King Dushyanta in Sage Kanva’s Hermitage Relinquishing Arms

As the mighty King Dushyant of Hastinapur approaches the forested sanctuary on the precinct of the hermitage of sage Kanva, he is immediately enveloped with a sentiment of peace and harmony. The peaceable ambience of the woodlands extinguishes Dushyant’s desire for a violent bloodsport of hunting down a fleeing deer.

Getting down from his chariot, Dushyant disarms himself and discards his ornaments and regalia, handing them over to his charioteer, as he feels no need for these worldly accoutrements.The king feels an overwhelming urge to see the great seer and ascetic Kanva, renowned for his austere penance and virtue.

The texts describe the woodland the king encounters of indescribable beauty ‘surpassing the celestial garden of the king of the gods Indra’, enclosed by the river Malini whose waters nourished the enchanting groves of the forest. Amidst the thicket, the king saw a heart-fetching hermitage and the king’s heart was filled with the purest joy.

The artist illustrates this veritable paradise with rustic earthiness. A herd of deer rest peacefully under the shade of a grove of trees, unperturbed by human presence, while pink lotuses bloom filling up the pond below. The pond is watered by the flowing river Malini, its gentle waves rendered with undulating lines of darker grey.

The humble hut of sage Kanva is visible in the top right, marked out by a boundary of dry branches of trees, its presence a welcome refuge to the birds that peck at the grains scattered for them. The ascetic’s simple dwelling is contrasted by the richly caparisoned team of horses, the silk embroidered cloth hanging and the gilded canopy of the chariot. Rendered in the bright hues of royal blue, pinks and bright orange, the chariot pulled by a team of white horses conspicuously stands out from its surroundings.

The contours of the hills sweep across the painted surface in gentle folds of peaks and valleys. They are washed with faint pink and dotted with saplings of pine. A thick verdant foliage of myriad greens envelops the hermitage with the variegated species rendered in precise detail.

The style of the painting at Nalagarh in the nineteenth century is marked by the presence of certain characteristics and idioms distinct from other schools of painting in the Punjab Hills. These include an unusual treatment of trees, their slim trunks shown in a clustering group as well as trees painted with gnarled roots, their trunks in sombre greys and browns with fantastically gouged out holes that mar its surface.