Indian pictures of Krishna confront us with a series of difficult
problems. The most exalted expressions of the theme are mainly from
Kangra, a large Hindu state within the Punjab Hills.[66] It was here that
Krishna, the cowherd lover, was most fully celebrated. Pictures were
produced in large numbers and the Kangra style with its delicate
refinement exactly mirrored the enraptured poetry of the later cult. This
painting was due entirely to a particular Kangra ruler, Raja Sansar Chand
(1775-1823)--his delight in painting causing him to spare no cost in
re-creating the Krishna idyll in exquisite terms. Elsewhere, however,
conditions varied. At the end of the sixteenth century, it was not a Hindu
but a Muslim ruler who commissioned the greatest illustrations of the
story. In the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, Hindu patrons were the
rule but in certain states it was junior members of the ruling family
rather than the Raja himself who worshipped Krishna. Sometimes it was not
the ruling family but members of the merchant community who sponsored the
artists and, occasionally, it was even a pious lady or devout princess who
served as patron. Such differences of stimulus had vital effects and, as a
consequence, while the cult of Krishna came increasingly to enthrall the
northern half of India, its expression in art was the reverse of neat and
orderly. Where a patron was so imbued with love for Krishna that adoration
of the cowherd lover preceded all, the intensity of his feeling itself
evoked a new style. There then resulted the Indian equivalent of pictures
by El Greco, Grunewald or Altdorfer--paintings in which the artist's own
religious emotions were the direct occasion of a new manner. In other
cases, the patron might adhere to Krishna, pay him nominal respect or take
a moderate pleasure in his story but not evince a burning enthusiasm. In
such cases, paintings of Krishna would still be produced but the style
would merely repeat existing conventions. The pictures which resulted
would then resemble German paintings of the Danube or Cologne
schools--pictures in which the artist applied an already mature style to a
religious theme but did not originate a fresh mode of expression. Whether
the greatest art resulted from the first or second method was
problematical for the outcome depended as much on the nature of the styles
as on the artist's powers. In considering Indian pictures of Krishna,
then, we must be prepared for sudden fluctuations in expression and abrupt
differences of style and quality. Adoration of Krishna was to prove one of
the most vital elements in village and courtly life. It was to capture the
imagination of Rajput princes and to lead to some of the most intimate
revelations of the Indian mind. Yet in art its expression was to hover
between the crude and the sensitive, the savage and the exquisite. It was
to stimulate some of the most delicate Indian pictures ever painted and,
at the same time, some of the most forceful.
The first pictures of Krishna to be painted in India fall within this
second category. In about 1450, one version of the _Gita Govinda_ and two
of the _Balagopala Stuti_ were produced in Western India.[67] They were
doubtless made for middle-class patrons and were executed in Western India
for one important reason. Dwarka, the scene of Krishna's life as a prince,
and Prabhasa, the scene of the final slaughter, were both in Western
India. Both had already become centres of pilgrimage and although Jayadeva
had written his great poem far to the East, on the other side of India,
pilgrims had brought copies with them while journeying from Bengal on
visits to the sites. The _Gita Govinda_ of Jayadeva had become in fact as
much a Western Indian text as the _Balagopala Stuti_ of Bilvamangala. With
manuscript illustrations being already produced in Western India--but not,
so far as we know, elsewhere--it was not unnatural that the first
illustrated versions of these poems should be painted here. And it is
these circumstances which determined their style. Until the fifteenth
century the chief manuscripts illustrated in Western India were Jain
scriptures commissioned by members of the merchant community. Jainism had
originated in the sixth century B.C. as a parallel movement to Buddhism.
It had proved more accommodating to Hinduism, and when Buddhism had
collapsed in Western India in the ninth century A.D., Jainism had
continued as a local variant of Hinduism proper. Jain manuscripts had at
first consisted of long rectangular strips made of palm-leaves on which
the scriptures were written in heavy black letters. Each slip was roughly
three inches wide and ten long and into the text had been inserted lean
diagrammatic paintings either portraying Mahavira, the founder of the
cult, or illustrating episodes in his earthly career.
About 1400, palm-leaf was superseded by paper and from then onwards
manuscripts were given slightly larger pages. Owing partly to their
association with the same religious order and partly to their constant
duplication, Jain manuscripts had early conformed to a certain rigid type.
The painting was marked by lean and wiry outlines, brilliant red and blue
and above all by an air of savage ferocity expressed through the idiom of
faces shown three-quarter view with the farther eye detached and
projecting into space. This style was exercised almost exclusively on Jain
subjects and in the year 1400 it was the main style of painting in Western
India and Raj as than.
During the fifteenth century, this exclusive character gradually weakened.
There arose the idea that besides Jain scriptures, secular poetry might
also be illustrated and along with the growing devotion to Krishna as God
came the demand for illustrated versions of Krishna texts. The three texts
we have just mentioned are due to this tendency. All three are illustrated
in the prevailing Jain style with its spiky angular idioms and all three
have the same somewhat sinister air of barbarous frenzy. At the same time,
all disclose a partial loosening of the rigid wiry convention, a more
boisterous rhythm and a slightly softer treatment of trees and animals;
and, although no very close correlation is possible, the theme itself may
well have helped to precipitate these important changes.
Between 1450 and 1575, Western Indian painting continued to focus on Jain
themes, adulterated to only a very slight extent by subjects drawn from
poetry. It is possible that the Krishna story was also illustrated, but no
examples have survived; and it is not until the very end of the sixteenth
century that the Krishna theme again appears in painting and then in two
distinct forms. The first is represented by a group of three
manuscripts--two of them dated respectively 1598[68] and 1610[69] and
consisting of the tenth book of the _Bhagavata Purana_, the third being
yet another illustration of the _Gita Govinda[70]_. All three sets of
illustrations are in a closely similar style--a style which, while
possessing roots in Jain painting is now considerably laxer and more
sprawling. The faces are no longer shown three-quarter view, the detached
obtruding eye has gone and in place of the early sharpness there is now a
certain slovenly crudity. We do not know for whom these manuscripts were
made nor even in what particular part of Western India or Rajasthan they
were executed. They were clearly not produced in any great centre of
painting and can hardly have been commissioned by a prince or merchant of
much aesthetic sensibility. They prove, however, that a demand for
illustrated versions of the Krishna story was persisting and suggest that
even prosperous traders may perhaps have acted as patrons.
The second type is obviously the product of far more sophisticated
influences. It is once again a copy of the _Gita Govinda_ and was probably
executed in about 1590 in or near Jaunpur in Eastern India. As early as
1465, a manuscript of the leading Jain scripture, the _Kalpasutra_, had
been executed at Jaunpur for a wealthy merchant.[71] Its style was
basically Western Indian, yet being executed in an area so far to the
east, it also possessed certain novelties of manner. The heads were more
squarely shaped, the eyes larger in proportion to the face, the ladies'
drapery fanning out in great angular swirls. The bodies' contours were
also delineated with exquisitely sharp precision. The court at the time
was that of Hussain Shah, a member of the marauding Muslim dynasties which
since the twelfth century had enveloped Northern India; and it is possibly
due to persistent Muslim influence that painting revived in the last two
decades of the sixteenth century. Illustrated versions of passionate love
poetry were executed[72] and as part of the same vogue for poetic romance,
the _Gita Govinda_ may once again have been illustrated.[73] Between the
style of these later pictures and that of the Jain text of 1465, there are
such clear affinities that the same local tradition is obviously
responsible. Yet the new group of paintings has a distinctive elegance all
its own. As in the previous group, the detached projecting eye has gone.
Each situation is treated with a slashing boldness. There is no longer a
sense of cramping detail and the flat red backgrounds of Western Indian
painting infuse the settings with hot passion. But it is the treatment of
the feminine form which charges the pictures with sophisticated charm. The
large breasts, the sweeping dip in the back, the proud curve of the
haunches, the agitated jutting-out of the skirts, all these convey an air
of vivid sensual charm. That Radha and Krishna should be portrayed in so
civilized a manner is evidence of the power which the Krishna story had
come to exercise on courtly minds. Krishna is portrayed not as God but as
the most elegant of lovers, Radha and the cowgirls as the very embodiment
of fashionable women.
Jaunpur painting does not seem to have survived the sixteenth century and
for our next illustrations of the theme, we must turn to the school of
painting fostered by the Mughals. During the sixteenth century at least
three Muslim states other than Jaunpur itself had possessed schools of
painting--Malwa in Central India and Bijapur and Ahmadnagar in the Deccan.
Their styles can best be regarded as Indian offshoots of a Persian mode of
painting which was current in the Persian province of Shiraz in about the
year 1500. In this style, known as Turkman, the flat figures of previous
Persian painting were set in landscapes of rich and glowing herbage,
plants and trees being rendered with wild and primitive vigour. In each
case the style was probably brought to India by Persian artists who
communicated it to Indian painters or themselves adjusted it to local
conditions. And it is this process which was repeated but on an altogether
grander scale by the Muslim dynasty of the Mughals. Under the emperor
Akbar (1556-1605), the Mughals absorbed the greater part of Northern
India, concentrating in one imperial court more power and wealth than had
probably been amassed at any previous time in India. Among Akbar's
cultural institutions was a great imperial library for which a colony of
artists was employed in illustrating manuscripts in Persian. The founders
of this colony were Persian and it is once again a local style of Persian
painting which forms the starting point. This style is no longer the
Turkman style of Shiraz but a later style--a local version of Safavid
painting as current in Khurasan. With its lively and delicate naturalism
it not only corresponded to certain predilections of the emperor Akbar
himself, but seems also to have appealed to Indian artists recruited to
the colony. Its representational finesse made it an ideal medium for
transcribing the Indian scene and the appearance at the court of European
miniatures, themselves highly naturalistic, stimulated this character
still further. The result was the sudden rise in India, between 1570 and
1605, of a huge new school of painting, exquisitely representational in
manner and committed to a new kind of Indian naturalism. Such a school,
the creation of an alien Muslim dynasty, would at first sight seem
unlikely to produce illustrations of Hindu religion. Its main function was
to illustrate works of literature, science and contemporary history--a
function which resulted in such grandiose productions as the _Akbarnama_
or Annals of Akbar, now preserved in the Victoria and Albert Museum.[74]
None the less there are two ways in which Mughal painting, as developed
under Akbar, contributed to the Krishna story. Akbar, although a Muslim by
birth, was keenly interested in all religions and in his dealings with the
Rajputs had shown himself markedly tolerant. He desired to minimise the
hatred of Muslims for Hindus and believing it to arise from mutual
ignorance, ordained that certain Hindu texts should be translated into
Persian and thus rendered more accessible. The texts chosen were the two
epics, the _Ramayana_ and the _Mahabharata_, and of these Persian
abridgements were duly prepared. The abridgement of the _Mahabharata_,
known as the _Razmnama_, was probably completed in 1588 but illustrated
copies, including the great folios now in the palace library at Jaipur,
were probably not completed before 1595. As part of the project, its
appendix, the _Harivansa_ was also summarized and a separate volume with
fourteen illustrations all concerned with Krishna is part of the great
version now at Jaipur.[75] In these illustrations, it is Krishna the
prince who is chiefly shown, all the pictures illustrating his career
after he has left the cowherds. There is no attempt to stress his romantic
qualities or to present him as a lover. He appears rather as the great
fighter, the slayer of demons. Such a portrayal is what we might perhaps
expect from a Mughal edition. None the less the paintings are remarkable
interpretations, investing Krishna with an air of effortless composure,
and exalting his princely grace. The style is notable for its use of
smoothly flowing outlines and gentle shading, and although there is no
direct connection, it is these characteristics which were later to be
embodied in the Hindu art of the Punjab Hills.
Such interest by the Emperor may well have spurred Hindu members of the
court to have other texts illustrated for, ten to fifteen years later, in
perhaps 1615, a manuscript of the _Gita Govinda_ was produced, its
illustrations possessing a certain fairy-like refinement.[76] Krishna in a
flowing dhoti wanders in meadows gay with feathered trees while Radha and
her confidante appear in Mughal garb. Romance is hardly evident for it is
the scene itself with its rustic prettiness which is chiefly stressed. Yet
the patron by whom this version was commissioned may well have felt that
it was sensitively rendered and within its minor compass expressed to
some extent the magical enchantment distilled by the verses. That the
Emperor's stimulus survived his death is plain; for in about the year
1620, two manuscripts of the _Bhagavata Purana_ appeared--both in a style
of awkward crudity in which the idioms of Akbar's school of artists were
consciously aped.[77] The manuscripts in question are at Bikaner and it is
possible that one or two inferior Mughal artists, deprived of work at the
central court, travelled out to this northerly Rajput state, daring the
desert, and there produced these vapid works. It is likely that in the
early years of the seventeenth century, many areas of India possessed no
artists whatsoever and if a Hindu ruler was to copy Mughal fashion, the
only artists available to him might be those of an inferior rank. And
although exact data are wanting, such circumstances may well explain
another document of Krishna, the first illustrated version of Keshav Das's
_Rasika Priya_.[78] As we have seen, this poem was composed at Orchha in
Bundelkhand in 1591, at a time when both poet and court were in close
association with Akbar. Yet the version in question shows the same
poverty-stricken manner with its crude aping of imperial idioms and utter
lack of sensitive expression. There is no evidence that at this time
Bundelkhand possessed its own school of painting and in consequence the
most likely explanation is that yet another inferior artist trained in the
early Mughal manner, migrated to the court and there produced this crude
prosaic version. In none of these provincial Mughal pictures is there any
feeling for Krishna as God or even as a character. The figures have a
wooden doll-like stiffness, parodying by their evident jerkiness the
exquisite emotions intended by the poet and we can only assume that
impressed by the imperial example minor rulers or nobles encouraged
struggling practitioners but in an atmosphere far removed from that of the
great emperor.
Such paintings in a broken-down Akbari manner characterize the period 1615
to 1630. From then onwards Mughal painting, as it developed under the
emperor Shah Jahan, concentrated on more courtly themes. The early
interest in dramatic action disappeared and the demand for costly
manuscripts, sumptuously illustrated, withered up. Under Aurangzeb,
tolerant understanding gave way to a vicious proselytism and it was only
in remote centres such as Bikaner that later Mughal artists exercised
their style on Krishna themes. It is significant that at Bikaner their
leader was a Muslim, Ruknuddin, and that his chief work was a series of
pictures illustrating the _Rasika Priya_.[79] His figures have a shallow
prettiness of manner, stamping them once again as products of a style
which, in its earliest phases, was admirably suited to recording dramatic
action but which had little relevance to either religion or romance. For
these a more poetic and symbolic manner was necessary and such a style
appeared in the city of Udaipur in the Rajput State of Mewar.
Painting at Udaipur is inseparably associated with the influence of two
great rulers--Rana Jagat Singh (1628-1652) and Rana Raj Singh (1652-1681)
As early as 1605 pictures had been produced at the State's former capital,
Chawand--the artist being a Muhammadan named Nasiruddin. His style was
obviously quite independent of any Mughal influence and it is rather to
the separate tradition of painting which had grown up in Malwa that we
must look for its salient qualities--a tensely rhythmical line, a
flamboyant use of strong emphatic colours, vigorous simplifications and
boldly primitive idioms for plants and trees. It is this style which
thirty or forty years later comes to luxuriant maturity in a series of
illustrations executed at Udaipur.[80] Although the artists responsible
included a Muslim, Shahabaddin, and a Hindu, Manohar, it is the Krishna
theme itself which seems to have evoked this marvellous efflorescence.
Rana Jagat Singh was clearly a devout worshipper whose faithful adhesion
to Rajput standards found exhilarating compensations in Krishna's role as
lover. Keshav Das's _Rasika Priya_ achieved the greatest popularity at his
court--its blend of reverent devotion and ecstatic passion fulfilling some
of the deepest Rajput needs. Between the years 1645 and 1660 there
accordingly occurred a systematic production not only of pictures
illustrating this great poetic text but of the various books in the
_Bhagavata Purana_ most closely connected with Krishna's career. Krishna
is shown as a Rajput princeling dressed in fashionable garb, threading his
way among the cowgirls, pursuing his amorous inclinations and practising
with artless guile the seductive graces of a courtly lover. Each picture
has a passionate intensity--its rich browns and reds, greens and blues
endowing its characters with glowing fervour, while Krishna and the
cowgirls, with their sharp robust forms and great intent eyes, display a
brusque vitality and an eager rapturous vigour. A certain simplification
of structure--each picture possessing one or more rectangular
compartments--enhances this effect while the addition of swirling trees
studded with flowers imbues each wild encounter with a surging vegetative
rhythm. Krishna is no longer the tepid well-groomed youth of Mughal
tradition, but a vigorous Rajput noble expressing with decorous vehemence
all the violent longings denied expression by the Rajput moral code. Such
pictures have a lyrical splendour, a certain wild elation quite distinct
from previous Indian painting and we can only explain these new stylistic
qualities by reference to the cult of Krishna himself. The realization
that Krishna was adorable, that his practice of romantic love was a
sublime revelation of Godhead and that in his worship lay release is the
motive force behind these pictures and the result is a new style
transcending in its rhythmical assurance and glowing ardour all previous
achievements.
Such an outburst of painting could hardly leave other areas unaffected and
in the closing quarter of the seventeenth century, not only Bundi, the
Rajput State immediately adjoining Udaipur to the east, but Malwa, the
wild hilly area farther south east, witnessed a renaissance of painting.
At Bundi, the style was obviously a direct development from that of
Udaipur itself--the idioms for human figures and faces as well as the
glowing colours being clearly based on Udaipur originals. At the same
time, a kind of sumptuous luxuriance, a predilection for greens and
oranges in brilliant juxtaposition, a delight in natural profusion and the
use of recessions, shading and round volumes give each picture a
distinctive aura.[81] In Malwa, on the other hand, the earlier tradition
seems to have undergone a new resuscitation. Following various wars in
Middle India, the former Muslim kingdom had been divided into fiefs--some
being awarded to Rajput nobles of loyalty and valour. The result was yet
another style of painting--comparable in certain ways to that of Bundi and
Udaipur yet markedly original in its total effect. In place of tightly
geometrical compositions, Malwa artists preferred a more fluid grouping,
their straining luxuriant trees blending with swaying creepers to create a
soft meandering rhythm and only the human figures, with their sharply cut
veils and taut intense faces, expressing the prevailing cult of frenzied
passion.[82] Such schools of painting reflected the Rajput need for
passionate romance rather than any specially strong adhesion to Krishna,
the divine lover. Although one copy of the _Rasika Priya_ and one of the
_Bhagavata Purana_ were executed at both these centres, their chief
subjects were the _ragas_ and _raginis_ (the thirty-six modes of Indian
music) _nayakas_ and _nayikas_ (the ideal lovers) and _barahmasas_ (the
twelve months) while in the case of Malwa, there was the added theme of
Sanskrit love-poetry. Krishna the god was rarely celebrated and it was
rather as 'the best of lovers' that he was sometimes introduced into
pictures. In a Bundi series depicting the twelve months, courtly lovers
are shown sitting in a balcony watching a series of rustic incidents
proceeding below. The lover, however, is not an ordinary prince but
Krishna himself, his blue skin and royal halo leaving no possible doubt as
to his real identity.[83] Similarly in paintings illustrating the
character and personality of musical modes, Krishna was often introduced
as the perfect embodiment of passionate loving. None of the poems
accompanying the modes make any allusion to him. Indeed, their prime
purpose is to woo the presiding genius of the melody and suggest the
visual scene most likely to evoke its spirit. The musical mode, _Bhairava
Raga_, for example, was actually associated with Siva, yet because the
character of the music suggested furious passion the central figure of the
lover dallying with a lady was depicted as Krishna.[84] In _Hindola Raga_,
a mode connected with swinging, a similar result ensued. Swinging in
Indian sentiment was normally associated with the rains and these in turn
evoked 'memory and desire.' The character of the music was therefore
visualized as that of a young prince swinging in the rain--his very
movements symbolizing the act of love. Since Krishna, however, was the
perfect lover, nothing was easier than to portray _Hindola Raga_ as
Krishna himself. _Hindola_ might be invoked in the poem, but it was
Krishna who appeared seated on the swing.[85] An exactly similar process
occurred in the case of _Megh Mallar Raga_. This was connected with the
rainy season, yet because rain and storm were symbolic of sex, _Megh
Mallar_ was portrayed not as a separate figure, but as Krishna once again
dancing in the rain with ladies accompanying him. Even feminine modes of
music suffered the same kind of transformation. _Vasanta Ragini_, 'the
music of springtime,' was normally apostrophized as a lovely lady, yet
because springtime suggested lovers, she was shown in painting as if she
were Krishna dancing with a vase of flowers, holding a wand in his hand or
celebrating the spring fertility festival. The mode, _Pancham Ragini_, was
also feminine in character and was conceived of as a beauty enjoying her
lover's advances. The lady herself was portrayed, yet once again Krishna
was introduced, this time as her lover. In all these cases the celebration
of Krishna was incidental to the main theme and only in one instance--a
Malwa _Rasika Priya_--is there a trace of undisguised adoration. In this
lovely series,[86] Krishna's enchantment is perfectly suggested by the
flowering trees which wave above him, the style acquiring an even more
intense lyricism on account of its divine subject.
During the eighteenth century, painting in Rajasthan became increasingly
secular, even artists of Udaipur devoting themselves almost exclusively to
scenes of court life. The Ranas and the Mewar nobility were depicted
hunting in the local landscape, watching elephant fights or moving in
procession. Similar fashions prevailed in Jodhpur, Jaisalmer, Bikaner,
Bundi and Kotah. Only, in fact, in two Rajasthan States and then for only
brief periods was there any major celebration of the Krishna theme. At
Kishangarh, a small State midway between Ajmer and Jaipur, a series of
intensely poetic paintings were produced between the years 1750 and
1760--the prime stimulus being the delight of Raja Sawant Singh in
Krishna's romance.[87] Born in 1699, Sawant Singh had ascended the throne
in 1748 and given all his time to three activities, the rapturous
re-living of Krishna's romance with Radha, the composition of ecstatic
poems and the daily worship of Krishna as lover god. So great was his
devotion that in 1757 he abandoned the throne and taking with him his
favourite maid of honour, the beautiful poetess, Bani Thani, retired to
Brindaban where he died in 1764. Sawant Singh's delight seems to have been
shared by a local artist, Nihal Chand, for under the Raja's direction he
produced a number of pictures in which Radha and Krishna sustained the
leading roles. The pictures were mainly illustrations of Sawant Singh's
own poems--the lovers being portrayed at moments of blissful wonder,
drifting on a lake in a scarlet boat, watching fireworks cascading down
the sky or gently dallying in a marble pavilion.
Here is Love's enchanted zone
Here Time and the Firmament stand still
Here the Bride and Bridegroom
Never can grow old.
Here the fountains never cease to play
And the night is ever young.[88]
Nihal Chand's style was eminently fitted to express this mood of sensitive
adoration. Originally trained in the later Mughal style, he was able to
render appearances with exquisite delicacy but was also acutely aware of
rhythmical elegance. And it is this which constantly characterized his
work, his greatest achievement being the creation of a local manner for
portraying Radha and Krishna.[89] Radha was endowed with great arched
eyebrows and long eyes--the end of the eye being tilted so as to join the
downward sweeping line of the eyebrow while Krishna was given a slender
receding forehead and narrow waist. Each was made to seem the acme of
elegance and the result was a conception of Krishna and his love as the
very embodiment of aristocratic breeding.
The same sense of aristocratic loveliness is conveyed by a scene of
dancing figures almost life size in the palace library at Jaipur.[90]
Painted under Raja Pratap Singh (1779-1803) the picture shows ladies of
the palace impersonating Radha and Krishna dancing together attended by
girl musicians.[91] Against a pale green background, the figures, dressed
in greenish yellow, pale greyish blue and the purest white, posture with
calm assured grace, while the pure tones and exquisite line-work invest
the scene with gay and luminous clarity. We do not know the circumstances
in which this great picture was painted but the existence of another
large-scale picture portraying the circular dance--the lines of cowgirls
revolving like flowers, with Radha and Krishna swaying in their
midst--suggests that the Krishna theme had once again inflamed a Rajput
ruler's imagination.[92]
Such groups of paintings are, at most, exquisite exceptions and it is
rather in the Rajput states of the Punjab Hills--an area remote and quite
distinct from Rajasthan--that the theme of Krishna the divine lover
received its most enraptured expression in the eighteenth century. Until
the second half of the seventeenth century this stretch of country
bordering the Western Himalayas seems to have had no kind of painting
whatsoever. In 1678, however, Raja Kirpal Pal inherited the tiny state of
Basohli and almost immediately a new artistic urge became apparent.
Pictures were produced on a scale comparable to that of Udaipur thirty
years earlier and at the same time a local style of great emotional
intensity makes its sudden appearance.[93] This new Basohli style, with
its flat planes of brilliant green, brown, red, blue and orange, its
savage profiles and great intense eyes has obvious connections with
Udaipur paintings of the 1650-60 period. And although exact historical
proof is still wanting, the most likely explanation is that under Rana Raj
Singh some Udaipur artists were persuaded to migrate to Basohli. We know
that Rajput rulers in the Punjab Hills were often connected by marriage
with Rajput families in Rajasthan and it is therefore possible that during
a visit to Udaipur, Raja Kirpal Pal recruited his atelier. Udaipur
painting, however, can hardly have been the only source for even in its
earliest examples Basohli painting has a smooth polish, a savage
sophistication and a command of shading which suggests the influence of
the Mughal style of Delhi. We must assume, in fact, a series of influences
determined to a great extent by Raja Kirpal Pal's political contacts, his
private journeys and individual taste, but perhaps above all by an urge to
express his feelings for Krishna in a novel and personal manner. The
result is not only a new style but a special choice of subject-matter. The
_Rasika Priya_ and the _Bhagavata Purana_, the texts so greatly favoured
at Udaipur, were discarded and in their place Basohli artists produced a
series of isolated scenes from Krishna's life--the child Krishna stealing
butter,[94] Krishna the gallant robbing the cowgirls or exacting toll,
Krishna extinguishing the forest-fire,[95] Krishna the violent lover
devouring Radha with hungry eyes. Their greatest achievements, however,
were two versions of Bhanu Datta's _Rasamanjari_, one of them completed in
1695,[96] shortly after Raja Kirpal Pal's death, the other almost
certainly fifteen years earlier.[97] The text in question is a treatise on
poetics illustrating how romantic situations should best be treated in
Sanskrit poetry--the conduct of mature mistresses, experienced lovers, sly
go-betweens, clowns or jokers being all subjected to analysis.[98] The
subject of the text is secular romantic poetry and Krishna himself is
never mentioned. None the less, in producing their illustrations, the
artists made Krishna the central figure and we can only conclude that
eschewing the obvious _Rasika Priya_, Raja Kirpal Pal had directed his
artists to do for Sanskrit what Keshav Das had done for Hindi poetry--to
celebrate Krishna as the most varied and skilled of lovers and as a
corollary show him in a whole variety of romantic and poetic situations.
As a result Krishna was portrayed in a number of highly conflicting
roles--as husband, rake, seducer, paramour and gallant.
In one picture he is 'a gallant whose word cannot be trusted' and we see
him in the act of delicately disengaging a lady's dress and gazing at her
with passion-haunted eyes. The poem on the reverse runs as follows:
Showing her a beautiful girdle
Drawing on a fair panel with red chalk
Putting a bracelet on her wrists
And laying a necklace on her breasts
Winning the confidence of the fawn-eyed lady of fair brows
He slyly loosens the knot of her skirt
Below the girdle-stead, with naughty hand.[99]
In another picture, he appears as 'a gallant well versed in the ways of
courtesans,' the dreaded seducer of inexperienced girls. He is now shown
approaching a formal pavilion, set in a lonely field. Inside the pavilion
is the lovely object of his attack, sitting with a companion, knowing that
willy-nilly she must shortly yield yet timidly making show of maidenly
reserve.
His swollen heart
Knows neither shame nor pity
Nor any fear of anger
How can such a tender bud as I
Be cast into his hands today?[100]
In yet a third picture, he is portrayed standing outside a house while the
lady, the subject of his passions, sits within. He is once again 'a false
gallant,' his amorous intentions being shown by the orange, a conventional
symbol for the breasts, poised lightly in his hand. As the lady turns to
greet him, she puts a dot in the circle which she has just drawn on the
wall--a gesture which once again contains a hint of sex. On the picture's
reverse the poem records a _conversation galante_.
'Beloved, what are you doing
With a golden orange in your hand?'
So said the moon-faced one
Placing a dot
On the bright circles
Painted in the house. [101]
In other pictures, a clown or jester appears, introducing a witty joking
element into the scene and thus presenting Krishna's attitude to love as
all-inclusive.
From 1693, the year of Raja Kirpal's death, painting at Basohli
concentrated mainly on portraying rulers and on illustrating _ragas_ and
_raginis_--the poems which interpreted the moods and spirit of music. The
style maintained its fierce intensity but there was now a gradual rounding
of faces and figures, leading to a slight softening of the former brusque
vigour. Devotion to Krishna does not seem to have bulked quite so largely
in the minds of later Basohli rulers, although the cult itself may well
have continued to exert a strong emotional appeal. In 1730, a Basohli
princess, the lady Manaku, commissioned a set of illustrations to the
_Gita Govinda_ and Krishna's power to enchant not only the male but also
the female mind was once again demonstrated.[102]
This series of illustrations is in some ways a turning point in Indian
painting for not only was it to serve as a model and inspiration to later
artists but its production brings to a close the most creative phase in
Basohli art. After 1730, painting continued to be practised there but no
longer with the same fervour. Basohli artists seem to have carried the
style to other states--to Guler, Jammu, Chamba, Kulu, Nurpur and
Bilaspur--but it is not until 1770 that the Krishna theme again comes into
prominence. In about this year, artists from Guler migrated to the distant
Garhwal, a large and straggling state at the far south of the Punjab
Hills, taking with them a style of exquisite naturalism which had
gradually reached maturity under the Guler ruler, Raja Govardhan
Singh.[103] During his reign, a family of Kashmiri Brahmans skilled in the
Mughal technique had joined his court and had there absorbed a new
romantic outlook. On at least three occasions they had illustrated scenes
from the _Bhagavata Purana_--Nanda celebrating Krishna's birth,[104]
Krishna rescuing Nanda from the python which had started to devour his
foot,[105] and finally the game of blind man's bluff[106]--but their chief
subject had been the tender enchantments of courtly love. Ladies were
portrayed longing for their lovers. The greatest emphasis was placed on
elegance of pose. Fierce distortions were gradually discarded and the whole
purpose of painting was to dwell on exquisite figures and to suggest a rapt
devotion to the needs of love.
It is this suavely delicate art which now appears in Garhwal. Among the
Guler painters was a master-artist and although his first Garhwal pictures
are concerned with passionate romance, devotion to Krishna quickly
becomes apparent.[107] The great Alaknanda River which roared through
Srinagar, the capital, had a special fascination for him and just as
Leonardo da Vinci evinced at one time a passionate interest in springing
curls, the Guler artist found a special excitement in winding eddies and
dashing water. The result was a sudden new interpretation of the Krishna
theme. In two pictures where Krishna is shown quelling the snake
Kaliya,[108] all the Guler qualities of elegant naturalism are abundantly
present. Each figure has a smooth suavity and in every face there appears
a look of calm adoration. It is the swirling, curling water, however,
which gives the pictures their special Garhwal quality. The play of water
evokes a melody of line and the result is a sense of upsurging joy. A
similar religious exaltation marks other pictures by this master. At some
time he appears to have been commissioned to illustrate the tale of Sudama
the poor Brahman whose tattered hovel is changed by Krishna into a golden
palace. He was evidently assisted by a weaker painter but in the pictures
which are clearly his own work, the same quality of lyrical incantation
appears. As Sudama journeys to Dwarka Krishna's golden city, his heart
swoons with adoration, the hills, trees and ocean appear to dance about
him and once again, the linear music of the composition engenders a
feeling of supreme ecstasy.[109] We do not know which member of the Garhwal
court acted as his patron--it is even possible that it was not the ruler
himself but his consort, the Guler princess whom he had married in about
the year 1770. What, at any rate, is clear is that at least one lively
adorer of Krishna existed at the Garhwal court and that until the Gurkha
invasions of 1803, there were other painters, besides the master-artist,
who were similarly encouraged to interpret the Krishna theme.[110] Their
style was clearly influenced by that of the master but in their use of
slender leafless branches and towering spikes of blossom, they developed a
special Garhwal imagery designed to suggest the slender beauty of
love-enchanted girls. After the expulsion of the Gurkhas in 1816, a new
Raja revived Garhwal painting. Krishna the lover was once again portrayed
and until the middle of the nineteenth century, pictures continued to be
produced blending the delights of courtly passion with adoration of God.
It was in the state of Kangra, however, that the greatest developments
occurred. In 1775, the young Sansar Chand became Raja, and despite his
extreme youth, quickly acquired mastery of the Kangra court. It is
unlikely that artists were immediately summoned, but certainly by 1780 a
flourishing school of painters had come into existence.[111] As at Garhwal,
the artists of Kangra came originally from Guler and thus a similar
phenomenon arises--the Guler manner providing the basis for yet a second
great style. Sansar Chand was obviously quite exceptional, for not only
was he successful in politics and war, but from his early manhood was
devoted to Krishna as lover god. And it is this all-absorbing interest
which explains the vast expansion of painting which now occurred. Under
Sansar Chand's stimulus artists began to portray every situation involving
Krishna, the cowherd. He was shown as a baby crying for the moon, being
washed by his foster-mother, Yasoda, or mischievously breaking pitchers
full of curds. He would be painted strolling with the cowherds, playing on
his flute, or bringing the cattle home at evening. But the main theme to
which the artists constantly returned was his main cowgirl love. Radha
would be shown standing with Krishna in the forest, gazing trustfully into
his eyes, seeking shelter with him from the rain or sitting with him by a
stream.[112] Sometimes she and the cowgirls were shown celebrating the
spring festival of Holi, Krishna syringing them with tinted water while
they themselves strove to return his onslaughts by throwing red
powder.[113] Often the scene would shift from the forest to the village,
and Krishna would then be shown gazing at Radha as she dried herself after
bathing or squatted in a courtyard cooking food. At other times he
appeared assisting her at her toilet, helping her to dress her hair or
applying a beauty mark to her forehead. If the scene was night itself,
Radha would be shown sitting in her chamber, while far away across the
courtyards and gardens would loom the small figure of Krishna waiting
lonely on a bed. Occasionally the lovers would be portrayed expressing
their rapture by means of simple gestures. Krishna's arm would be shown
placed lovingly around Radha's shoulders, or Radha herself would be
portrayed hiding her head on Krishna's breast.[114] In all these pictures,
the style had an innocent and exquisite clarity, suggesting by its simple
unaffected naturalism the artists' delight in Krishna's character, their
appreciation of the feminine mind, their sense of sex as inherently noble
and their association of romance with God himself.
It is in a series of illustrations to certain texts, however, that Kangra
painting reaches its greatest heights. Among the many artists employed by
Sansar Chand, a certain Purkhu was notable for his 'remarkable clearness
of tone and delicacy of handling,'[115] and though none of his pictures are
signed it is these qualities which characterize one of the two most famous
sets of illustrations executed in Kangra. The subject was the tenth book
of the _Bhagavata Purana_ and the scenes illustrated ranged from Krishna's
birth and adventures with demons to his frolics with the cowgirls and
final slaughter of Kansa. Purkhu's style--if Purkhu is indeed the master
responsible--is remarkable for its luminous clarity, its faint suggestions
of modelling, and above all for its natural use of rhythm. In every
scene,[116] cowherds appear engaged in different tasks, yet throughout
there is a sense of oneness with Krishna himself. Krishna is shown
delighting all by his simple friendliness and dignified charm and the
style itself endows each scene with gentle harmony.
Purkhu was clearly one of the greatest artists ever to practise in the
Punjab Hills, but it is a certain Kushala who is supposed to have been
Sansar Chand's special favourite. We do not know which pictures are by his
hand but there exist two series of illustrations of such distinctive
quality that Kushala may well have been responsible.[117] One is a series
of paintings illustrating part of Bihari's _Sat Sai_--the seven-hundred
poems in which he extolled Krishna's love-making.[118] The other is yet
another version of the _Gita Govinda_ where Krishna is shown consorting
with the cowgirls in blissful abandon.[119] In both these series, the
inherent loveliness of Radha and the cowgirls is expressed by supple
flowing line, a flair for natural posture and the inclusion of poetic
images. The scarlet of a cowgirl's skirt is echoed by the redness of a
gathering storm, the insertion of Krishna into the background suggesting
the passionate nature of their imminent embraces.[120] In a similar way,
the forest itself is 'threaded with phases of passion' and slender trees
in flower parallel the slim romantic girls who long for Krishna's love.
One other Kangra master remains to be mentioned. Besides the pictures
already noted, there exists a further series illustrating the tenth book
of the _Bhagavata Purana_. The artist's identity is once again uncertain,
but just as the Garhwal master was fascinated by the swirl of curling
water, the Kangra artist in question delighted in the blonde pallor of
the Indian moon.[121] Each incident in the text is rendered as if in
moonlight--a full moon riding in the sky, its pale reflection shining in
water, the countryside itself bathed throughout in frosty whiteness. As a
result the figures of Radha and the cowgirls seem imbued with pallid
glamour, their love for Krishna with an almost unearthly radiance.
Kangra painting continued throughout the nineteenth century but it was
only during Sansar Chand's own reign (1775-1823) that the style achieved
great lyrical glory. Similarly it was only towards the end of the
eighteenth century that other states in the Punjab Hills developed their
own interpretations of the great impassioned theme. At Nurpur, Chamba,
Kulu and Bilaspur[122] pictures of Krishna had temporary vogues and at all
these places artists created new modes of expression. None of the local
styles, however, possessed the same prestige as that of Kangra and all
were subsequently obliterated by the general Kangra manner. By the
mid-nineteenth century, the Rajput order in the Punjab Hills foundered
before the British and while lesser nobles and merchants continued to
purchase pictures of Krishna the cult as a whole declined in princely
favour. Only in Eastern India and then mainly in the villages did delight
in Krishna continue to evoke new painting. From the twelfth century
onwards Bengal had constantly celebrated the loves of Krishna--the poets
Jayadeva, Chandi Das and Vidyapati being all natives of this part of
India. Hymns to Krishna were sung in the villages and as part of this
fervid adhesion, local manuscripts of the _Bhagavata Purana_ and the _Gita
Govinda_ were often produced. Such manuscripts were normally not
illustrated but were preserved between wooden covers, on which scenes of
Krishna dancing with the cowgirls or with male devotees were painted.[123]
Book covers of this kind were produced in the seventeenth and eighteenth
centuries and the resulting pictures have something of the savage elation
associated with the Basohli style and its derivatives. During the
nineteenth century, painted book-covers ceased to be produced but three
other kinds of painting continued to celebrate the Krishna theme. Frescoes
of Hindu gods and goddesses including Krishna were often executed on the
mud walls of village houses in Mithila, the birthplace of the poet
Vidyapati, and the style of painting with its brilliant colours and
brusque distortions testified to the great excitement still engendered by
Krishna's name.[124] At Kalighat near Calcutta, a special type of
water-colour picture was mass-produced for sale to pilgrims and although
the stock subjects included almost every Hindu god, many incidents from
Krishna's life were boldly portrayed.[125] The style with its curving
sumptuous forms is more a clue to general Bengali interests than to any
special attitudes to Krishna, but the pictures, strangely parallel in
style to the work of the modern artist Fernand Léger, have a robust gaiety
and bounding vigour, not inappropriate to the Krishna theme. The third
type of painting is the work of professional village minstrels known as
_jadupatuas_. As a means of livelihood, _jadupatuas_ travel from village
to village in West Bengal, entertaining the people by singing ballads and
illustrating their songs with long painted scrolls. As each ballad
proceeds, the scroll is slowly unwound, one scene leading to another until
the whole is concluded. Among the ballads thus intoned, the romance of
Krishna is among the most common and the style of painting with its crude
exuberance suggests the strength of popular devotion.[126]
There remains one last form of painting. During the twentieth century, the
modern movement in Indian art has produced at least four major
artists--Rabindranath Tagore, Amrita Sher-Gil, Jamini Roy and George Keyt.
Of these four, the first two did not illustrate the Krishna theme. Jamini
Roy, on the other hand, has often painted Krishna as flute-player and
dancer.[127] It would be unrealistic to suggest that these pictures spring
from a lively sense of Krishna as God--Jamini Roy has, in fact, resorted
to themes of Christ with equal, if not greater, frequency but has shown no
signs of becoming a Christian. It is rather that in painting these
pictures, he has treated Krishna as a symbol of rural vitality, a figure
whose boisterous career among the cowherds is an exact reflection of his
own attitudes and enthusiasms. To Jamini Roy, the Bengali village with its
sense of rude health is infinitely to be preferred to a city such as
Calcutta with its artificiality and disease and in a style of bold
simplifications, he has constantly celebrated the natural vigour and
inherent dignity of simple unsophisticated men.
Such pictures stress a comparatively unimportant side of Krishna's
character and it is rather in the paintings of George Keyt that Krishna
the lover is proudly portrayed. Born in Ceylon of mixed ancestry, Keyt
has, for many years, been acutely responsive to Indian poetry. In 1947,
he published the translation of the _Gita Govinda,_ excerpts from which
have been quoted in the text, and throughout his career his work has been
distinguished by a poet's delight in feminine form and sensuous rapture.
To Keyt such a delight is a vital component of adult minds and in the
romance of Radha and Krishna he found a subject subtly expressive of his
own most intimate beliefs. His paintings and line-drawings of Radha,
Krishna and the cowgirls--at once modern yet vitally Indian in
spirit--have the same qualities as those in the _Gita Govinda_.[128] Radha
and Krishna are shown luxuriating in each other's elegance, a certain
ineffable tenderness characterizing their gestures and movements. Their
love is gentle rather than brusque, an air of glamorous wonder broods
above them and we meet once more that blend of romantic sensuality and
loving innocence which is perhaps the chief Indian contribution to
cultured living. It is this quality which gives to Indian paintings of
Krishna and his loves their incomparable fervour, and makes them enduring
expressions of Indian religion.
[Footnote 66: Plates 3, 5, 6, 8, 9, 11, 13-17, 21 and 36.]
[Footnote 67: M.R. Mazumdar, 'The Gujarati School of Painting,' _Journal of
the Indian Society of Oriental Art_, 1942, Vol. X, plates 3 and 4.]
[Footnote 68: Collection Maharaja of Jaipur, Pothikhana, Jaipur.]
[Footnote 69: Collection Maharaja of Jodhpur, Pustakaprakash, Jodhpur
Fort.]
[Footnote 70: Plate 22. Collection N.C. Mehta, Bombay. For reproductions of
2 and 3, see Karl Khandalavala, 'Leaves from Rajasthan,' _Marg_, Vol. IV,
No. 3. Figs. 8 and 10.]
[Footnote 71: Moti Chandra, _Jain Miniature Paintings from Western India_
(Ahmedabad, 1949), Figs. 99-105.]
[Footnote 72: Khandalavala, op. cit., Fig. 14; _The Art of India and
Pakistan_, Pls. 81 and 82.]
[Footnote 73: Plates 23 and 24.]
[Footnote 74: For reproductions, see E. Wellesz, _Akbar's Religious Thought
reflected in Mogul Painting_ (London, 1952), Pls. 1-37.]
[Footnote 75: Reproduced Hendley, _Memorials, The Razm Namah_; see also
Plates 1 and 2 below.]
[Footnote 76: _The Art of India and Pakistan_, Plate 88.]
[Footnote 77: H. Goetz, _The Art and Architecture of Bikaner State_
(Oxford, 1950), Fig. 91.]
[Footnote 78: Coomaraswamy, _Boston Catalogue, VI, Mughal Painting_,
Plates 8-19.]
[Footnote 79: Goetz, op. cit., Figs. 78 and 93.]
[Footnote 80: Plate 29. See also B. Gray, _Treasures of Indian Miniatures
from the Bikaner Palace Collection_ (Oxford, 1951), Plate 6.]
[Footnote 81: Plates 28 and 32. See also Archer, _Indian Painting_, Plate
7.]
[Footnote 82: _The Art of India and Pakistan_, Plate 85.]
[Footnote 83: Plate 32.]
[Footnote 84: Plate 34.]
[Footnote 85: Plate 33.]
[Footnote 86: Bharat Kala Bhawan, Banaras.]
[Footnote 87: Eric Dickinson, 'The Way of Pleasure: the Kishangarh
Paintings', 2 _Marg_, Vol. III, No. 4, 29-35.]
[Footnote 88: Ibid., 31.]
[Footnote 89: Plate 39.]
[Footnote 90: For cartoons of this picture, see A.K. Coomaraswamy, _Indian
Drawings_ (London, 1912), Vol. II, Plate 2 and _Rajput Painting_, Vol. II,
Plates 9 and 10.]
[Footnote 91: Note 22.]
[Footnote 92: Gangoly, _Masterpieces of Rajput Painting_, Plate 10.]
[Footnote 93: Plates 4, 10, 26, 27, 30 and 31. _The Art of India and
Pakistan_, Plates 100-102.]
[Footnote 94: Plate 4.]
[Footnote 95: Plate 10.]
[Footnote 96: Archer, _Indian Painting in the Punjab Hills_, Fig. 6.]
[Footnote 97: Plate 30. Coomaraswamy, _Boston Catalogue, V, Rajput
Painting_, Plates 92-95.]
[Footnote 98: Note 23.]
[Footnote 99: Coomaraswamy, _Boston Catalogue, V, Rajput Painting, 171_.]
[Footnote 100: Ibid., 172.]
[Footnote 101: Ibid., 173.]
[Footnote 102: Plates 26 and 27. _The Art of India and Pakistan_, Plate
102.]
[Footnote 103: Archer, _Garhwal Painting_, 1-4.]
[Footnote 104: Gangoly, op. cit., Plate 35.]
[Footnote 105: Archer, _Indian Painting in the Punjab Hills_, Fig. 23.]
[Footnote 106: Mehta, _Studies in Indian Painting_, Plate 21.]
[Footnote 107: Plates 19, 20 and 35.]
[Footnote 108: Coomaraswamy, _Rajput Painting_, Plates 53 and 54.]
[Footnote 109: Archer, _Garhwal Painting_, Plate 1.]
[Footnote 110: Plates 7, 12 and 25.]
[Footnote 111: Archer, _Kangra Painting_, 2-5.]
[Footnote 112: Ibid., Plate 2.]
[Footnote 113: Ibid., Plate 1.]
[Footnote 114: Ibid., Plate 2.]
[Footnote 115: B.H. Baden Powell, _Handbook of the Manufactures and Arts
of the Punjab_ (Lahore, 1872), 355. Purkhu must now, most probably, be
connected with the first of the two Kangra masters described in _Kangra
Painting_ (p. 4)--Plates 3 and 4 being examples of his work.]
[Footnote 116: Plates 3, 5, 6, 8, 9, 11 and 16.]
[Footnote 117: Archer, _Kangra Painting_, Plates 1 and 2; also p. 4 where
the second of the two Kangra masters is described.]
[Footnote 118: Plate 36; Mehta, op. cit., Plates 25 and 26.]
[Footnote 119: Plate 21.]
[Footnote 120: Mehta, op. cit., Plate 22.]
[Footnote 121: Plates 13-15.]
[Footnote 122: Plate 18.]
[Footnote 123: _The Art of India and Pakistan_, Plate 79]
[Footnote 124: W.G. Archer, 'Maithil Painting,' _Marg_, Vol. III, No. 2.]
[Footnote 125: W.G. Archer, _Bazaar Paintings of Calcutta_ (London, 1953),
Plates 8, 9, 14, 19, 30, 31 and 41.]
[Footnote 126: Ajit Mookerjee, _Art of India_, (Calcutta, 1952) Fig. 94.]
[Footnote 127: B. Dey and J. Irwin, 'Jamini Roy,' _Journal of the Indian
Society of Oriental Art_ (1944), Vol. XII, Plate 6.]
[Footnote 128: For reproductions of Keyt's work, see Martin Russell,
_George Keyt_ (Bombay, 1950), Plates 1-101.]