Kamadhenu, The Wish-Granting Cow, c.1825-55 (opaque w/c & metallic pigments on paper)

Made in Jodhpur or Nathadwara, Rajasthan, India. This vision of Kamadhenu, the Wish-Granting Cow, combines the white zebu cow with the crowned frontal female face, colorful "eagle" wings, and peacock tail of Buraq, the animal that the prophet Muhammad rode to heaven in his night journey (Miraj). From at least the fifteenth century, Persian paintings showed Buraq with a horse's body, wings, and woman's face; the peacock tail may have been an Indian addition. Popular images of Kamadhenu in India today often show her as in this painting, which may be one of the earliest images to merge the visual characteristics of the Hindu Kamadhenu with the Islamic Buraq.