Painting, Tarakeshwar murder case, Mahant fanning Elokeshi, watercolour and tin alloy on paper, Kalighat, Kolkata, ca. 1880

Painting, in watercolour and tin alloy on paper, episode of the Tarakeshwar affair. Image of the Mahant fanning Elokeshi who is seated in a chair, whilst the priest dressed in a dhoti and shawl stands behind her cooling her with a fan.

The Mahant fanning Elokeshi who is seated in a chair, whilst the priest dressed in a dhoti and shawl stands behind her cooling her with a fan.

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. See Archer p12.

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.

Archer suggests that the artist's depiction of heat maybe suggestive of the mounting tension between the priest and the clerk's wife. Following her first visit to the Tarakeshwar shrine, Elokshi became the mistress of the priest and this image depicts the 'slavish subservience' to which she appears to have reduced him. (Archer, p 61).

IS.110-1965