Image title: Plate 31: Shiva dancing Sandhya

[Full title: Shiva dancing Sandhya Tandava with Celestial musicians; and with Devi watching from her throne, Mysore School, National Museum, 18th century]

Another school like this which is also an offshoot is from Mysore, where under the Wodayars, when they were restored by the British to the throne after Tipu’s death in the battle of Śrīraṅgapaṭna (Srirangapatna), there was a patronage of art and a continuation of the earlier Nāyaka phase in this area also. This closely resembles in several respects the Maratha school of Tanjavur of which almost the last and the greatest patron was Serfoji who lived in the early nineteenth century and was brought up by Schwartz, the Danish missionary who loved him like his own son and initiated him into the appreciation of every form of art in addition to making him well read in different languages and variety of literature.

Gallery information:

This plate is contained in the book “Vijayanagara Paintings”, a valuable aid to the understanding of Indian iconography (also known as śilpaśāstra). The Vijayanagara empire was established in 1335 by Harihara, Harihara, Kaṃpa and Bukka (sons of Saṅgama) and grew to be a dominant power in the South. Painting has been considered in the Citrasūtra of the Viṣṇudharmottara, the early standard text on painting, as the premier art.