Raja Balwant Singh

ca. 1750

Painting, in opaque watercolour on paper, Raja Balwant Singh, with a huqqa and attendants, examining a horse. Balwant Singh is depicted wearing a dark green jama and green and crimson conical turban, sits on a gold throne with purple cushions, holding a huqqa. Behind him stand four attendants in dark yellow, dark green, mauve and slate-blue jamas holding respectively a peacock feather fan, a sword and a black shield. Two courtiers in pale yellow and white jams sit on a red rug with brown stripes, on a white terrace with balustrade containing rectangular compartments. Behind the party is a white wall with gold-coloured door. Below the terrace, a groom in white, ankle-length jama parades a chocolate-coloured stallion with black mane, tail and legs and orange saddle edged with green. Behind the horse stretches a large brownish-mauve courtyard, with streaks of green. In the distance is a long wall from which a small house projects, containing a verandah covered with a red rug, a grey wall, white cushions and a white blind, striped with crimson. On either side are two shuttered windows, to the right are two grooms conducting two horses, one grey, the other brown. In this portrait, an atmosphere of courtly luxury is invoked, Balwant Singh being shown with calm dignity seated on a richly-decorated throne, the whole surroundings bespeaking the spacious comfort of a large and flourishing establishment. The throne with its two tiger heads is especially significant, since it vividly expresses his own sense of private grandeur. Despite the remains of a courtyard in the palace ruins at Saruin, the present building is more probably the large mansion which he may have owned in Jammu and where he would probably have lived while assisting his eldest brother, Raja Ranjit Dev, in the early years of the latter's return from exile.