The Heroine Who Waits Anxiously for Her Absent Lover: Utka Nayika

c. 1760–65

The Heroine Who Waits Anxiously for Her Absent Lover: Utka Nayika, c. 1760–65. Northern India, Himachal Pradesh, Pahari Kingdom of Chamba. Gum tempera and gold on paper; page: 26.3 x 17.8 cm (10 3/8 x 7 in.); image: 25.2 x 16.6 cm (9 15/16 x 6 9/16 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Purchase and partial gift from the Catherine and Ralph Benkaim Collection; Severance and Greta Millikin Purchase Fund 2018.114 In the hilly and verdant landscape all around her, birds and animals are all in pairs—even many of the trees have doubles—but she remains alone, waiting on a bed of leaves for her lover to arrive. She has no way of knowing when he will come, like the devotee has no way to know when god will arrive and bring salvation and bliss. The wildlife has been depicted in pairs of two to highlight the Nayika’s loneliness.