AN ILLUSTRATION FROM A BIHARI SAT SAI SERIES: KRISHNA BESEECHES RADHAMEWAR, CIRCA 1719 Opaque watercolor and gold on paper; two lines of devanagari text above. Image: 8 1/2 x 7 1/4 in. (21.6 x 18.3 cm); Folio: 9 7/8 x 8 5/8 in. (25 x 21.9 cm) In this episode, Krishna kneels before Radha, who turns away from him in despair and looks forlornly at the floor of the white platform on which they are seated. Five gopis gaze upon the disconsolate lovers while other gopis converse on another platform at left and in a pavilion in the foreground. The Sat Sai or 'seven hundred' verses is an early vernacular text written in the early Braj Bhasha proto-dialect of Hindi. It follows in the tradition of religious texts focusing on the romance of Krishna and Radha. The work itself contains couplets on neeit (moral lessons), shringara (love), and most importantly bhakti (devotion). Bihari Lal was a poet at the court of Mughal Emperor Shah Jahan who was later invited by Raja Jai Singh of Amber to move to his court. It is at Amber that Bihari Lal is supposed to haveposed the Sat Sai. For other examples from the same series, see Topsfield, Court Painting at Udaipur , 2001, pp.143-4, no.144; Archer, Rajput Miniatures from the Collection of Edwin Binney, 3rd , 1968, p.23, no.8; , New York, 14 September 2015, lot 107; , London, 6 October 2008, lot 390; and Sotheby's, New York, 28 October 1991, lot 229. Provenance: Christies, London, 11 October 2013, lot 506