Painting, the Mahant plies Elokeshi with medicine, watercolour and tin alloy on paper, Kalighat, Kolkata, ca. 1880

Painting, in watercolour and tin alloy on paper, the head priest or Mahant of the Shaivite shrine at Tarakeshwar, standing next to Elokeshi who is seated on a chair, dressed in a bright red sari. Wearing a white pleated dhoti against yellow flesh tones, the priest offers the barren wife a glass of 'childbirth medicine' with a view to drugging her before raping her.

The head priest or Mahant of the Shaivite shrine at Tarakeshwar, standing next to Elokeshi who is seated on a chair, dressed in a bright red sari.

The Tarakeshwar murder case of 1873 was a public scandal in Calcutta based on an affair between Elokeshi the young attractive wife of Nabinchandra Banerji and the mahant or chief priest of the Shiva temple at Tarakeshwar. Upon discovery of the affair, on 27 May 1873 her jealous husband Nabinchandra Banerji cut Elokeshi's throat with a fish knife. In the trial that followed Nabin was sentenced to life imprisonment and the Mahant was fined and imprisoned for 3 years. Different variations of this affair favouring the various characters occur in several Bengali plays and Kalighat images between 1875-80.

Historical significance: Calcutta was the capital of British India from 1833-1912. By the 1830s, artists had arrived from rural villages in Bengal and began to produce paintings that reflected local history, mythology, customs and conflicts of a colonised society. As a popular art form, these artists are recognised for their use of brilliant colour, simplified images and swift brushstrokes that became the hallmark of Kalighat painting in the 19th and early 20th century.

IS.111-1965