Mahant of Tarakeshwar Rides on an Elephant
1890
unspecified
From the collection of Cleveland Museum of Art
1890
unspecified
From the collection of Cleveland Museum of Art
Mahant of Tarakeshwar Rides on an Elephant is a 1890 unspecified by Unknown, a Patna School of Painting work, depicting Bengal, held at Cleveland Museum of Art.
A man in a white robe sits on a decorated elephant, holding a parasol. The elephant’s trunk curls up, and the scene is framed by a simple red border. This painting comes from Kalighat, a neighborhood in Kolkata where artists made cheap, colorful images for everyday buyers. It shows the Mahant, a powerful temple priest linked to a real scandal in 1873—when a priest’s affair led to a murder. The bold lines and flat colors were meant to grab attention fast. Look up more under the subject kalighat.
The Tarakeshwar murder case of 1873 was a public scandal in Calcutta. 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. The Mahant (head…
Read the full account in the museum source.
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