A Woman Worshipping the Rising Sun (Surya Puja)

c. 1810

A Woman Worshipping the Rising Sun (Surya Puja), c. 1810. Attributed to Chokha (Indian, 1770–1830). Gum tempera and gold on paper; page: 23.8 x 17.1 cm (9 3/8 x 6 3/4 in.); miniature: 20.3 x 13.3 cm (8 x 5 1/4 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Purchase and partial gift from the Catherine and Ralph Benkaim Collection; Severance and Greta Millikin Purchase Fund 2018.151 Adorned with a full complement of jewelry, but wearing only a transparent orange lower garment, a royal woman has laid her costly garments nearby. She offers water to the rising sun; poured from a gold pitcher, the water splashes down the steps of the platform. The gold and radiant sun emerges from behind the rocky hills populated with lion, boar, and deer. One of the two ducks in the lotus pond has a fish in its bill.