A
Vaishnava
priest sits facing left on a chauki below a tree.
His outstretched right hand indicates that he is in
conversation with a devotee who sits cross-legged on the
terrace in front of him. The devotee is clad in a yellow
dhoti
and holds a manuscript in his left hand. Behind him
sits another devotee in a white dhoti wearing a
white turban and telling the beads of a rosary
(akshamala) with his right hand. Both devotees
have a full beard and sectarian marks on the forehead,
throat, breast and shoulders, like the priest and the
attendant behind him. This young attendant waves a small
hand-fan near the head of the priest and carries a
crooked stick. Four white birds are flying in the blue
sky above a yellow landscape.
The
four figures are identified by Nagari inscriptions
above their heads. The name of the priest or prior is
given as 'Mahamta îsaradâsajî'.
The devotee in front of him is
'Kisanadâsajî' and the second devotee
is called 'Samtokadâsajî'. The name of
the attendant is
'Caranadâsajî'.
The
sectarian marks identify the four men as
Vaishnavas, perhaps belonging to the
Ramanandi order. The title of the prior,
Mahant, indicates that he does not belong to one
of the most common Vaishnava sects, the
Vallabhacharya Sampradaya. The crooked staff held
by the attendant belongs to the mahant and is a
common attribute of wandering monks of various religious
orders. Kisandasji has opened the manuscript in his left
hand and Isardasji seems to be commenting on a passage in
the text.
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Krishna
kills Srigala
Mughal, c. 1590, 29.3 × 18.7 cm.
The
painting is divided into two parts: a scene showing a
fortified town beyond small hills and a river in de top
part, and a battle field at the bottom, where the main
action takes place. Krishna arrives on the battlefield
from the left, standing immovable on his two-wheeled
chariot drawn by two horses. The charioteer is sitting on
the shaft holding the reins with his left hand and
whipping the horses with his right. The horses, thus
driven, are rearing up in front of two horses of another
chariot which arrives from the right hand side whose
charioteer turns around to see his master Srigala being
beheaded by Krishna's infallible weapon, the
chakra.
Srigala's trunk is about to collapse on the chariot
while his head with the crown at its side lands on the
ground.
This
scene is witnessed by Krishna's elder brother,
Balarama,
who sits in a chariot on Krishna's proper right side,
holding his plough with his right hand, while his
charioteer turns to him and points at the beheaded
combatant with his outstretched left hand. Another
charioteer in the foreground points with both hands at
the slain warrior while turning his head towards his
master.
Three
armed horseman arriving from the right are also moved by
this tragic event. The battlefield is bordered by stony
hills at the rear, behind which a pool with lotuses is
visible. A group of seven soldiers, some of them on
horseback, have witnessed the scene on the battlefield
from a distance in the vicinity of a city. One of them
raises his arms in despair, while two other soldiers
motion towards the field with their outstretched arms. A
soldier on foot, armed with a shield and sword, moves
towards a horseman who has just passed through the city
gate leading several armed riders.
The
city gate is flanked by two towers, topped with
battlements and built of red sandstone like the other
walls and protruding bastions, which are partly hidden
behind deciduous trees or tall plantains. Flat roofs and
closely grouped cupolas dominate the appearance of the
city. A courtyard with a well at one end is filled with
soldiers on foot and armed horseman, while other soldiers
appear on the battlements of the city.
This
painting belongs to an imperial Mughal manuscript of the
Harivamsha ('genealogy of Hari', i.e.
Vishnu-Krishna). Still the most important contribution to
the study of this illustrated translation of the Hindu
epic, which forms a sort of appendix to the larger epic
of the Mahabharata.
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Vasudeva
carries the child Krishna to the house of
Yashoda
Mewar, late 18th or early 19th century, 21.7 × 37.3
cm
[An illustration to a Hindi version of the Bhagavatha
Purana (X,3,49)]
This narrative painting
has to be 'read' from left to right: Vasudeva has left
the prison in the left section of the painting, where the
guards with demonic heads are sleeping in front of the
door. Devaki, exhausted from giving birth to Krishna,
sleeps on the bed within the enclosure of the prison.
Vasudeva carries the child Krishna on his head and has
just reached the river Yamuna when a terrible
thunderstorm starts. Streaks of lightning in the shape of
golden snakes are visible in the dark sky. In this
situation, the snake Shesha arrives to shelter the child
from the terrible downpour. The river has swollen
considerably, but it gives way to Krishna and Vasudeva,
who are able to ford it without difficulty, still
protected by the hoods of Shesha and now also accompanied
by a tiger. Vasudeva reaches the other side of the river
safely and continues his way to the house of Yashoda,
still protected by the snake.
The Nagari inscription
in the text panel reads:
'srî
bhâgavate, dasama ro patra, 32,
pache jamunâjî,
srî bhagavâna râ carana jadî
lâgâ vihâra dîdho'
('folio from the
Bhagavata tenth [book/folio] 32. The Yamuna gave
way after it touched the feet of the Lord').
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Krishna
and other children playing with Nanda
Guler, c. 1800-1810, 18.2 × 22.2 cm
The
child Krishna sits on the lap of Nanda, who is lying on a
large bed. Nanda is being fanned by a boy near the bed,
and another boy crawls on the ground playing with a
peahen. A woman, probably Yashoda, leans on the bed to
Nanda's proper left and is about to receive a small boy,
apparently Balarama,
from a standing woman who is probably Rohini. A
balustrade at the rear bounds the white terrace on which
the scene takes place. Banana trees and flowering shrubs
indicate a garden in the distance, where the golden glow
of the evening light is visible.
Nanda
lookes as usual more like a grandfather than a
foster-father. Nanda takes Krishna for his own son
because he is not supposed to know that the girl born to
Yashoda, his wife, has been exchanged for Krishna by the
latter's actual father, Vasudeva. Yashoda and Rohini have
no particular iconography with regard to Krishna and his
elder brother, Balarama (the son of Vasudeva and Rohini).
The child Balarama was usually shown dressed in a long
blue shirt.
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Krishna
and his favourite
Kulu or Basohli, 18th century, 24.9 × 16.9 cm
Krishna
gazes into the eyes of his favourite and is about to
embrace her as they pass in front of a pavilion, the
curtain of which has been rolled up. The woman holds a
lotus in her left hand and touches her chin with the
forefinger of her right hand, giving an impression of
shyness. A large peacock struts behind her. The
balustrade on either side of the central pavilion
reflects the movements of Krishna's arms and appears to
embrace the pair of lovers and the peacock. Trees on
either side behind the balustrade are set against an
orange-red background which extends up to the narrow band
of white and blue sky above the flat-roofed
pavilion.
Krishna
wears peacock feathers in his crown and a real peacock
follows the woman. The pavilion, which is half-closed
behind the woman, reflects her attitude towards Krishna;
she is not open-hearted and is still
undecided.
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The
'Rasikapriyâ' of Kes'ava
(Keshavdas)
Mewar, c. 1740-50, 28.6 × 16.9 cm
The
painting is divided into two registers. In the upper
register Krishna reclines on a bed with a seated woman
astride his loins. Trees are growing behind the terrace
on which the bed stands, and a radiant sun is shining in
the blue sky. In the lower register two women are seated
in conversation. A leafy bower with a cushion and hanging
garlands fills the right half of the register. The
four-line Nagari inscription in the text panel
quotes chapter I, verse 20 of the "Rasikapriyâ" of
Kesava (Keshavdas), the translation of which is as
follows:
An
example of hidden love.
Once
in the woods when Krishna did sport
With Radha, seeking pleasures sweet,
And shouts of joy did issue forth
As oft when lustful lovers meet,
When she did take the active role
Her necklace studded with dark gems
Did wildly shake thus to and fro,
Says Keshava, as it were the sun
Had taken Saturn on his lap
And joyfully him he had swayed
In swing of black silk- so did flash
Those dark gems with each move she made.
The
'active role' adopted by Radha does not mean that she
sits fully dressed in Krishna's lap, as shown by the
present artist; she should in fact have sexual
intercourse with Krishna in the 'revered position' which
fascinated so many Hindu erotic writers.
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The
four-headed Brahma [An illustration to the
Bhagavata Purana]
(X, 13, 63 et seq. or a related text)
South-West Rajasthan or Gujarat, early 18th century, 15 ×
17 cm
The
four-headed Brahma prostrates himself in front of
Krishna, who stands on a rock. Brahma's vehicle, Hamsa
(goose), stands behind his lord with a bell round his
neck. Three different trees indicate the landscape in
which this scene takes place. The painting probably
illustrates Book Ten of the Bhagavata
Purana, chapter 13, verse 63 et seq., in which
Brahma tries to deceive Krishna, but is finally compelled
to accept the latter's superiority. [see also
Srimad
Bhagavatam]
No
colophon is known which might indicate the place of
origin of this manuscript, of which other folios are
traceable. Several folios are insribed in Nagari and the
language used is a form of Gujarati, hence we would also
propose Gujarat for its place of origin. Sirohi has
mainly been suggested in this connection, but no similar
work from Sirohi is known which offers a convincing
comparison. A great part of the known folios are
surrounded by a rather uncommon border, as in this case,
where a part of the central tree, and the feet of Brahma
and Hamsa protrude into it. The set itself is quite
unique.
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