ABSTRACT
The work of Bangalore-based artist Pushpamala N. includes a series of 10 images entitled Native Women of South India: Manners and Customs. The staged photographs all featuring the artist herself in various guises, recreate iconic artistic images of South Indian women. One of them replicates the well-known 17th century Bijapuri painting of a yogini, now housed in the Chester Beatty Library, Dublin. This chapter compares the Chester Beatty Yogini’s pictorial setting to those used in other Bijapuri paintings from the 16th and 17th centuries. The Chester Beatty Yogini, attributable to c. ad 1605 Bijapur on stylistic grounds, has long been one of the most celebrated artworks from the medieval Deccan. The Pem Nem, which can be translated as the ‘Rule of Love’ or ‘Laws of Love’, is a unique Dakani masnavi. The manuscript, now housed in The British Library, contains 239 folios and 34 illustrations.
