Inscribed in Devanagari on the reverse
‘Mugdha Proshita Patika’.
As per the Nayikabheda system, Mugdha Proshita Patika is the adolescent heroine whose beloved has gone abroad. The painting is further inscribed on the verso in Braj. the Doha belongs to Matiram’s poetic text of ‘Rasaraj’, the king of Rasas.
Piyabiyog tiyadrig jaldhi jaltarang adhikai
Baruni-mul-Bela parsi bahuryo jat bilayi
'On account of longing, a sea of tears flows from her eyes but her eyelashes are like the shore of the ocean, which the waves cannot cross.'
The painting appears to belong to a Rasaraj set attributed to Purkhu of Kangra. The facial type of the figures in the paintings are closely associated to the ones executed by Purkhu in the known Rasaraj set, which is generally dated to circa 1785-1790. . The painting is further indistinctly inscribed with a Perso-Arabic inscription which remains unclear.