Jailer Receiving the Mahant of Tarakeshwar in Prison
1890
unspecified
From the collection of Cleveland Museum of Art
1890
unspecified
From the collection of Cleveland Museum of Art
Jailer Receiving the Mahant of Tarakeshwar in Prison is a 1890 unspecified by Unknown, a Patna School of Painting work, depicting Bengal, held at Cleveland Museum of Art.
You see a jailer in a striped uniform handing a letter to a priest inside a prison cell. This painting comes from a time when cheap, colorful prints were sold near Kolkata’s Kali temple. They told stories of crime and scandal—like the real-life murder of Elokeshi by her husband after she had an affair with this priest. The bold lines and flat colors were meant to grab attention fast. To see more of these quick, dramatic images, look up kalighat.
The Tarakeshwar murder case of 1873 was a public scandal in Calcutta (now Kolkata). It concerned an affair between Elokeshi, a young wife, and the chief priest of the Shiva temple at Tarakeshwar. Having learned about the affair, her jealous husband cut Elokeshi’s throat with a fish knife on May 27, 1873. In the subsequent trial, the husband, Banerji, was sentenced to life imprisonment and the priest was fined and imprisoned for three years. Several Bengali plays and Kalighat images were inspired by this affair and depicted events that did not actually occur but were imagined by the artist.…
Read the full account in the museum source.
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