King Dushyanta Attending the Sacrificial Rites by the Sages

As night falls, King Dushyant continues to attend to the sages, protecting the yajna fire from any disruption by the nefarious demons of the forest.

The dark night lulls the creatures of the woodlands into a dull slumber - a peacock roosts restfully upon the branches of a leafy tree, while the peacefully reposing cow lies on its side tethered in its small enclosure. Only the sages arduously persevere in their performance of their sacrificial rites, while Dushyant, alert to any presence of an obstruction, still wears his shield on his back, his sword, bow and quiver of arrows lay next to him, staring ahead.

Nonetheless, Dushyant actively participates in the rituals, his fingers telling the beads of a pearl rosary as he sits on a matted grass mat. While one of the ascetics chants the ritual mantras and pours purified butter to fuel the ritual fire, the other sage who sits opposite him reads the mantras from a scriptural text. The older sage looks upon the proceedings. The meditating mendicant in the cosy cave also continues with his strenuous meditation, deeply immersed in it even though it is now late in the night.

A full moon beams its silvery rays upon the landscape its argentine rays reflected in the meandering waters of the rivulet. The calming pale light of the moon contrasts with the blazing red flames of the sacrificial fire speckled with angry splinters. Soft wafting fumes rise up in soft curls from the fire and ash from the burnt wood lies sprinkled on the ground.

The darkness of the night renders the lush variegated hues of the trees into a uniform dull green. But despite the darkness of the night, the markings of the bark of the trees or the venation of the leaves or the tufts of the grass are clearly delineated by the artist. The only brightly rendered area in the painting is the space around the fire whose blazing light illumines the people and objects that surround it. The glow from the fire renders a dull orange glow on to the ground. The fire however does not render any dark shadows of the objects behind them. The only notable exception is the dark shadows falling on the back of the shawl that the senior sage wears.

The darker areas of the forest are connected to the focal scene of the group of men around the fire by little areas of animated yellows marked in the sleeping peacock up the tree on the upper left and the meditating sage in the cavern on the right below.