2-999-923 - Heritage Art/Heritage Images

Ascetics before the Shrine of the Goddess, page from a dispersed series of the Kedara Kalpa, early 19th century. The five pilgrims are shown engaged in three different activities, following the continuous mode of visual narration that has remained a favourite of Indian artists for over two millennia. In the foreground, they bathe in a river; having cleansed their bodies, they pay obeisance to the goddess in the temple; finally, they sit in a group below a flowering tree, and in the warmth of an improvised fire, they say their prayers. Each ascetic, called "sadhaka" (devotee) or "siddha" (empowered) in the text has a distinctive physiognomy, rendered with convincing naturalism. Realistic touches are also evident in the manner in which the garments and rosaries are strewn on the ground and in the depiction of the fire, indicative of intense cold at the isolated shrine high in the mountains.