The Heroine Who Waits Anxiously for Her Absent Lover: Utka Nayika
Unknown Artist
c. 1750–55
Medium
Gum tempera and gold on paper
Dimensions
page: 24.8 × 18.7 cm · miniature: 21 × 15.1 cm
Classification
Painting
Department
Indian and Southeast Asian Art
Museum
Cleveland Museum of Art
Credit
Purchase and partial gift from the Catherine and Ralph Benkaim Collection; Severance and Greta Millikin Purchase Fund
Accession Number
2018.103
About this artwork
The Sanskrit term nayika is typically translated as heroine, but more precisely a nayika is an idealized woman associated with various aspects of love, embodying a wide range of emotional and psychological states. Numerous literary works composed in India since at least the first century describe and categorize different types of nayikas. This utka nayika stands in glowing orange and gold in the night, waiting for her lover to arrive. Her demeanor is quiet and resolved. Her gesture indicates won...