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N·A Approaches Ra¯Dha¯ and Her Confidante 95 Mirjam Westra KR. S. N. A APPROACHES RāDHā AND HER CONFIDANTE IN A GARDEN WITH TREES, PLAYFUL MONKEYS AND GLORIOUS blUE peacocks (1620-1640) Love, both human and divine, is a major theme in poetic and literary work in India. Of the nine main rasa (sentiments) that form the basis of · Indian aesthetics, śr. ngāra (erotic love) is regarded as the most important. · There are two main kinds of śr. ngāra, of which the first is sam. yoga – love in union – and the other viraha bhakti – love in separation. The latter has been an endless source of inspiration for art and literature.1 Keshavdas (Keśavadāsa) is one of the foremost poets who composed works that merged love poetry and analyses of the passion of love.2 One of the Rijksmuseum’s folios depicts Kr.s.n. a approaching Rādhā and her confidante in a garden (fig. 1). The miniature painting belongs to 3 an illustrated manuscript of the Rasikapriyā (‘The Lover’s Breviary’), 4 AND HER CONFIDANTE the most famous work by the poet Keshavdas. The Rasikapriyā is ¯ well described by Bahadur, who translated the versified poem in 1972: ‘Rasikapriyā is a panegyric of love and a mine of entertainment. Above all it is a book of pleasures.’5 According to Sternbach ‘Keshavdas was a master of Hindi poetry, of eroticism and of metrics. His poems are true DHA jewels of devotional and love poetry in its purest form’.6 Keshavdas was a ¯ A native of the Bundelkhand region, in today’s Madhya Pradesh. He became 7 R a court poet for the king of Orchha in the 16th century, and is a founding figure of the rīti tradition. Rīti poetry is ‘a constellation of courtly poetic and intellectual practices that flourished in a climate of mixed Mughal and sub-imperial patronage [...].’8 It leans heavily on Sanskrit courtly literary codes. Rīti poems have an important place in historiography of regional courts in India and can be used as a resource for Mughal history. However the poems are mainly known as decorative poems, comprising erotic and devotional themes.9 Keshavdas describes the most important two rasa in the Rasikapriyā: love and lovemaking.10 It is written in Braj Bhās. ā, a north Indian language of cultural and religious significance since most speakers of Braj Bhās. ā worship Kr.s.n. a and express their devotion through the language. Braj Bhās. ā has its foundations in folk literature and songs. It is usually written in the Devanāgarī script and its vocabulary contains many Sanskrit words. The language is in its purest form spoken in the Indian cities of Mathura, Agra, Etah and Aligarh.11 The inscribed text, composed in A APPROACHES nāgarī characters on the reverse of the painting, is in black ink (fig. 2) and · N seems to be from the third chapter of the Rasikapriyā, where Keshavdas · elaborates on the classification of nāyikās (beautiful young women). S · R K Downloaded from Brill.com09/25/2021 03:23:23AM via free access 96 Fig. 2 Nagari characters on the reverse of fig. 1 Downloaded from Brill.com09/25/2021 03:23:23AM via free access 97 Hindi poets classify nāyikās according to qualities, moods, or age in relation to their husbands or lovers.12 While the lover, nāyaka, is often personified as Kr.s.n. a, nāyikā is embodied in the beautiful Rādhā.13 The Rijksmuseum’s folio ‘Kr. s.n. a approaches Rādhā and her confidante’ is organised in juxtaposed colour fields; on the dark horizon, two peacocks face each other. In erotic Indian literature, peacocks symbolise an absent lover; the beloved waits in silent agony for their reunification.14 Peacocks also indicate the time of the year. While the cry of the cuckoo increases the heart’s passion during spring, the peacock’s call heralds the start of the Indian monsoon season. The two monkeys leap symmetrically and playfully from the trees on the left and right to the one in the centre. Kr.s.n. a is placed in a blue/greenish panel, while the two women are painted on a green ground, with the tree in the centre clearly separating the fields. The Rijksmuseum folio was identified as being made in the Kingdom of Mewar, but the symmetry of the peacocks, the monkeys and the poplar trees, as well as the strongly contrasting colours typify the Mālwa style of portrayal,15 which belongs to the Rajasthani style of miniature painting. The Mālwa region developed a style of painting known as the Mālwa School. Some scholars call it a sub-style of the Rajasthani School (though from the point of view of area, this style claims a much larger region than the styles of the Rajasthani School).16 The Mālwa School is recognisable by the bold drawing and the use of strong blue, red, yellow and green, and black, as is also observable in this miniature painting.17 The treatment of Kr.s.n. a and the two women, Rādhā and her confidante, are flat, without any attempt to present perspective in a naturalistic manner, also marking the Rajasthani style.18 Comparable in style, focusing on the form of the poplar trees, the depiction of the playful monkeys, the three trees dividing the painting, and the symmetry, is ‘Asavari Ragini’, a painting from a Rāgamālā series also dated to the mid-17th century (fig. 3).19 Another painting that closely resembles the Rijksmuseum example and is identified as Mālwa style from the same period is ‘The Impatient Heroine’. The miniature shows bold contrasting colours, from the dark sky to the red background, with juxtaposed fields. Further, Kr.s.n. a is dressed almost identically to the miniature painting under review and the trees are simply displayed, with the grass painted in a similar style.20 The third comparable folio is likewise an illustration from the Rasikapriyā, named ‘Kr. s.n. a Slays Aristha the Bull Demon’, which is regarded as a Mālwa painting from ca. 1640. A text from a Rasikapriyā manuscript is inscribed on the back of the folio. Here again, the frivolous monkeys leaping symmetrically in the simply pictured treetop, the juxtaposed fields with strong blue and red, and the framework concur with the Rijksmuseum’s miniature, as well as with the Rajastani Mālwa style of painting (fig. 4).21 The Rijksmuseum painting belongs to the nāyaka-nāyikābheda genre.22 Most nāyaka-nāyikābheda paintings in Rajasthan are based on Keshavdas’s poetry in which Kr.s.n. a and Rādhā are the ideal lovers.23 Downloaded from Brill.com09/25/2021 03:23:23AM via free access 98 Fig. 3 Asavari Ragini, opaque watercolour and gold on paper, h. 222.3 x w. 152.4 mm, illustration from a Ragamala (‘Garland of Musical Modes’), Malwa, India, ca. 1640-1660, Harvard Art Museums / Arthur M. Sackler Museum, gift of John Kenneth Galbraith, inv.no. RP-T-1973-174, Boston, 1973 Downloaded from Brill.com09/25/2021 03:23:23AM via free access 99 Fig. 4 Krishna Slays Aristha, the Bull Demon, opaque watercolour with gold on paper, folio from a dispersed series based on Keshavdas’s Rasikapriya, folio: h. 206 x w. 181 mm, image: h. 152 x w. 159 mm, part of the collection of Dr. Alvin O. Bellak, Philadelphia Museum of Art, acc.no. 2004-149-20 Downloaded from Brill.com09/25/2021 03:23:23AM via free access 100 The four-line calligraphic text is very difficult to decipher. However, the following translation is suggested: navalavadhū navajovanā navala anam. gā nāma || lajā kīyaim. ju rati karai, lajā prāya su vāma|| mohivau mohana ki gati kau gati hī pad. hi vai na kahā dhau pad. haigī|| lepa urojani kī upajai dina kāhe mad. hai am. gīyā na mad. haigī|| 24 māī kahā yaz māīgī dīpati jau dina dvai ihi bhāti vad. haigī|| Two girlfriends speak about the beauty of the newly married girl: She has already learned the way to beguile Kr.s.n. a with just her way of moving. Why bother, then, with studying the arts of seductive speech? Her beautiful breasts grow day by day, her blouse cannot contain them. The way her eyes move is mysterious: starting, stopping, staring off into space. In just a day or two, my friend, her beauty has grown so much there’s nowhere to put it all.25 It is a description in accordance with the rīti tradition, since it places great emphasis on Rādhā’s youth and beauty. This scene is depicted in the Rijksmuseum’s folio (fig. 1) with attractive adolescent women wearing colourful dresses and gorgeous jewellery, one of whom is Rādhā. Kr.s.n. a appears not as a cowherd but as a prince, as befits his description in rīti poetry.26 In this scene, the blue-skinned Kr.s.n. a is beautifully painted in his princely appearance, wearing a peacock-feathered headdress. He is draped with jewellery: pearls around his neck, waist, arms and feet. He is dressed in a splendid garment, wears feathers (or arrows?) on his back, and holds a red stick in his hands. His expression is tranquil. The sky is dark – it must be in evening or night – as he approaches the terrace where the heroine and her confidante are sitting closely together conversing on a colourful carpet. Both women wear translucent headscarfs, colourful dresses and beautiful bracelets, necklaces, ear- and nose rings and ankle jewellery. One of them is talking vividly, gesticulating; the other seems to be listening carefully. Is Rādhā’s confidante advising her on courtship and love? Or is she consoling Rādhā, who pines for her hero? Only Kr.s.n.
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