Narada warns Kamsa, an illustration to the Bhagavata Purana, attributed to the Early Master at the Court of Mandi, Mandi, circa 1635-50

gouache and gold on paper, narrow black and red borders

P & D Colnaghi and Co. Ltd., London, 1978.

T. Falk, E. Smart and R. Skelton, Indian Painting: Mughal and Rajput and a Sultanate manuscript, P & D Colnaghi and Co. Ltd., London, 1978, pp.53, 97, no.59. 
C. Glynn, 'Early Painting in Mandi', Artibus Asiae, Vol.XLIV, I, 1983, fig.7.
C. Glynn, 'The Early Master at the Court of Mandi', in Beach, Fischer and Goswamy, Masters of Indian Painting, Volume I, 1100-1650, Artibus Asiae, Supplementum 48 I/II, 2011, p.408, no.2a.

The sky with heavy flaking, and some flaking to top white section of building, the bottom part of the painting, which feature gardens, with some rubbing and flaking due to creases, the central section, with figures with rich colours and gold, the reverse with some restoration to external borders, as viewed.
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This is an important painting attributed by Catherine Glynn to "The Early Master of the Court of Mandi" (Glynn 1983 and Glynn 2011). It is an illustration to a large-format series of the Bhagavata Purana executed at Mandi circa 1635 to 1650. The attribution of this series and other works to Mandi in the mid-seventeenth century was made by Catherine Glynn in two ground-breaking articles in 1983 and 1995 that revealed the early development of court painting under Raja Hari Sen (r.1623-37) and Raja Suraj Sen (r.1637-64) (Glynn 1983 and Glynn 1995). The artist responsible for this body of work has been identified as the major artist at the Mandi court in the mid-seventeenth century, responsible for introducing and developing a style directly influenced by Mughal painting.

The present work is one of a series of at least twelve large-scale illustrations to the Bhagavata Purana, this one depicting the sage Narada, seated in the upper right alcove, with his customary vina, explaining to King Kamsa that a son of Devaki will destroy him and overthrow his kingdom (Glynn 1983, p.52). The debt to Mughal painting is very clear in this series, and particularly this illustration, with a strongly Mughalised composition, figures, architecture, textiles and garden.

For further discussion of this series and early Mandi painting in general see Glynn 1983, Glynn 1995, Glynn 2011, Goswamy with Bhatia.