Page 149 - Eye of the beholder

BARAMASA
Baramasa or the representation of the twelve months of the year, as a theme has been depicted mostly from late medieval period. Chitrasutra of the Vishnudharmottara, sometime during 7th century C.E. had a set of guidelines on the delineation of the seasons in art. Painters have followed the guidelines in ancient and medieval India.
The Baramasa, or “songs of the twelve months,” are classical texts based on each month of the Indian calendar penned poetically by Bhanudatta. The poet has employed metaphors extolling the attributes of deities, or of a nayika or heroine longing for the return of the nayak or hero, to represent each month. In Ritu Samhara or Assemblage of Seasons, the Sanskrit poet Kalidasa has produced an opulent ode to the six Indian seasons. The cycle of seasons has always held great sway over literary imaginations, and the paintings of Baramasa - ‘bara’ meaning 12 and ‘masa’ meaning ‘month’ had been captured in the rich tradition of dynamic and beautiful miniature art. This is the poetic genre of ritu varnan, and poets ranging from Kalidasa and Keshav Das have resorted to it.
The Baramasa was popular in Hindi literature during 13th to 16th centuries and also was a part of Sufi poetry. However, Baramasa in miniature paintings were mostly executed in the 17th and 18th centuries. The paintings had writings in Devanagari on top or behind the painting. This theme has not found much favour in the Mughal miniatures and Deccani painting though nature by itself has been a subject of composition in these schools.
The Rajasthani painting evolved in the courts of Rajputana or Rajasthan. They were done in the miniature format and also on walls of havelis or mansions, palaces and inner chambers of forts. The paintings depicted various themes from the social viewpoint; also stories from the epics, Ramayana and Mahabharata. Nature was depicted in these paintings and was representative of a ruler’s legacy. The Rajasthani School had many sub-schools like Jaipur, Bikaner, Bundi, Kishangarh, Kota, Mewar, Alwa and Jodhpur. The style of painting had been influenced by Persian, European, Mughal and Chinese art. The paintings are rich, mostly due to the arid desert landscape, dry hills and less vegetation.
The Chitrasutra as already mentioned has given guidelines for the seasons and were followed by artists across India. Summer is indicated by the sun in the sky, spring with its seasonal trees in bloom, humming bees, cuckoo depictions and men and women going around happily. Further, summer depicts fatigue experienced by men, animals, and represented by dry pools of water, birds hiding in trees, lions and tigers resting in their mountainous hideouts. The rainy season has its dark, laden clouds and streaks of lightning in the sky. Autumn has trees full of fruits, rip corn in the fields, pools full of swans and lotuses. The winter has its dew and fog, the earth is a bit bare and misty. Crows and elephants are joyous. .
In Baramasa paintings, romance is tinged with separation, sorrow and selflessness. Love lies at the core of the human experience, and from it spring myriad other emotions. These paintings of Baramasa are essentially reflections on the state of lovers with each passing
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