Antique Hindu Scripture Painting of Medicine, Alchemy, Sitting on Tiger for Sale

Antique Hindu Scripture Painting of Medicine, Alchemy, Sitting on Tiger For Sale

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Antique Hindu Scripture Painting of Medicine, Alchemy, Sitting on Tiger:
$250.00

Antique Hindu Scripture Painting.

This is a circa 17th century Hindu scripture painting that could possibly be even older. The painting itself was pasted onto a type of paper, I don't know exactly what type (probably a fork of ragpaper), which dates it to pre 1750. While I am not an expert in Indian paper, I assume that their methods were similar to Europe, and that the technology was fairly congruent, at least in terms of paper.

The vast majority of Hindu scripture painting available on the market depicts Krishna or other deities performing certain activities or rituals. This scripture painting is unique because it is depicting humans performing alchemical or medicinal tasks.

While I am not an expert in Hindu spirituality, I think it bears mentioning that the colors used in this piece are indicative of a sort of underground or dark activity.

There are a couple possible interpretations. The optimistic interpretation would be that the person depicted is a knowledgeable medicine man and he is providing people with natural solutions to solve their ailments. The more pessimistic or evil interpretation would be that this medicine man is usurping the powers or the property of the gods and using medicine that comes from dark arts. This idea could be supported by the Appearance of the man and the setting In which he appears. This is most significantly signaled by the bottom painting in which the medicine man is sitting on a tiger pelt. These tiger pelts were usually reserved for deities rather than humans. From my research, I did not find another scripture painting which depicts a human sitting on a tiger pelt (although I am sure there are others out there).

Another interesting aspect to this painting Is the objects which appear in it. Things like an anvil would not traditionally be associated with medicine.

I also think the artistic style of this piece is potentially older. The eyes and noses are especially pointed and lack advanced three dimensional concepts.

Someone who is more knowledgeable may also be able to trace the age of this to the pigments used. There seems to only be a few elements of the actual paint, and it also has an interesting texture to it.

Despite all of this information, I still really don't have a good idea as to what is being depicted here and it's relevance to Hindu philosophy.

At the end of the day, this is 100% a 17th century or older Hindu scripture painting which depicts unique and interesting subject matter.

Let me know if you have any questions or if you would like more photos. Thank you.

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