The Voice of the Indian Mona Lisa: Gender and Culture in Eighteenth-Century Rajasthan

The Indian Mona Lisa is an eighteenth-century portrait of Radha from the Kishangarh school of Rajput Painting, purportedly modelled after a young enslaved woman and court-performer, Banī-ṭhanī. Heidi Pauwels recovers her role as a composer of devotional songs in Classical Hindi and shows how she was a conduit for trend-setting styles from Delhi, reconstructing how Banī-ṭhanī came to be acclaimed as the devotional poetess Rasikbihārī and India's Mona Lisa.

Format: Hardback
Length: 309 pages
Publication date: 31 August 2023
Publisher: Cambridge University Press

The Indian Mona Lisa, an eighteenth-century portrait of the goddess Radha from the Kishangarh school of Rajput Painting, is a captivating masterpiece. It is believed to have been modeled after a young enslaved woman and court-performer named Banī-ṭhanī, who later became a concubine of the painting's patron, crown-prince Savant Singh. In her remarkable work, Heidi Pauwels delves into the life and career of this remarkable woman, uncovering her role as a composer of devotional songs in various registers of Classical Hindi. Through a comprehensive analysis that combines literary, historical, and art-historical perspectives, Pauwels brings to life the vibrant cultural production center of Kishangarh in the eighteenth century. She reconstructs the circumstances that led to Banī-ṭhanī's acclaimed status as the devotional poetess Rasikbihārī and as India's Mona Lisa. This groundbreaking study offers valuable insights into the history of Hindi literature and devotion, the family, palace women, and the social mobility of the enslaved. It sheds light on the complex relationships and hierarchies that existed within these societies and highlights the remarkable achievements of women like Banī-ṭhanī in a time of great change and transformation.

Weight: 592g
ISBN-13: 9781009201650