits a shrine at night to worship the lingam or phallic symbol of Shiva. The bare-breasted woman in her deep red and pink robes, the night sky and the heavily laden mango trees framing the small temple with its slender colonnades, all evoke a scented and sensuous summer night of longing. The mango, a symbol of love and friendship, is the national fruit of India. Indian villages are often near mango groves and the many-branched evergreen trees are most evocative of the Indian countryside and feature in folklore, myth and ceremonial. The plentiful and juicy fruit symbolise prosperity and fertility and are considered aphrodisiacal. The leaves symbolise good fortune and strings of them are hung in decoration over doorways of Indian houses. There are hundreds of mango varieties which are consumed in ripe and unripe form. Used in folk remedies, many anti-viral, anti-parasitic, anti-septic, anti-asthmatic, and stomachic (beneficial to the digestion) medicinal properties are attributed to the mango tree.
