Kalpasutra manuscript, leaf: The Courtesan Kosha and the King’s Charioteer (fol. no. 102v)

Description

Towards the end of the Kalpasutra text there is a story of the courtesan Kosha who was noted for her precise dancing. Here she flirts with the king’s charioteer by dancing while he impresses her with his archery. Later Kosha would renounce the world to become a Jaina nun.
The horizontal format of the Kalpasutra manuscript pages painted in western India in the fifteenth through seventeenth centuries follows the precedent of earlier manuscripts done on palm leaves; where the paper manuscripts show red dots, the palm leaf manuscripts would have had holes to allow them to string pages together.
The Kalpasutra was read aloud during the rainy season when the monks could not wander the countryside seeking alms and had to stay indoors.
Exhibited in "Divine Encounters, Earthly Pleasures: Twenty Centuries of Indian Art," 12/12/03-2/22/04.
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This painting depicts a story from near the end of the Kalpasutra text about the courtesan Kosha, who was noted for her precise dancing. In this image, she flirts with the king’s charioteer by dancing while he attempts to impress her with his archery. Later in this story, Kosha renounces such wordly pleasures to become a Jaina nun. The Kalpasutra was read aloud during the rainy season, when the monks could not wander the countryside seeking alms and had to stay indoors.
The horizontal format of the paper Kalpasutra manuscript pages painted in western India in the fifteenth through seventeenth centuries follows the precedent of earlier manuscripts on palm leaves: where paper manuscripts such as this one show red dots, the palm leaf manuscripts would have had actual holes allowing the palm leaf pages to be strung together.
(6/28/10)
(South and Southeast Asia Gallery Rotation, Spring 2010)