A polychrome painted cotton throne cover (khandpaat)
Deccan, 19th Century
of rectangular form with pointed upper edge, painted in polychrome and gold with a central panel depicting Krishna and the gopis, above and below panels depicting the worship of Krishna symbolised by the kadamba tree and cows on the bank of the river Jumna, the border with scrolling floral vines, mounted
212 x 110 cm.
Footnotes:
A Khandpaat or Simhasana is a piece of cloth made to cover a throne in a Shrinathji shrine. The throne would have been set in front of the picchavai, sometimes flanked by smaller thrones. A photograph of a Shrinathji (Krishna) shrine showing the picchavai and other furnishings and ritual accoutrements, including the cloth covering the throne and steps, is published in Krishna, K. & Talwar, K. In Adoration of Krishna - Picchwais of Shrinathji - Tapi Collection' 2007, p. 10.

The present lot has been dated to the 19th Century based on an analysis of pigments which identifies the presence of 'emerald green' (copper acetate arsenite) which was invented in 1814 in Europe and became widely used by the 1820s. It fell out of fashion by the end of the 19th century due to the invention of a similar but cheaper substitute. By 1840, a community of around ten families of Pushtimarg devotees had settled in Hyderabad, Deccan. This community of Gujarati merchants and bankers probably commissioned such textiles for their personal shrines and for the temples they patronised. A Deccani picchavai with traces of the same pigment is in the Boston Museum of Fine Arts (acc.no.67.837).