Page 162 - Eye of the beholder

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Maharaja Sawant Singh [1748-1755] also known through his pen name as Nagari Das in particular, and the Kishangarh royal family in general were devout Vaishnavas of the Vallabhachaya sect, who were worshippers of Krishna. Within the Hindu Vaishnava devotionalism he preferred the Pushti marg or the way of the pleasure approach advocated by sage Vallabha in the 15th century C.E. Music was patronized in the court, and the queen mother had a young, pretty maid of honour called Vishnupriya who also excelled at singing. Sawant Singh’s infatuation with Vishnupriya soon reached such levels that she graduated from being an maid of honour to an important mistress to become one of the chief queens in a remarkably short span of time. Because of her aesthetically tasteful sartorial attire and the accompanying jewellery that she wore she was popularly referred to as the “Bani-Thani” or well turned out. Bani-Thani and Maharaja Sawant Singh sang together, and composed poetry. She took the pen name of Rasikbihari. To visualize the beauty of Radha and Krishna through poetry and devotional songs he found in the artist Nihal Chand the genius to portray his sentiments and emotions, when he took the decision to retire to perform Kirtans in Vrindavan on the banks of Jamuna. Nihal Chand the chief court painter of Kishangarh introduced a new indigenous idiom in the court paintings to depict Bani-Thani as Radha and Sawant Singh as Krishna. It is widely believed that the facial features modeled on those of Bani-Thani, has made her important and her paintings desirable for generations to come.
In this painting the princess, is seated on a distinctly designed high chair with arm rests, while a foot stool is provided to rest her feet. The latter has an inlay pattern in red. The Princess is celebrating the festival of lights as she has a flower crackler in her hand that is sending out heavy curvicula smoke in receding dimension to suggest that it is slowly fading away into nothing. Her royal status is indicated by the halo behind her, the crown on her head and of course the royal palatial setting. The facial features are typical of this school with stylized long drawn out eyes, aquiline nose and arched eye brows. Her long luxuriant wavy tresses fall on her shoulder and in front of her bosom. Her sartorial attire is distinctly different as it is designed in the form of a long gown with long sleeves and it is not the traditional ghagra, choli odhini type. She wears an