_Radha and Krishna swinging_
Illustration to the musical mode. _Hindola Raga_
('the swinging music')
Malwa, Middle India, c. 1750
Victoria and Albert Museum, London
A poem celebrating one of the main modes of Indian music is here
represented by Radha and Krishna seated on a swing. The mode itself is
called 'the swinging music' but since swinging was symbolical of
love-making and also took place during the rains, the season of longing,
its spirit was sometimes impersonated not by an ordinary prince but by
Krishna himself. In the picture, peacocks, which were common symbols for
the lover, are shown against a storm-tossed sky--the battered clouds and
writhing lightning being symbolic references to 'the strife of love.' At
the foot, lotus plants, their flowers symbolizing the male, their leaves
the female, rise from a rain-filled river.
The picture represents one of the more poetic traditions of Indian
painting but at a comparatively late stage of its development. During the
sixteenth century the Malwa style had played a decisive part in the
evolution of Rajput painting, but by the eighteenth century had shed
something of its early ardour.
[Illustration]