Untitled (Ramayana Series)

In all his works, Mahadev Viswanath Dhurandhar managed to maintain a "fine balance between popular commercial art and the academic realism that Ravi Varma was known for. In his own right, as a dutiful teacher in the British-run J.J. School of Art and also as a successful painter, Dhurandhar was to impress the coming three generations of artists. Although his use of the brush was almost ascetic, he had a princely eye for detail. No wonder this Kolhapur-born artist, who retained his indigenous and vernacular values in the same breath as the high English etiquette, refined this very dichotomy when he painted." (A. Tamhane, Manifestations II, Indian Art in the 20th Century, Delhi, 2004, p. 91)
In this series of monochromatic watercolours, the artist's 'princely eye' for detail is evident. Four of the works portray episodes from the life of Dattatreya, the three-headed sage incarnation of the Hindu triumvirate, Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva. Told as part of the epic Ramayana, the story of Dattatreya begins with his birth to Anasuya and the rishi Atri in the forests of Chitrakoot. According to one legend, his mother, revered for her purity, was tested by the Gods and their wives. When she outsmarted them, they promised her that Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva would be born to her as a son. In these works, Dhurandhar illustrates Anasuya's visit from the Gods, the birth of Dattatreya or Trimurti that followed, his naming ceremony with Anasuya and all the wives of the Rishis, and a group of Rishis taking the young Dattatreya's darshan. The fifth watercolour in this lot is a household scene, with the ladies of a family welcoming Lakshmi, the goddess of fortune and prosperity, into their home.