Subject
Description
This “song” is based on a prose narrative in Bahr-e-Zakhkhār, the Persian biography of Indian saints and mystics produced by Wajihuddin Ashraf in 1788-89. The Sufis described in this biography, from which a short excerpt has been selected, not only had their own discourse of dearth and ascetic practice, they also directly intervened, often through prayer, miraculous powers of fasting, and charitable acts, or by reinterpreting religious injunctions on food, during times of dearth, famine, and pestilence.
In this choukopata (square scroll) illustration, Ushiara Chitrakar adapts the structure of the square scroll to the narrative progress of the story, with attention to details that evoke the specificities of the interaction between Sufi master and disciple.