An Illustration from a Mahabharata Series: The Abduction of the Yadava Women

The drawing depicts a dramatic incident from the Mahabharata which occurs near the end of the story. Fratricidal feuding within the Yadava clan causes their male population to be completely decimated. As the warrior Arjuna, who is now advanced in years, escorts a group of bereaved Yadava women through the forest, they are attacked by tribals. The elderly Arjuna does his best to fend off the attackers but his martial strength is not good enough.

Collection of Mr. Francis G. Hutchins, Massachusetts

The artist skillfully evokes the mood of the setting through the expression of each individual character in the composition. The women’s faces and figures follow the Pahari convention. However the landscape details as well as the forms and features of the tribal youths and grizzled old mountain men bear the unmistakable imprint of the Mughal style suggesting that the drawing was the work of a Mughal-trained artist who migrated to a Pahari court following the decline of Mughal power in the early 18th Century.
For a later representation of the same subject, see W. G. Archer, Indian Paintings from the Punjab Hills, vol. II, London, 1973, no. 35.