Garhwal, Punjab Hills, c. 1790
Learning of Radha’s plight, Krishna longs to comfort her. Before approaching her, however, he spends a night passionately dallying with another cowgirl and only in the morning tenders his submission. By this time, Radha’s mood has turned to bitter anger and although Krishna begs to be forgiven, Radha tells him to return to his latest love.
‘Go, Krishna, go. Desist from uttering these deceitful words. Follow her, you lotus-eyed, she who can dispel your trouble, go to her.’
In the picture, Krishna is striving to calm her ruffled feelings while Radha, ‘cruel to one who loves you, unbending to one who bows, angry with one who desires, averting your face from this your lover,’ has none of him.
According to the poem, the scene of this tense encounter is not a palace terrace but the forest–the Garhwal artist deeming a courtly setting more appropriate for Radha’s exquisite physique. The suavely curving linear rhythm, characteristic of Garhwal painting at its best, is once again the means by which a mood of still adoration is sensitively conveyed.
[Illustration]
PLATE 26
_The last Tryst_
Illustration to the _Gita Govinda_
Basohli. Punjab Hills, c. 1730
State Museum, Lahore
Having brusquely dismissed Krishna, Radha is overcome with longing and when he once again approaches her she showers on him her adoring love. The friend urges her to delay no longer.
‘Your friends are all aware that you are ready for love’s conflict Go, your belt aloud with bells, shameless, amorous, to the meeting.’
Radha succumbs to her advice and slowly approaches Krishna’s forest bower.
In the picture, Krishna is impatiently awaiting her while Radha, urged onward by the friend, pauses for a moment to shed her shyness. The picture is part of an illustrated edition of the poem executed in Basohli in 1730 for a local princess, the lady Manaku. As in other Basohli paintings, trees are shown as small and summary symbols, the horizon is a streak of clouds and there is a deliberate shrinkage from physical refinement. The purpose of the picture is rather to express with the maximum of power the savagery of passion and the stark nature of lovers’ encounters.
[Illustration]
PLATE 27
_The closing Scene_
Illustration to the _Gita Govinda_
Basohli, Punjab Hills. c. 1730
Art Gallery, Chandigarh, East Punjab
From the same series as Plate 26.
After agonies of ‘love unsatisfied,’ Radha and Krishna are at last reconciled.
‘She looked on Krishna who desired only her, on him who for long wanted dalliance,
Whose face with his pleasure was overwhelmed and who was possessed with Desire,
Who engendered passion with his face made lovely through tremblings of glancing eyes,
Like a pond in autumn with a pair of wagtails at play in a fullblown lotus.
Like the gushing of the shower of sweat in the effort of her travel to come to his hearing,
Radha’s eyes let fall a shower of tears when she met her beloved, Tears of delight which went to the ends of her eyes and fell on her flawless necklace.
When she went near the couch and her friends left the bower, scratching their faces to hide their smiles,
And she looked on the mouth of her loved one, lovely with longing, under the power of love,
The modest shame of that deer-eyed one departed.’
In the picture, Radha and Krishna are again united. Krishna has drawn Radha to him and is caressing her cheek while friends of Radha gossip in the courtyard. As in Plate 25, the artist has preferred a house to the forest–the sharp thrust of the angular walls exactly expressing the fierceness of the lovers’ desires.
[Illustration]
PLATE 28
_Krishna awaiting Radha_
Illustration to the _Rasika Priya_ of Keshav Das Bundi (Rajasthan), c. 1700
National Museum, New Delhi
Following the Sanskrit practice of discussing poetic taste, Keshav Das produced in 1592 a Hindi manual of poetics. In this book, poems on love were analysed with special reference to Krishna–Krishna himself sustaining the role of _nayaka_ or ideal lover. During the seventeenth century, illustrated versions of the manual were produced–poems appearing at the top of the picture and the subjects being illustrated beneath. The present picture treats Radha as the _nayika_ or ideal mistress and shows her about to visit Krishna, She is, at first, seated on a bed but a little later, is leaning against a pillar as a maid or friend induces her to descend. In the left-hand bottom corner, Krishna sits quietly waiting. The bower is hung with garlands and floored with lotus petals while lightning twisting in the sky and torches flickering in the courtyard suggest the storm of love. The figures with their neat line and eager faces are typical of Bundi painting after it had broken free from the parent style of Udaipur.
[Illustration]
PLATE 29
_Radha and Krishna making Love_
Illustration to the _Sursagar_ of Sur Das Udaipur, Rajasthan, c. 1650
G.K. Kanoria collection, Calcutta
Like Plate 28, an illustration to a Hindi poem analysing Krishna’s conduct as ideal lover.
Krishna is here embracing Radha while outside two of Radha’s friends await the outcome. Above them, two girls are watching peacocks–the strained advances of the birds and the ardent gazes of the girls hinting at the tense encounter proceeding in the room below.
The Udaipur style of painting with its vehement figures, geometrical compositions and brilliant colouring was admirably suited to interpreting scenes of romantic violence.
[Illustration]
PLATE 30
_The Lover approaching_
Illustration to the _Rasamanjari_ of Bhanu Datta Basohli, Punjab Hills, c. 1680
Victoria and Albert Museum, London (I.S. 52-1953)
Although the _Rasika Priya_ of Keshav Das was the manual of poetry most frequently illustrated by Indian artists, an earlier Sanskrit treatise, the _Rasamanjari_ of Bhanu Datta, excited a particular raja’s interest and resulted in the production at Basohli of a vividly illustrated text. The original poem discusses the conventions of ordinary lovers. Under this Basohli ruler’s stimulus, however, the lover was deemed to be Krishna and although the verses make no allusion to him, it is Krishna who monopolizes the illustrations.
In the present instance, Krishna the lover, carrying a lotus-bud, is about to visit his mistress. The lady sits within, a pair of lotus-leaves protecting her nude bust, her hair falling in strands across her thighs. A maid explains to Krishna that her mistress is still at her toilet and chides him for arriving so abruptly.
The poem expresses the sentiments which a lover, denied early access, might fittingly address to his mistress.
‘Longing to behold your path, my inmost heart–like a lotus-leaf when a new rain-cloud has appeared–mounts to your neck. My eye, too, takes wing, soaring in the guise of a lotus-bird, to regard the moon of your face.'[131]
[Footnote 131: Translation R.H.B. Williams.]
In the picture, the lotus imagery is retained but is given a subtle twist–the lotus-leaves themselves, rather than the lover’s inmost heart, being shown as mounting to the lady’s neck.
[Illustration]
PLATE 31
_Radha extinguishing the Lamp_
Basohli, Punjab Hills, c. 1690
Bharat Kala Bhawan, Benares
Although no inscription has so far been published, it is likely that this picture is an illustration to the _Rasamanjari_ of Bhanu Datta. The lover is once again Krishna and the girl most probably Radha. Krishna is inviting her to extinguish the lamp so that they may better enjoy the excitements of darkness.
With its air of violent frenzy, the picture is typical of Basohli painting at the end of the seventeenth century–the girl’s wide-flung legs and rushing movements symbolizing the frantic nature of passionate desire.
[Illustration]
PLATE 32
_The Month of Asarh (June-July)_
Illustration to a _Barahmasa_ (or Cycle of the Months) Bundi, Rajasthan, c. 1750
Prince of Wales Museum, Bombay
In Hindi poetry, lovers were sometimes described against a background of the twelve months–each month suggesting a different kind of mood or behaviour. Such poems known as _Barahmasa_ (barah, twelve; masa, month) were sometimes illustrated–a princely lover and his lady being shown seated on a terrace with the sights and scenes appropriate to the month going on around. When this lover was identified with Krishna, any aspect of love was regarded as, in some degree, expressive of his character.
The present picture portrays the beginning of the Rains. The sky is black with clouds. On a lake lovers dally in a tiny pavilion, while in the background two princes consult a hermit before leaving on their travels. The rainy season was associated in poetry with love in separation and for this reason a lonely girl is shown walking in a wood. In a garden pavilion Krishna dallies with Radha, the approaching rain augmenting their desire.
[Illustration]
PLATE 33
_Radha and Krishna swinging_
Illustration to the musical mode. _Hindola Raga_ (‘the swinging music’)
Malwa, Middle India, c. 1750
Victoria and Albert Museum, London
A poem celebrating one of the main modes of Indian music is here represented by Radha and Krishna seated on a swing. The mode itself is called ‘the swinging music’ but since swinging was symbolical of love-making and also took place during the rains, the season of longing, its spirit was sometimes impersonated not by an ordinary prince but by Krishna himself. In the picture, peacocks, which were common symbols for the lover, are shown against a storm-tossed sky–the battered clouds and writhing lightning being symbolic references to ‘the strife of love.’ At the foot, lotus plants, their flowers symbolizing the male, their leaves the female, rise from a rain-filled river.
The picture represents one of the more poetic traditions of Indian painting but at a comparatively late stage of its development. During the sixteenth century the Malwa style had played a decisive part in the evolution of Rajput painting, but by the eighteenth century had shed something of its early ardour.
[Illustration]
PLATE 34
_Krishna attended by Ladies_
Illustration to the musical mode, _Bhairava Raga_ Hyderabad. Deccan, c. 1750
Victoria and Albert Museum, London
Like Plate 33, an illustration to a poem accompanying a leading mode of Indian music. Krishna is sitting on a bed while Radha is rubbing his right arm with sandal preparatory to making love. In the foreground a maid is grinding the sandalwood into a paste. Although the poem itself contains no mention of Krishna, it speaks of Bhairava–a form of Siva–as a raging lover, ‘insensate in a whirlwind of desire.’ On this account Krishna–identified by his blue skin–has been inserted in the picture, his character as a lover according with the frenzied character of the poem. In the background a bullock is lifting water from a well and a gardener is bending over a bed of poppies. Ducks and fishes sport in the water.
Illustrations to modes of music were common features of the Muslim art of the Deccan–the association of certain modes with Krishna being carefully preserved. One of the finest series of _raga_ and _ragini_ pictures executed at Hyderabad and now in the India Office Library, London, contains exquisite versions with Krishna themes.
[Illustration]
PLATE 35
_Radha disguised as a Constable arresting Krishna as a Thief_
Garhwal, Punjab Hills, c. 1785
Indian Museum, Calcutta
Tired of Krishna’s attempts to waylay the cowgirls, Radha dons a turban, brandishes a constable’s heavy staff and seizes Krishna by the wrist. ‘I am a policeman of Raja Kansa, come to take you to gaol,’ she says. The picture shows the cowgirls standing with their pitchers of curd, while cowherd boys–Krishna’s accomplices–take to their heels. Krishna himself stands limply by, as if uncertain who the constable is.
The incident is unrecorded in the _Bhagavata Purana_ but appears in later poetry as an instance of Radha and Krishna’s mutual fun–teasing being an essential part of their love-making.
The picture is by the same master artist as Plate 19.
[Illustration]
PLATE 36
_Krishna meeting Radha_
Illustration to a poem from the _Sat Sai_ of Bihari Kangra, Punjab Hills, c. 1790
N.C. Mehta collection. Bombay
An example of Krishna’s meetings with Radha. Appearing as if by accident Krishna is lolling on his cowherd’s stick while Radha, encouraged by a friend, has come to meet him. As she stands, there ensues that idyllic ‘meeting of eyes’ which Indian sentiment regarded as one of the most electrifying experiences in romance. In the picture, a tree pushes its flowering branches across open rolling slopes, suggesting by its fresh upsurgence the exquisite emotions stirring in Radha’s and Krishna’s hearts.
The picture is most probably by the Kangra artist, Kushala, to whom Plate 21 may also be assigned.
[Illustration]
PLATE 37
_Radha’s Longing_
Guler, Punjab Hills, c. 1810
Bharat Kala Bhawan, Banaras
In Indian painting and poetry, it was women driven to distraction by unappeased longing rather than men hungry with desire who formed the chief subject of romantic art. Pictures focussed on woman in all her varied moods and flattered the male mind by portraying her wilting with sadness when deprived of husband or lover.
The present picture shows Radha frenziedly contemplating her lonely state. Ornaments grown too hot for wearing–from the passion burning in her heart–are strewn about the bed, while hands tightly clasped suggest her wild unhappy torment. The vast and barren hills, empty angular buildings, tiny guttering candles and lonely flowering tree provide a sympathetic setting.
With its sinuous line and innocent delight in feminine form, the picture is typical of Guler painting at the start of the nineteenth century.
[Illustration]
PLATE 38
_Radha and Krishna returning in the Rain_
Nahan, Punjab Hills, c. 1820
State Museum, Lahore.
A scene from Radha and Krishna’s idyllic life together. Caught by a gale of wind and rain, the lovers are hurrying to shelter, Krishna carrying a leaf umbrella while cows and cowherds bend before the storm. In the distance, small figures wearing hooded cloaks hasten towards the village. Although keenly evocative of actual landscapes in the Punjab Hills–where palaces were usually set on rocky hill-tops with nearby villages clustering at their feet–the picture’s main concern is to illustrate and interpret the lovers’ feelings. The black clouds lit by eerie lightning and the trees tossing and swaying in the wind symbolize the passion raging in their hearts and suggest its ultimate outcome.
The picture represents a style of painting which is thought to have grown up at Nahan, the capital of Sirmur, after its neighbour, Garhwal, had been overrun by Gurkhas in 1804. Garhwal artists probably sought asylum at the Sirmur court and there developed a distinctive offshoot of the Garhwal manner.
[Illustration]
PLATE 39
_The Triumph of Radha_
Kishangarh, Rajasthan, c. 1770
C.K. Kanoria collection, Calcutta
During the eighteenth century, Radha was often regarded as Krishna’s permanent consort and was accorded divine honours–the present picture illustrating her final apotheosis. Seated together, their heads surrounded by haloes, the two lovers display their courtly charms. Krishna has now the mannered luxury of a high-born prince and Radha, no longer the simple cowgirl, is the very embodiment of aristocratic loveliness. As the lovers sit together, their forms offset by a carpet of lotus petals, Krishna attempts to put betel-nut in Radha’s mouth–the gesture subtly indicating their loving intimacy.
SOURCES
Frontispiece. By courtesy of Victoria and Albert Museum, London, and of Messrs Faber and Faber.
1, 2. Hendley, _Memorials of the Jeypore Exhibition, IV, the Razm Namah_.
5. By courtesy of State Museum, Lucknow and of Mr. M.M. Nagar.
6, 12, 20, 28. Archeological Survey of India, New Delhi.
10, 19, 30, 33, 34. Victoria and Albert Museum, London.
18. Stchoukine, _La Peinture Indienne_.
22, 26, 31, 38. Messrs. A.C. Cooper Ltd, London.
23, 24. By courtesy of the Prince of Wales Museum, Bombay and of Dr. Moti Chandra.
25. _Journal of Indian Art_, Vol. XVI, 116.
27. By courtesy of Mr. M.S. Randhawa, I.C.S.
39. By courtesy of Mr. Gopi Krishna Kanoria.
3, 4, 7-9, 11, 13-17, 21, 29, 32, 35-37. Author’s photographs.