_The Lover approaching_
Illustration to the _Rasamanjari_ of Bhanu Datta
Basohli, Punjab Hills, c. 1680
Victoria and Albert Museum, London (I.S. 52-1953)
Although the _Rasika Priya_ of Keshav Das was the manual of poetry most
frequently illustrated by Indian artists, an earlier Sanskrit treatise,
the _Rasamanjari_ of Bhanu Datta, excited a particular raja's interest and
resulted in the production at Basohli of a vividly illustrated text. The
original poem discusses the conventions of ordinary lovers. Under this
Basohli ruler's stimulus, however, the lover was deemed to be Krishna and
although the verses make no allusion to him, it is Krishna who monopolizes
the illustrations.
In the present instance, Krishna the lover, carrying a lotus-bud, is about
to visit his mistress. The lady sits within, a pair of lotus-leaves
protecting her nude bust, her hair falling in strands across her thighs. A
maid explains to Krishna that her mistress is still at her toilet and
chides him for arriving so abruptly.
The poem expresses the sentiments which a lover, denied early access,
might fittingly address to his mistress.
'Longing to behold your path, my inmost heart--like a lotus-leaf when a
new rain-cloud has appeared--mounts to your neck. My eye, too, takes
wing, soaring in the guise of a lotus-bird, to regard the moon of your
face.'[131]
[Footnote 131: Translation R.H.B. Williams.]
In the picture, the lotus imagery is retained but is given a subtle
twist--the lotus-leaves themselves, rather than the lover's inmost heart,
being shown as mounting to the lady's neck.
[Illustration]