The Loves of Krishna in Indian Painting and Poetry Part 12

_Harivansa_, 'the Genealogy of Krishna' but more literally, 'the Genealogy of Hari,' a synonym for Vishnu. For the sake of clearness and to avoid burdening the text with too much periphrasis, I have throughout referred to Krishna as such. In the texts themselves, however, he is constantly invoked under other names--Hari (or Vishnu), Govinda (the cowherd), Keshava (the hairy or radiant one), Janarddana (the most wors.h.i.+pful), Damodara ('bound with a rope,' referring to the incident (p. 32) when having been tied by Yasoda to a mortar, Krishna uproots the two trees), Murari ('foe of Mura, the arch demon' p. 58) or in phrases such as 'queller of Kaliya the snake,' 'destroyer of Kesi, the demon horse,'

'slayer of Madhu--the demon who sprang from the ear of Vishnu and was killed by him.' A similar use of periphrasis occurs in Anglo-Saxon kennings ('world-candle' for sun, 'battle-adders' for arrows). In the same way, Abul Fazl's chronicle, the _Akbarnama_, never names the emperor Akbar but refers to him in terms such as 'His Majesty,' 'the holy soul,' 'lord of the age,' 'fountain of generosity,' 'the sacred heart,' 'the world-adorning mind,' 'the decorated mansion of sports.'

Note 7, p. 26, 34, 46, 68, 69.

In Chapters 3 and 4 I have, in the main, strictly followed the _Bhagavata Purana,_ incorporating, however, a few important details and pa.s.sages either not given in this text but included in the _Vishnu Purana_ or if given, not so vividly expressed. The details and pa.s.sages in question are page 27 concerning the white and black hairs of Vishnu, page 34--the lyrical description of Krishna's life in the forest, page 46--Akrura's meditation as he goes to visit Krishna, page 68--the drunken brawl and page 69 the deaths of Balarama and Krishna. All extracts are from H.H.

Wilson, _The Vishnu Purana_ (pages 498, 511, 541-2, 609-612).

Note 8, p. 28.

The resemblance between Kansa's order to kill all male infants and Herod's slaughter of the innocents has often been remarked.

Note 9, p. 29.

Krishna's constant alterations of role, appearing sometimes as G.o.d but more often as boy or man, have been commented on by Isherwood and Prabhavananda in connection with Arjuna's dilemma in the _Mahabharata_.

'Krishna is the divine incarnation of Vishnu, Arjuna's chosen deity.

Arjuna knows this--yet, by a merciful ignorance, he sometimes forgets.

Indeed, it is Krishna who makes him forget, since no ordinary man could bear the strain of constant companions.h.i.+p with G.o.d. After the vision of Krishna's divine aspect, Arjuna is appalled by the realization that he has been treating the Lord of the universe as 'friend and fellow-mortal.' He humbly begs Krishna's pardon, but his awe soon leaves him. Again, he has forgotten. We may infer the same relations.h.i.+p between Jesus and his disciples after the vision of the transfiguration.' _(The Song of G.o.d, Bhagavad-Gita,_ 29-30).

Note 10, p. 33.

Although part of the supreme Trinity, Brahma was often treated in literature as an ordinary G.o.d who ambled gently about the world, was often rather absent-minded, sometimes behaved as if he were a priest, and was p.r.o.ne, as on the present occasion, to act a trifle misguidedly.

Note 12, p. 40.

The scene is ill.u.s.trated in two Kangra and Guler paintings (Archer, _Indian Painting in the Punjab Hills_, Figs. 10 and 23).

Note 12, p. 58.

Pragjyotisha--a city situated in the east, in Kamarupa on the borders of a.s.sam. According to the _Vishnu Purana_ (Wilson, 582), its environs were defended by 'nooses, constructed by the demon Mura (Naraka's ally), the edges of which were as sharp as razors.' Mura had seven thousand sons (not seven, as stated in the _Bhagavata_). All, however, were 'burnt like moths with the flame of the edge of Krishna's discus.'

Note 13, p. 67.

Basham (op. cit., 305) points out that elements in the Krishna story such as the destruction of the Yadavas and the death of the G.o.d are 'quite un-Indian in their tragic character. The themes of the drunken brawl leading to a general slaughter, of the hero slain by an arrow piercing his one vulnerable spot, and of the great city engulfed by the sea, are well-known in European epic literature, but do not occur elsewhere in that of India and are not hinted at in the Vedas. The concept of the dying G.o.d, so widespread in the ancient Near East, is found nowhere else in Indian mythology.'

It is unfortunate that Krishna's reasons for destroying the Yadava race are nowhere made very clear. The affront to the Brahmans is the immediate occasion for the slaughter but hardly its actual cause; and, if it is argued that the Yadavas must first be destroyed in order to render Krishna's withdrawal from the world complete, we must then a.s.sume that the Yadavas are in some mysterious way essential parts of Krishna himself.

Such a status, however, does not seem to be claimed for them and none of the texts suggest that this is so. The slaughter, therefore, remains an enigma.

Note 14, p. 68.

Wilson (op. cit., 608) summarizing the portents listed in the _Mahabharata_ but not included in the _Vishnu_ or _Bhagavata Puranas_.

Note 15, p. 72.

From the _Brihadaranyaka_, quoted A. Danielou, 'An Approach to Hindu Erotic Sculpture,' _Marg_, Vol. II, No. i, 88. For a Western expression of this point of view, compare Eric Gill, 'Art and Love,' _Rupam_ (Calcutta, 1925), No. 21, 5.

'If the trees and rocks, the thunder and the sea, the frightful avidity of animal life and the loveliness of flowers are so many hints of the G.o.d who made them, how much more obviously are the things of humanity a.n.a.logues of the things of G.o.d? And among all such things, the union of man and woman takes the highest place and is the most potent symbol. Therefore it is that outside the commercial civilizations of the western world, love and marriage take their place as types of divine union and everywhere love and marriage are the subject matter, the theme of religious writers, singers, painters and sculptors. It is true that love is the theme of western writers also but with them the idea of love is entirely free from divine signification. (As a corollary), the more the divine background disappears, the more the prudishness of the police becomes the standard of ethics and aesthetics alike. Under such an aegis the arts are necessarily degraded to the level of the merely sentimental or the merely sensual and while the sentimental is everywhere applauded, the sensual is a source of panic.'

Note 16, p. 73.

In later poetry as well as in popular wors.h.i.+p, Radha's position is always that of an adored mistress--never that of a beloved wife. And it is outside or rather in the teeth of marriage that her romance with Krishna is prosecuted. Such a position clearly involved a sharp conflict with conventional morals and in the fourteenth century, an attempt was made, in the _Brahma Vaivarta Purana_, to re-write the _Bhagavata Purana_, magnifying Radha as leader of the cow-girls, disguising or rather denying her adultery and finally presenting her as Krishna's eternal consort. For this purpose, three hypotheses were adopted. Radha was throughout a.s.sumed to be Krishna's spouse and it is only on account of a curse that she takes human form as a cowgirl and comes to live in Brindaban. Radha herself does not marry Ayana the cowherd--his wedding being only with her shadow.

Thirdly, Krishna comes to Brindaban and goes through a secret marriage with her. Their love-making is, therefore, no longer adulterous but strictly conjugal. It is not perhaps surprising that the _Brahma Vaivarta Purana_ failed to capture the Indian imagination and indeed is nowadays hardly ever heard of. It is of interest mainly on account of the prolific information given about Radha, the fact that it sets her firmly in the centre, dethroning the hapless Rukmini, and its baroque descriptions of s.e.xual union.

Note 17, p. 73.

During the eleventh and twelfth centuries, a parallel situation seems to have arisen in feudal France and Germany where local love-poetry also treated adultery as a _sine qua non_ of romance.

'Two things prevented the men of that age from connecting their ideal of romantic and pa.s.sionate love with marriage. The first is, of course, the actual practice of feudal society. Marriages had nothing to do with love and no 'nonsense' about marriage was tolerated. All marriages were matches of interest and, worse still, of an interest that was continually changing. When the alliance which had answered would answer no longer, the husband's object was to get rid of the lady as quickly as possible.

Marriages were frequently dissolved. The same woman who was the lady and 'the dearest dread' of her va.s.sals was often little better than a piece of property to her husband. He was master in his own house. So far from being a natural channel for the new kind of love, marriage was rather the drab background against which that love stood out in all the contrast of its new tenderness and delicacy. The situation is indeed a very simple one, and not peculiar to the Middle Ages. Any idealization of s.e.xual love, in a society where marriage is purely utilitarian, must begin by being an idealization of adultery.' (C.S. Lewis, _The Allegory of Love_ (London, 1936), 13.)

Note 18, p. 77.

Much of the _Gita Govinda's_ power arises from the endowment of Nature with romantic ardour, the forest itself being presented as a highly sensitive and symbolic setting for the behaviour of lovers. The following pa.s.sage from _Tess of the D'Urbervilles_ is perhaps the nearest approach in English to this kind of treatment.

'Amid the oozing fatness and warm ferments of the Var Vale, at a season when the rush of juices could almost be heard below the hiss of fertilization, it was impossible that the most fanciful love should not grow pa.s.sionate. The ready bosoms existing there were impregnated by their surroundings. July pa.s.sed over their heads and the weather which came in its wake seemed an effort on the part of Nature to match the state of hearts at Talbothays Dairy. The air of the place, so fresh in the spring and early summer, was stagnant and enervating now. Its heavy scents weighed upon them, and at mid-day the landscape seemed lying in a swoon.

Ethiopic scorchings browned the upper slopes of the pastures, but there was still bright herbage here where the water courses purled. And as Clare was oppressed by the outward heats, so was he burdened inwardly by waxing fervour of pa.s.sion for the soft and silent Tess.'

Note 19, p. 77.

The _Gita Govinda_ was one of the first Sanskrit poems to be rendered into English--Sir William Jones publis.h.i.+ng a mellifluous version in _Asiatick Researches_ in 1792. Later in the nineteenth century it was translated into Victorian verse by Sir Edwin Arnold. The present translation from which all the extracts are taken is by George Keyt, the foremost modern artist of Ceylon. It is greatly to be hoped that the entire translation, hitherto available only in an Indian edition, will one day be published in England.

Note 20, p. 86.

Poems 1 and 2 are based on versions by O.C. Gangoly (_Masterpieces of Rajput Painting_, 29, 58); poems 3-11 are from new translations by Deben Bhattacharya.

Note 21, p. 91.

For the originals of certain poems in the _Rasika Priya_ and their literal translation, see Coomaraswamy, 'The Eight Nayikas.'

Note 22, p. 104.