The Loves of Krishna in Indian Painting and Poetry Part 17

The present picture with its glamorous interpretation of the forest in spring ill.u.s.trates the poem's opening verse and re-creates the setting in terms of which the drama will proceed. Nanda, the tall figure towering above the cowherd children, is commanding Radha to take Krishna home. The evening sky is dark with clouds, the wind has risen and already the flower-studded branches are swaying and bending in the breeze. Krishna is still a young boy and Radha a girl a few years older. As Radha takes him home, they loiter by the river, pa.s.sion suddenly flares and they fall into each other's arms. In this way, the verse declares, the loves of Radha and Krishna began. The left-hand side of the picture shows the two lovers embracing--the change in their att.i.tudes being reflected in their altered heights. Krishna who originally was shorter than Radha is now the taller of the two, the change suggesting the mature character of their pa.s.sionate relations.

The picture with its graceful feminine forms and twining lines has the same quality of rhythmical exaltation as Plates 19 and 35, a quality typical of the Garwhal master-artist in his greatest phase.

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PLATE 21

_Krishna playing on the Flute_

Ill.u.s.tration to the _Gita Govinda_ Kangra, Punjab Hills, c. 1790 N.C. Mehta collection, Bombay

As Radha wilts in lonely anguish, a friend describes how Krishna is behaving.

'The wife of a certain herdsman sings as Krishna sounds a tune of love Krishna here disports himself with charming women given to love.'

In the picture, Radha sits beneath a flowering tree, conversing with the friend while, to the right, Krishna plays the flute to a circle of adoring girls.

The painting is by a Kangra master, perhaps Kushala, the nephew of the Guler artist, Nainsukh, and ill.u.s.trates the power of Kangra painters to imbue with innocent delicacy the most intensely emotional of situations.

It was the investment of pa.s.sion with dignity which was one of the chief contributions of Kangra painting to Indian art.

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PLATE 22

_Krishna dancing with the Cowgirls_

Ill.u.s.tration to the _Gita Govinda_ Western Rajasthan, c. 1610 N.C. Mehta collection, Bombay

Besides describing Krishna's flute-playing, Radha's friend gives her an account of his love-making.

'An artless woman looks with ardour on Krishna's lotus face.'

'Another on the bank of the Jumna, when Krishna goes to a bamboo thicket, Pulls at his garment to draw him back, so eager is she for amorous play.'

'Krishna praises another woman, lost with him in the dance of love, The dance where the sweet low flute is heard in the clamour of bangles on hands that clap. He embraces one woman, he kisses another, and fondles another beautiful one.'

'Krishna here disports himself with charming women given to love.'

The present picture ill.u.s.trates phases of this glamorous love-making--Krishna embracing one woman, dancing with another and conversing with a third. The background is a diagram of the forest as it might appear in spring--the slack looseness of treatment befitting the freedom of conduct adumbrated by the verse. The large insects hovering in the branches are the black bees of Indian love-poetry whose quest for flowers was regarded as symbolic of urgent lovers pestering their mistresses. In style the picture ill.u.s.trates the Jain painting of Western India after its early angular rigidity had been softened by application to tender and more romantic themes.

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PLATE 23

_Krishna seated with the Cowgirls_

Ill.u.s.tration to the _Gita Govinda_ Jaunpur, Eastern India, c. 1590 Prince of Wales Museum, Bombay

After flute-playing and dancing (Plates 21 and 22), Krishna sits with the cowgirls.

'With his limbs, tender and dark like rows of clumps of blue lotus flowers.

By herd girls surrounded, who embrace at pleasure any part of his body, Friend, in spring, beautiful Krishna plays like Love's own self Conducting the love sport, with love for all, bringing delight into being.'

And it is here that Radha finds him.

'May the smiling captivating Krishna protect you, whom Radha, blinded by love, Violently kissed as she made as if singing a song of welcome saying, "Your face is nectar, excellent," ardently clasping his bosom In the presence of the fair-browed herdgirls dazed in the sport of love.'

The picture shows Krishna surrounded by a group of cowgirls, one of whom is caressing his leg. To the right, Radha and the friend are approaching through the trees. The style with its sharp curves and luxuriating smartness ill.u.s.trates a vital development of the Jain manner in the later sixteenth century.[130]

[Footnote 130: For a first discussion of this important series, see a contribution by Karl Khandalavala, 'A _Gita Govinda_ Series in the Prince of Wales Museum,' _Bulletin of the Prince of Wales Museum. Bombay_ (1956), No. 4.]

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PLATE 24

_The neglected Radha_

Ill.u.s.tration to the _Gita Govinda_ Jaunpur, Eastern India, c. 1590 Prince of Wales Museum, Bombay

Following his revels with the cowgirls, Krishna is smitten with remorse.

He roams the forest, searching for the lovely Radha but finding her nowhere. As he pursues his quest, he encounters the friend and learns of Radha's dejected state.

'Her body is wholly tormented by the heat of the flame of desire; But only of you, so loved, she thinks in her langour, Your extinguishing body; secluded she waits, all wasted-- A short while, perhaps, surviving she lives.

Formerly even a moment when weary she closed her eyes.

The moment's parting she could not endure, from the sight of you; And now in this long separation, O how does she breathe Having seen the flowery branch of the mango, the shaft of Love?'

In the picture, Radha is sitting in the forest, lonely and neglected.

Trees surround her, suggesting by their rank luxuriance the upward surge of spring while cranes, slowly winging their way in pairs across the blackening sky, poignantly remind her of her former love.

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PLATE 25

_Krishna repentant_

Ill.u.s.tration to the _Gita Govinda_ Garhwal, Punjab Hills, c. 1790

Learning of Radha's plight, Krishna longs to comfort her. Before approaching her, however, he spends a night pa.s.sionately 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.