Sign In
 Go Back   Auction Catalogue 

lot 8

lot 8

Badri Narayan

Welcoming The Six Tusked Elephant

watercolor on paper
19.5 x 27 in. (49.5 x 68.6 cm.)
painted in 2005

Bought-In

Estimate: US$ 8,000 - 12,000

Lot Closed

Lot Details

Titled, signed, dated, and inscribed 'Welcoming The 6-tusked Elephant / by Badri Narayan / watercolor / 29th Dec. 2005 / Bangalore' (on the reverse)

PROVENANCE
Private collection, Mumbai

Badri Narayan, a natural story-teller, depicted figurative paintings on accessible subjects throughout his long career as an artist. His use of popular symbolic figures to create two-dimensional stylized representations of well-known stories is one of his signatures.

Working between the literary and the visual, Badri's primary vehicle remained the narrative; focusing on the story elements and producing works ripe with meaning and valuable lessons as seen in the current lot titled 'Welcoming the Six Tusked Elephant' - based on the Jataka Tales, a compilation of stories from Lord Buddha's previous lives, one of which is a white elephant with six tusks.

In this particular story, Buddha as the six-tusked white elephant king called Chhadanta lived in a golden cave on the banks of a vast lotus-filled lake with his two queens: Mahasubhadda and Chullasubhadda. Once after bathing in the lake and frolicking in the forest with his queens he accidentally hit a Sal tree in full bloom. By sheer chance, Chullasubhadda was pelted with the dry leaves, twigs, and red ants from the tree while the flowers and the pollen of the tree rained on Mahasubhadda. Feeling deeply insulted and jealous, Chullasubhadda deserted her spouse and eventually died of a broken heart. Over time, Chullasubhadda was reborn as the queen of Varanasi. Still unable to let go of the grudge from her previous life, she hatched a plot to get Chaddanta’s tusks cut off by convincing the Varanasi king to obtain it for her. The king, in turn, summoned all the great hunters of the kingdom and finally assigned the task to Sonuttara, seen here clad in a saffron robe of a monk.

Chadantta, upon seeing the hunter dressed as a monk, recoiled from harming him. Moved by this, the hunter had a change of heart narrating the entire story to the elephant instead. Finally understanding that the queen instigated the hunt, Chanddata chooses to die by handing over his tusks willingly. The queen fell dead from grief when the hunter brought the tusks to her; belatedly regretting her choice.

The story highlights the danger of jealousy and the impact of one's choices in life. Furthermore, Chanddata's willingness to give away his tusks to the desperate hunter exhibits non-attachment and the virtue of self-sacrifice in the service of others, values worth emulating by the pious and the devout.

Badri Narayan

(1929 - 2013)
Born in Hyderabad, Badri Narayan is a self-taught artist. He has held over fifty solo exhibitions in various cities in India and internationally, the most recent being at the Viewing Room, Mumbai, in 2012; Mon Art Gallerie, Kolkata, in 2007-08; Pundole Art Gallery, Mumbai, in 2006, 2004, and 2002 and Galerie 88, Kolkata in 2002. Narayan has also represented India at the Bharat Bhavan Biennale, Bhopal, in 1992; the VII and II International Triennials, New Delhi, 1991 and 1971 respectively; the Festival of India, Moscow, in 1987; the V Biennale of Prints, Tokyo, in 1966; and the II Paris Biennale in 1961. He has exhibited with Saffronart in Hong Kong in 2001. He has written and illustrated several books since 1977, and taught art to school children. Narayan was awarded the Padma Shri by the Government of India in 1987; a Senior Fellowship for Outstanding Artists from the Government of India in 1984-86, and the National Award from the Lalit Kala Akademi, New Delhi, in 1965. Badri Narayan passed away in Bangalore in 2013.