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Natya Shastra according to their various love situations, moods and sentiments expressing their different feelings and reactions. Bhanudatta’s Rasamanjari also provided the description of Ashtanayikas. The names of the eight nayikas are same but the order is different. For instance Keshav Das in his Rasikapriya described nayikas according to their personality, character and mood in this order: Svadhinapatika, Utka or Utkanthita, Vasakasajja, Kalahantarita, Khandita, Prositapreyasi, Vipralabdha and Abhisarika.
The nayikas are further classified in two varieties of Shringara rasa, related to love: Sambhoga (love in meeting) and Vipralambha (love in separation). Vasakasajja, Svadhinapatika and Abhisarika are associated with Sambhoga; the others with Vipralambha.
The representation of love in its many forms was a significant theme in Rajasthani and Pahari miniatures. Devotional and romantic love was deeply intertwined. Among the favourite texts referenced for the portrayal of romance was the Rasamanjari by Bhanudatta, a 16th century C.E. poem containing 163 stanzas, each describing the conduct of lovers. The Rasamanjari adapts the nine rasas or sentiments of traditional Indian mythology, drawing on these to further classify its nayaks (heroes) and nayikas (heroines) according to their temperament and behaviour – which formed the basis of the subject matter in these Indian miniatures.
The sheer decorative brilliance and luminescent color of Indian miniatures present a different aesthetic principle. The decorative brilliance of the Shah-Nama that was commissioned by the Mughal emperor Shah Jahan and the expressiveness of the bird and animal paintings commissioned by Jehangir have remained unique within Indian tradition.
MINIATURES BASED ON RASIKAPRIYA
Within the Sadhu collection are miniatures based on Rasikapriya text, which when loosely translated meant “Connoisseurs Delight”. The miniature titled “Radha abstains from meeting Krishna at an inauspicious hour” and dated 1720 is from Mewar provenance.