PRINCE KAMRUP ATTACKING A DEMON WITH HIS TROOPS Bengal, Eastern India, c.1780 Opaque pigments and gold on paper, the horizontal composition depicting Prince Kamrup on a dappled horse attacking a terrifying demon with his cavalry troops, the princeidentifiable by his golden vest and quiver, in primary position waiting for his moment to strike, a few mutilated brave soldiers bleeding and already lying on the ground tramped by the Asura, one currently being hurled into the air, more troops behind and in front of the prince conveying a centripetal tension to the scene, against a dark brown muddy ground, the verso inscribed in Arabic characters innasta'liqscript tasvi-r Kamrup(a picture of Kamrup), below it in sepia ink in Roman characters Camroop, mounted on a white cardboard frame, 17.5cm x 25cm excluding the mount. Provenance: from a Scottish private collection. The Indian love story of Prince Kamrup and Princess Kamalata was a dear one to the 18th and 19th-century Persian and Urdu Muslim poets.A Persian version of this romance, called Dastur-i Himmat (The Model of Resolution) by Muhammad Murad and written in 1685, was popular in Bengal, where a copiously illustrated version with 209 lavish and beautiful miniatures, now in the Chester Beatty Library, was prepared about 1760(Linda York Leach,Mughal and Other Indian Paintings from the Chester Beatty Library, 1995, pp. 623–54). The rigid formality of the court version seems here to filter down and to lend the space to a very dynamic and energetic composition with a clear centripetal focus. That said, the solid unvarying ground, the squat figures and the rigid profiles of some members of the cavalry, all quintessential elements of late 18th-century Bengali paintings borrowed from the court style, are still very prominent in this composition (see J. P. Losty, A Prince's Eye: Imperial Mughal Paintings from a Princely Collection Art from the Indian Courts, London, 2013, figs. 7 and 10).