As the hours pass after the time of the appointed rendezvous, and her lover has still failed to appear, the nayika's longing and anticipation gradually darken into despondency. Overwhelmed by these feelings, the heroine steadies herself physically by stepping up to a plantain tree in a formal garden and woefully casting one arm around it, finding some solace in the tree as a kind of emotional stand-in. Meanwhile, she broodingly gazes downward, raises one hand to her chin, crosses one leg across her body, and slips off one shoe, leaving her foot to balance precariously on a toe or two. All these discreet gestures are used routinely to express a state of consternation under similar circumstances, but the verses of the 19th-century Hindi poet Gval inscribed above a slightly earlier version of the scene describe explicitly the state of mind of utkanthita nayika ('the one who waits impatiently'):

It is evening and still the lover has not come. Dressed in a gold-edged sari, frantic with worry, the girl has descended from her balcony. Says Gval: 'I cannot understand such long delay. She stands clasping the plaintain tree. Her face is full of care. (1)

This painting's core imagery of a lady clutching a plantain closely resembles those of two earlier versions assigned to followers of the artist Sajnu (active c. 1790-1830) working at various centres in the Punjab Hills (2). Yet it also differs in a number of minor compositional ways, from the rhythm created by the oval format of the painting proper, to the presence of secondary and tertiary plaintain trees, to the more extensive floral beds in the garden, and finally to the omission of palace buildings beyond the garden wall. The nayika diverges from her counterparts as well, being endowed now with exceedingly attenuated forearms and narrow hands, along with an opaque and speckled pink peshwaz (robe) she wears in place of her previously diaphanous white one. The more strongly coloured plantain tree, too, has become more naturalistic and bountiful, with the curling inflorescence, purple male buds, and bunches of fruit mitigating some of its previous austerity. The yellowed and split leaf at the top is a further naturalistic touch.

The painting is clearly indebted to the workshop style of the prolific artist Sajnu, who painted at Guler or Kangra before shifting to Mandi, but can be attributed specifically to Muhammadi (alternatively, Mohammadi) a Muslim painter in Sajnu's workshop.

Muhammadi's oeuvre is anchored by several ascribed and dated works. Among these are Radha Watches a Storm, ascribed to Muhammadi and dated year 30/1854 C.E. (3), and A Lady on a Terrace, ascribed to Muhammadi and dated year 31/1855 C.E (4). An earlier phase ofMuhammadi's work, that is, c. 1808-25, is represented by paintings in the Government Museum, Chandigarh, and San Diego (5). The painting, which probably is part of a series of the Ashta Nayikas of c. 1840, has flamboyant, three-dimensional flowers in the comers outside the oval frame and a rich black border with scrolling vegetation in gold and blossoms in white (6).

(1) Victoria and Albert Museum (V&A) IS.12-1956, published in W.G. Archer, Indian Painting from the Punjab Hills, 2 vols. (London, 1973), vol. 1, p. 165, Mandi, no.55, and vol. Il, p. 278.
(2) See n.1 above and V&AIS.27-1949, published in Archer 1973, vol. 1, p.165, Guler, no.67, and vol. 11, p. 118.
(3) Bonhams, 19 March 2018, lot 3106.
(4) Rob Dean Art, 2023.
(5) Goswamy, B.N., and E. Fischer, Pahari Masters: Court Painters of Northern India, Zurich, Artibus Asiae Publishers, 1992, no.154, pp. 356-357; and San Diego Museum of Art 1990.1139, published in B.N. Goswamy and C. Smith, Domains of Wonder. Selected Masterworks of Indian Painting, San Diego, San Diego Museum of Art, 2005, no. l08.
(6) See Vasakasajja Nayika, c. 1840, V&A IS.125-1960, published in Archer 1973, vol. I, p. 367, Mandi, no. 73, and vol. 11, p. 281.