Page 136 - Eye of the beholder

The visual tradition of presenting women’s morality signified the identity of women within their society. In patriarchal societies, references to sexual purity or impurity were indications of a woman’s reputation in her culture. The depiction of the varied phases of romance was primary among Rajput ‘love-paintings’ that presented longing for romance. One of the main reasons that these images though appearing simple and straight forward are subverted to become poetical metaphors.
The premise of identification to Mewar kalam was the colours, typology of the figures and particularly the written script on top of the folio to establish the nature of the text and its correspondence with the visual vocabulary. The visual vocabulary and the specificity of word-image relationship had already been established in the first Rasikapriya set that was illustrated by the leading court painter Shabdin for Maharaja Indrajeet of Mewar in the early 17th century. Although a popular text illustrated at a number of Rajasthani courts in the 17th and early 18th century it maintained its popularity till the 19th century.
The illustration from the Sandhu collection belonging to 1720 and from Mewar is titled “Radha abstains from meeting Krishna at an inauspicious hour” has the representation of Krishna, Radha and her Sakhis. They form the main protagonists of the composition which gestures towards providing the primary and principal meaning in the painting. There were other visual forms that could be understood as visual conventions that aids in creating an aesthetically visual cohesive image, but which does not necessarily carry specific textual meaning. Radha who is represented seated in a pavilion resting against a huge bolster almost her size, has her two Sakhis in front of her beseeching her to meet Krishna even if the hour is inauspicious. In front of her are rendered certain elements, which provides clue to her love condition as the delineation of flowers, paan and a vessel containing sandalwood paste, carrying symbolic meaning. Radha is admonishing her sakhi to keep away from her the flowers as they are like thorns without her Hari, don’t rub sandalwood paste, as its coolness turns to fever and no paan either as it tastes like poison. This, despite the fact that it was her decision not to meet Krishna at an inauspicious hour; while Krishna seated in another pavilion is eager to meet her as indicated by the gestures of her Sakhis and Krishna in a dilemma of Radha’s refusal. Similar symbolic elements finds placement with Krishna too with garland of flowers, sandalwood paste and the paan. Garland nevertheless translated to a snake in her absence.
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