The Loves of Krishna in Indian Painting and Poetry Part 16

_Krishna with his Favourite after leaving the Dance_

Ill.u.s.tration to the _Bhagavala Purana_ Kangra, Punjab Hills, c. 1790 J.K. Mody collection, Bombay

Besides Purkhu, at least two other master-artists worked at Kangra towards the end of the eighteenth century--one, responsible for the present picture and Plates 14 and 15, being still unknown. He is here referred to as 'the master of the moonlight' on account of his special preoccupation with moonlight effects.

The present picture shows Krishna and a girl standing by an inlet of the River Jumna. The girl is later to be identified as Radha but in the _Bhagavata Purana_ she is merely referred to as one who has been particularly favoured, her actual name being suppressed. The moment is some time after they have left the circular dance and before their sudden separation. Krishna, whose hand rests on the girl's shoulder, is urging her forward but the girl is weary and begs him to carry her. The incident ill.u.s.trates one of the vicissitudes in Radha and Krishna's romance and was later to be endowed with deep religious meaning.

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PLATE 14

_Krishna's Favourite deserted_

Ill.u.s.tration to the _Bhagavata Purana_ Kangra, Punjab Hills, c. 1790 National Museum, New Delhi

From the same series as Plates 13 and 15 by 'the master of the moonlight.'

The girl's request (Plate 13) that Krishna should carry her brings to a head the question of Krishna's proper status. To an adoring lover, the request is not unreasonable. Made to G.o.d, it implies an excess of pride.

Despite their impa.s.sioned love-making, therefore, the girl must be humbled and as she puts out her arms and prepares to mount, Krishna vanishes.

In the picture, the great woods overhanging the rolling Jumna are tilting forward as if to join the girl in her agonized advances while around her rise the bleak and empty slopes, their eerie loneliness intensified by frigid moonlight.

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PLATE 15

_The Quest for Krishna_

Ill.u.s.tration to the _Bhagavata Purana_ Kangra, Punjab Hills, c. 1790 J.K. Mody collection, Bombay

By the same 'master of the moonlight' as Plates 13 and 14.

Krishna's favourite, stunned by his brusque desertion, has now been met by a party of cowgirls. Their plight is similar to her own, for, after enjoying his enchanting love, they also have been deserted when Krishna left the dance taking his favourite with him. In the picture, Radha holds her head in anguish while to the right the cowgirls look at her in mute distress. Drooping branches echo their stricken love while a tree in the background, its branches stretching wanly against the sky, suggests their plaintive yearning.

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PLATE 16

_The Eve of the final Encounter_

Ill.u.s.tration to the _Bhagavata Purana_ Kangra, Punjab Hills, c. 1790 J.K. Mody collection, Bombay

From the same series as Plates 3, 5, 6, 8, 9 and 11, here attributed to the Kangra artist Purkhu.

Invited by Kansa, the tyrant king, to attend a festival of arms, Nanda and the cowherds have arrived at Mathura and pitched their tents outside the walls. Krishna and Balarama are eating their evening meal by candle-light, a cowherd, wearing a dark cloak to keep off the night air, is attending to the bullocks while three cowherd boys, worn out by the day's march, rest on string-beds under the night sky. In the background, Krishna and Balarama, having finished their meal, are peacefully sleeping, serenely indifferent to the struggle which awaits them the next day. The moon waning in the sky parallels the tyrant's declining fortunes.

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PLATE 17

_The End of the Tyrant_

Ill.u.s.tration to the _Bhagavata Purana_ Kangra, Punjab Hills, c. 1790 Chester Beatty Library, Dublin

In the same style as Plate 16, but perhaps from a different series.

The festival of arms is now in progress but has already taken an unexpected turn. Set on by the savage elephant, Krishna and Balarama have killed it and taken out the tusks. They have then engaged two giant wrestlers, Krishna killing his opponent outright. In the picture Balarama is about to kill the other wrestler and Krishna, holding an elephant tusk under his arm, looks at the king with calm defiance. The king's end is now in sight for a little later Krishna will spring on the platform and hurl him to his death. Gathered in the wide arena, townspeople from Mathura await the outcome, while cowherd boys delightedly encourage the two heroes.

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PLATE 18

_The Rape of Rukmini_

Ill.u.s.tration to the _Bhagavata Purana_ Bilaspur, Punjab Hills, c. 1745 British Museum. London

Compared with Krishna's life among the cowherds, his adventures as a prince were only scantily ill.u.s.trated in Indian painting--his consort Rukmini being totally eclipsed in courtly favour by the adored cowgirl, Radha. The present picture--one of the very few to represent the theme--shows Rukmini and her maids wors.h.i.+pping at the shrine to Devi, the earth mother, on the morning of her wedding. Her proposed husband is Sisupala and already he and his party have arrived to claim her hand. In despair Rukmini has apprised Krishna of her fate but does not know that he will intervene. As she wors.h.i.+ps, Krishna suddenly appears, places her on his chariot and, in the teeth of Sisupala's forces, carries her away. The picture ill.u.s.trates the dramatic moment when after descending on the shrine, Krishna effects her rescue.

The picture is in an eighteenth-century style of painting which, from antecedents in Kashmir and the Punjab Plains, developed at Bilaspur. This small Rajput State adjoined Guler in the Punjab Hills and shared in the general revival of painting caused by the diffusion of artists from Basohli.

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PLATE 19

_Krishna welcoming the Brahman Sudama_

Ill.u.s.tration to the Sudama episode in the _Bhagavata Purana_ Garhwal, Punjab Hills, c. 1785 Chester Beatty Library, Dublin

Sudama is a poor Brahman whose devotion leads him to go to Dwarka, and seek out Krishna. Krishna remembers the time when they had shared the same preceptor and warmly welcomes him to his princely palace. The picture shows Sudama in rags seated on a stool while Krishna washes his feet and hails him as a Brahman. In close attendance are various ladies of the court, their graceful forms transcribed with sinuous delicacy and suave poetic charm.

Although an episode in Krishna's later career as a prince and one designed to b.u.t.tress the priestly caste of Brahmans, the story--with its emphasis on loving devotion--is actually in close accord with Krishna's life among the cowherds. For this reason, it probably continued to excite interest long after other aspects of his courtly life had been ignored. In this respect. Sudama's visit to Krishna is as much a parable of divine love as Krishna's dances with the cowgirls.

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PLATE 20

_The Beginnings of Romance_

Ill.u.s.tration to the _Gita Govinda_ Garhwal. Punjab Hills, c. 1790 National Museum, New Delhi

The first poem to celebrate Radha as Krishna's supreme love is the _Gita Govinda_ of Jayadeva, written at the end of the twelfth century. The poem recounts Radha's anguish at Krishna's fickleness, his subsequent repentance and finally their pa.s.sionate re-union.