Osian's Auction Catalogue Creative India Series 1 Bengal | December 2011

1780 1800 1820 1840 1860 1880 1900 1910 1920 1925 1930 1935 1940 1945 1950 1955 1960 1965 1970 1975 1980 1985 1990 2000 34 Illustrative references For the earlier 1913 version Sihare, Laxmi P. [Ed.] [1982]. Nandalal Bose (1882-1966) Centenary Exhibition. New Delhi: National Gallery of Modern Art; p.75, Fig.14 [Shiva Drinking World Poison (Version 1), 1913] & references to multiple versions p.37 & p.46 Nivedita, Sister&A.K. Coomaraswamy [1913 (Ltd. Ed. 21 of 75)]. Myths of the Hindus & Buddhists. London: George G. Harrap & Company; p.314, plate XXV [Shiva Drinking the World-Poison (Version 1), 1913] “The illustrations are reproduced from watercolour drawings executed specially for this book by Indian artists under the supervision of Mr Abanindro Nath Tagore, C.I.E., Vice- Principal of the Calcutta Art School, who has himself contributed some of the pictures.” [A.K. Coomaraswamy, rpt. in Nivedita, Sister & A.K. Coomaraswamy [1913 (Ltd. Ed. 21 of 75)]. Myths of the Hindus & Buddhists. London: George G. Harrap & Company; p.314, plate XXV [Shiva Drinking the World-Poison (Version 1), 1913] Shiva Drinking the World- Poison version illustrated herein, I assume, is the one in the NGMA Collection. “Even a casual survey of the main collection and hundreds of scattered works of art all over the country, reveals that several of his important paintings, instead of being exclusive, have a few versions. This poses the problem of dating and establishing their historical priority.” [Sihare, Laxmi P. [Ed.] [1982]. Nandalal Bose (1882- 1966) Centenary Exhibition. New Delhi: National Gallery of Modern Art; p.75, Fig.14 [Shiva Drinking the World-Poison (Version 1), 1913] & references to multiple versions p.37.] “1932-36 Started painting several versions of Dance of Kali and Mahishasur Mardanii or Durga from 1932 onwards and continued during 1936, 48, 49 and 51.” [Part of the official Centenary Exhibition Biography, rpt. In Sihare, Laxmi P. [Ed.] [1982]. Nandalal Bose (1882- 1966) Centenary Exhibition. New Delhi: National Gallery of Modern Art; p.46] Paintings such as his famous Parthasarthi were also painted more than a couple of times (two exist in public collections of the Indian Museum (Kolkata) and Hindu University Collection (Benaras), as with his iconic Shiva Drinking the World Poison, with two versions existing in the Collection of theNGMA (1913) and the Osianama Collection (1933), along with a third version (Lot 34) from the Ordhendra C. Ganguly Family Collection ( c. 1936), which is the only known version on silk (the other two versions are Tempera and wash on paper). Another story from the legend of Shiva of equal pathos and dramatic intensity has attracted the sympathetic vision of the artist, who seems to have a special gift for illustrating such subjects. His “Shiva drinking the World Poison” (Plate1, Fig. B) is another noble and emotional presentation of a legend of Shiva of intense dramatic value. It pictures the hero in another spiritual aspect of the great Yogi who renounced life so that others might live. The gods entered into alliance with the demons, so the story goes, and jointly undertook the churning of the sea of milk, which Vishnu had declared contained the ambrosia which will make the gods immortal. The sea was churned with Vasuki, the great dragon, as the rope, and Mt. Mandara as the churning stick. With the ambrosia came also a draught of deadly poison which later Shiva accepted as his portion and drank off lest it should destroy the world. It was a bitter poison which turned his throat blue and gave him his second name Nilakantha (the blue-throated one) even after. It is also a subject which does not appear to have inspired any artist before and the artist had, therefore, no precedent to follow to hamper his originality. Yet in his method of picturing the expression he has not departed from the ways of the old Indian masters who wrought many such divinities in stone. There is no mark of agitation in the rigid placidity of the face - no effort to gather courage - because it is the essence of the nature of Shiva (“the Good One”) to be good and kind to all creation.” [Gangoly, Ordhendra C. [Ed.] [1921] Delhi: [Essay.JOU] Rupam: An illustrated Quarterly Journal of Oriental Art (Chiefly Indian) No.5 January 1921; p.6.] contd.