living traditions living traditions

Transcription

L I V I N G T R A D I T I O N S I N I N D I A N A RT
AUTHORS
Martin Gurvich is the founder and director
of Museum of Sacred Art. He is a member of
the executive board of Radhadesh, the largest
Hindu temple in Belgium, and is the general
secretary of the Hindu Forum of Belgium and
the Hindu Forum of Europe. He is a member
of the executive board of United Religions
Initiative Europe. He is also the president of
Jose Gurvich Foundation, which manages
a museum of the work of his father, the
well-known artist, Jose Gurvich. Martin lives
at Radhadesh with his family.
Tryna Lyons is a Seattle-based art historian
with degrees from the University of California
in Berkeley, and the American University of
Paris. She has held research grants from the
Fulbright Foundation and Guggenheim
Foundation, and has taught at universities in
the US and the Middle East. Her book on
the Nathadwara painters of Rajasthan, The
Artists of Nathadwara, was published in 2004 by
Indiana University Press in association with
Mapin Publishing.
Mapin Publishing
www.mapinpub.com
I N I N D I A N A RT
L IVING TR AD ITIONS
I N I ND I A N A RT
Devotional art has permeated everyday life in
India for centuries. Contemporary artists continue
to create visual representations of Hindu divinities
in new and refreshing ways. This rich catalogue
presents contemporary devotional art, which is
exhibited in the Museum of Sacred Art in Belgium.
A beautiful and one-of-its-kind collection, it
includes modern paintings in traditional styles,
metal icons, stone sculptures, ritual objects, masks
and puppets. It also shows sacred art that has
emerged from the Hare Krishna Movement.
Printed in Italy
Museum of Sacred Art (MOSA)
www.radhadesh.com
L IV IN G T R AD IT IO N S
MAPIN
Mu seu m of sac r ed ART
L I V I NG T R A DIT IONS
IN INDIAN ART
LIVING TR AD I TI O NS
IN INDIAN ART
MUSEUM OF SACRED ART
in association with
Mapin Publishing
Published in India in 2010 by
Mapin Publishing Pvt. Ltd
in association with
Museum of Sacred Art (MOSA), Belgium
Simultaneously published in the
United States of America by
Grantha Corporation
77 Daniele Drive, Hidden Meadows
Ocean Township, NJ 07712
E: mapin@mapinpub.com
502 Paritosh, Next to Darpana Academy
Usmanpura Riverside, Ahmedabad 380 013 INDIA
T: +91 79 40 228 228 | F: +91 79 40 228 201
E: mapin@mapinpub.com | www.mapinpub.com
Curation: Martin Gurvich
Exhibition Design: Robert Sustrick
Editorial and Content Coordination: Genevieve Brewster
Book Graphics Concept: Param P. Tomanec
Design Support:Yehudit Ben-Dosa / MOSA
Framing: Palmers Decor, Hotton
Text © Authors
Museum of Sacred Art
Château de Petite Somme
6940 Septon Durbuy, BELGIUM
T: +32 (0) 86 323916
E: radhadesh@pamho.net | www.radhadesh.com
Distributors
North America:
Antique Collectors’ Club
T: +1 800 252 5231 • E: info@antiquecc.com
www.antiquecollectorsclub.com
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Australia and New Zealand
Peribo Pty Ltd
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Distributed in the Rest of the World by
Photographs © as listed
Courtesy of Martin Gurvich: pp. 7, 172–176, 178–185, 258, 259
Courtesy of Tryna Lyons: pp. 10, 22–26, 30, 32, 33
Kurma Rupa Dasa: pp. 236–241
Oleg Gajkavoj: 144, 150–153, 156, 168, 186, 187, 231, 235,
243–249, 257
Peter Gustafson: 59, 157–159, 162–167, 206, 223, 232–234, 250
On all other pages photographs by Param P. Tomanec
All rights reserved under international copyright conventions.
No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any
form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including
photocopy, recording or any other information storage and
retrieval system, without prior permission in writing from
the publisher.
The rights of authors of this work have been asserted in
accordance with the Copyright, Design and Patents Act 1988.
ISBN: 978-81-89995-41-6 (Mapin)
ISBN: 978-1-935677-01-7 (Grantha)
LCCN: 2010926671
Editing: Vinutha Mallya / Mapin Editorial
Design: Paulomi Shah / Mapin Design Studio
Cover Design: Param P. Tomanec
Printed on permanent acid-free paper at Printer Trento, Italy
To those who care about sacred art and to
A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada
who brought the practice of devotion to the West
CONTENTS
Preface
J. Bhagwati 1
Foreword
Christiane De Lauwer
3
Connecting Humanity with the Divine
Martin Gurvich
5
Living Traditions in Indian Art: The Divine Image
Tryna Lyons
The COLLECTION
India
Paintings
Orissa
10
34
Tanjore (Tamil Nadu)
Rajasthan
Mysore (Karnataka)
Kerala
Mithila (Bihar)
36
44
52
104
136
140
Sculptures
172
Nepal and Tibet
188
Indonesia
Bali and Java
196
Thailand
206
208
Art of Hare Krishna Movement
Biographies of Artists
Glossary
260
Further reading
272
268
PREFACE
India is a vast country: a subcontinent. India is also one of the ancient civilizations of
the world. The antiquity of its civilization is matched by the vastness of its geographical
extent. Both of these have contributed to the rich and multiple art forms of India.
This diversity is aptly illustrated by the artworks chosen for display in the collection of
the Museum of Sacred Art. We know that stories associated with Shri Krishna arise,
among other sources, from the Mahabharata, the Harivamsa, the Bhagavata Purana, and the
Vishnu Purana.The narratives in each of these, place Lord Krishna in various perspectives:
a God-child, a prankster, a model lover, a divine hero, and the Supreme Being.
The Museum exhibits works of art with these themes, from Orissa, Tamil Nadu,
Karnataka, Kerala, and Rajasthan as well as from Indonesia, Nepal, Tibet, and
Thailand.Though these pieces are drawn from different regions, and indeed from different
countries, they have a strong commonality threading through their diversity.
The Mithila paintings from east India, the Tanjore paintings from the town of Thanjavur
in Tamil Nadu, the pichhavais from Rajasthan, the rod puppets from Indonesia, and the
many other works in the museum capture the beauty and the philosophy of Shri Krishna’s
timeless message of love and karma (duty) as embodied in the Bhagavad-gita (“The Song
Celestial”).
I am very happy to see that Radhadesh has established a collection at the Museum of
Sacred Art to facilitate a glimpse into this sacred art influenced by Hinduism. It is hoped
that visitors will come to the museum from all over Europe and from various walks of
life, and see the beautiful works on display here. This will give them an opportunity to
appreciate these works of religious and sacred art, and to understand the plurality and
diversity which have contributed to their beauty.
Dr. J. Bhagwati
Ambassador of India to Belgium, Luxembourg and the EU
Château de Petite Somme, Radhadesh
VIII
1
F oreword

As an Indologist and museum curator, I am extremely glad that a museum dedicated to present-day
spiritual art has been set up in Durbuy. This catalogue gives a lovely overview of the collection in
the Museum of Sacred Art.
India has a unique ancient tradition of depicting the divine, which has over the centuries produced
an enormous amount of inspired art, with stylistic variations. Bulls, fertility-figurines, lingams, and
yaksha (forest spirits) are early, well-known expressions of the great forces of nature. In the classical
period beautiful sculptures represented aspects of the universal soul in the shape of anthropomorphic
deities. In medieval times miniature paintings reflected an invisible divine presence in another way.
A rich tradition of tribal and folk art depict stories of heroes, gods, and demons. All these forms of
Indian art are lively and colourful. They have been used for veneration of deities, and reflect great
devotion. It is clear that Indian art has a divine abstract dimension as well as a direct human one.
India has greatly influenced my life—born to Belgian parents living in India, I grew up in Mumbai.
I was raised with an open mind and an attitude of respect and tolerance for all religions. Back in
Catholic Flanders the approach was somewhat different. The form in which spirituality pervaded
the air in India, I discovered, was difficult to find here. But what struck me most was the lack of
knowledge about one of the world’s most ancient and richest cultures. Thus I decided to study
Indian languages, art and religion, and have been teaching and promoting it in Belgium.
Although museums collect, study, and exhibit ancient art, contemporary art is mostly exhibited
only in galleries. Present-day traditional art rarely gets attention outside the country of its origin.
But museums are in transition. As much as the objects, they also focus on visitors now.Visitors are
not only charmed by the aesthetic value of a piece of art, but they also want to know more about
the artist, and the object’s utility and relevance.
Whilst working at Antwerp’s Ethnographic Museum, I realised that specialists appreciate the high
quality of the Asian collection, but the general public are more attracted to ritual and devotional
art. Mythical stories like the Ocean’s Churning, Krishna and the Gopis, or Rama and Sita, while
typically Hindu, are appealing to Westerners because of their wisdom and adventure.
The emotional dimension of religion—an important source for devotional artists—comes through
in the themes of these stories: heroes and saints, the origin and the end of the world, good and evil.
These fables are sometimes historical, sometimes doubtful but always sublimating worldly life.
entrance gate to Château de Petite Somme, Radhadesh
The Vaishnava paintings, Indonesian puppets, and Tibetan ritual objects in the catalogue have been
used to transmit important stories down the generations. Throughout the ages, thousands of artists
have been inspired by the great Indian myths, but their identity is rarely known.Today, when Indian
art is travelling beyond the borders of India, museums have an important role in guarding these
traditions and honouring the artists who should no longer remain anonymous. I sincerely hope
that along with watching India’s economic expansion, people worldwide will also become more
aware of its great traditions in art and culture.This museum and catalogue are undoubtedly valuable
contributions in that view. May they inspire many others.
Christiane De Lauwer
Curator (South Asia), MAS / Ethnographic Museum Antwerp
2
C o n n ect i n g Huma n i ty
with the Divine
The days when sacred images played a central role in Western art seem like a
distant memory, but there are signs of a revival of interest in spiritual art among
the academic community, art lovers and the general public. There are various
reasons for this revival. One important element is globalisation, which has made
possible a greater exposure to other cultures and their traditions. There is also
the natural human desire for experiences that uplift the heart and inspire an
awareness of a higher reality.
In India the genre of spiritual art has remained alive and flourishing. Moreover,
Indian culture has never been fully separate from spirituality, and so Indian art is
neither religious nor secular.Throughout the centuries, the subcontinent’s artists
have produced a remarkable array of devotional art for education, meditation,
and worship. To this day, the traditional art forms produced in India do not
pursue beauty simply for its own sake, but utilize it as a means to awaken
religious feeling and guide the viewer on the spiritual path.
Thus the purpose of spiritual art is to provide an intimate experience of divinity.
Rather than seeking to seduce the eye, traditional artists direct their creative
impulses into beautiful pieces that express a personal experience of divinity.
While living art traditions have sometimes become commercial enterprises,
making souvenirs for both tourists and pilgrims, there are still many talented
and dedicated artists who, with integrity, expertise, and passion, maintain the
purity of their traditions.
The development of a ‘museum of sacred art’ in Radhadesh was inspired by the
many original art pieces already on display in the Château de Petite Somme.
These paintings, although expressing themes described in ancient Vaishnava
texts, were painted in the style of classical realism. The idea of the museum
was to create a dedicated space where visitors could experience and learn
the cultural roots of Vaishnava art and its connection to the broader world of
Hindu philosophy.
The front view of Château de Petite Somme, Radhadesh
4
As the project developed, however, it became clear that there was a broader mission
that could be served with the creation of the museum. Spiritual art has a special
place in the life of the subcontinent, but there are also many pressures deriving
5
from the fast-paced modernisation of Indian society. A number of traditional
Indian art styles are presently under threat, not only from lack of funding, but also
due to the dwindling numbers of up-and-coming practitioners. Therefore, one
of the museum’s purposes is to help support traditional Indian artists. By giving
these artists more exposure in the West, it intends to encourage them to continue
their work, and inspire them to train the next generation of artists.
The realisation of the project’s first stage has been wonderfully swift. Although
I had been envisaging such a museum for several years, my colleagues and I
could only start to research in 2007 and collect pieces in earnest. Since then the
project has blossomed, with a substantial collection of art, and the creation of a
dedicated gallery within the temple premises.
The curation of works exhibited in the museum has necessitated several trips
to India. Meeting artists and finding good representative pieces have been both
challenging and rewarding. This initiative has confirmed that even today there
are great artists completely devoted to their spiritual tradition. Visiting their
simple studios and witnessing their humility has served as a great inspiration to
us in creating this project, of presenting Indian devotional art to the West.
In the museum’s collection there are many well-known, respected artists such as
B.G. Sharma and Indra Sharma, Bharti Dayal, G.L.N Simha, Ramesh Sharma,
Mukesh Sharma and Reva Shanker Sharma. There are also many emerging
talented artists like Vrindaban Dasa and Tilkesh Sharma, and those who remain
unknown, just like the traditional artists through the centuries.
kalachakra—wheel of time (replica from Surya temple in Konark)
unknown sculptor
Red Stone, 184 x 230 x 38 cm
6
The main focus of the museum is on living art forms rather than historical
pieces, even though it presents quite a broad selection of devotional traditions
from India. There are some old miniatures from Rajasthan, but most of the
pieces are from the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. The collection focuses
on works by Indian artists and includes devotional paintings by ISKCON artists.
A few works from Nepal, Tibet, Thailand and Indonesia are also a part of it.
The curators felt that these would be a valuable addition to the collection, as
they are representative of the spiritual and cultural connection that these places
have had with India in the past. From Nepal and Tibet there are some exquisite
metal icons, ceremonial artifacts and sacred objects that represent Hindu and
Buddhist Newari art. Two panels of leather cut-outs depicting Rama and Sita,
represent Thailand in the museum.The style reflects the traditional depiction of
Rama and Sita in Ramakien, Thailand’s national epic, derived from the Indian
Ramayana, which remains popular as performance drama even today.
7
The museum’s main gallery is situated in one of the annexe buildings, with
many works on display in the château as well. The museum’s collection consists
of paintings, sculptures, puppets, and sacred objects used in worship. Besides
the permanent collection, the museum is planning to organise temporary
exhibitions across Europe.
My personal inspiration in developing the museum at Radhadesh comes from
the experience of growing up in an atmosphere permeated with art. My father,
José Gurvich (1927–1974), who left Lithuania in 1932 to settle in Uruguay, is a
renowned modern artist and a student of Joaquín Torres Garcia.This background
has enabled me to see the similarities between Indian and Western artists—the
desire to represent beauty and uplift the consciousness of human society.
The setting for a museum of sacred art could not be better: a thriving spiritual
community in a beautiful nineteenth-century château near the historic town of
Durbuy, in the Belgian Ardennes. The meeting of old and new in this historic
setting creates a unique backdrop for developing a love of devotional art.
Thousands of visitors from all over Europe come every year to visit Radhadesh.
We hope to offer our visitors a glimpse of spirituality and culture, and an
introduction to the rich spiritual art traditions of the Indian subcontinent.
We sincerely wish that the visit to Museum of Sacred Art will embellish
the experience of every visitor in connecting with the divine nature within
themselves and the world around them.
Martin Gurvich
Director, Museum of Sacred Art
krishna’s ten incarnations
Lalita Devi Dasi and team
Stained Glass, 245 x 320 cm
8
9
living traditions in indian art
the divine image
Tryna Lyons
A trip to India, however brief, astonishes us with the everyday presence of art
and religious expression. Even an urban stroll is likely to lead us to a roadside
shrine like the one seen in fig. 1. This makeshift outdoor temple on a busy
Kolkata street has grown organically around a banyan tree, sacred to several
deities including Shiva. Popular prints of gods and goddesses contend with
sculpted icons and ordinary rough stones that are also worshipped as forms of
the deities. We know this shrine is tended daily, probably by a Brahmin priest,
because fresh jasmine garlands adorn the divine images and somebody must
be watering the tulasi (holy basil) shrub, representing Lord Vishnu’s consort
Lakshmi, in the pot on the left.
Nothing could be more natural than for a teenager passing the little outdoor
temple on his way to take an exam or a clerk headed for a meeting with the boss
to stop for a minute, bow his head, and ask for strength and support for the task
at hand. The divine presence is a part of most people’s daily life, not something
they encounter once a week in a special building set aside for the purpose.
If the student does well in his exam or the employee gets a raise, he will gratefully
return and offer something to the gods—perhaps a few coins for flowers or
sweets, maybe something more substantial like a structural improvement to
the street-side sanctuary.
Fig. 1: A roadside shrine in Kolkata
10
We find open-air tree shrines like the one in Kolkata all across India, in rural
and small town settings, at crossroads, near springs and waterfalls. They are one
reason we cannot so easily distinguish between high and popular culture,
or even separate religions from each other (for these miniature temples may
contain Buddhist, Jain, Christian, or even Muslim images, as well as local
deities not included in the official pantheons). We conclude that presenting
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and encountering visual forms of the divine is a common occurrence in
the subcontinent, without which the rhythms of ordinary life would lose
their significance. This exhibition offers us a sampling of India’s regional
traditions (and some from beyond its borders) with the aim of whetting
the viewers’ appetite. The art enthusiast and the seeker of religious knowledge
may then go on to see and experience more of South Asia’s treasures.
EASTERN INDIA
The Women Painters of Mithila
It is entirely possible that the first Indian painters were women. Many
traditional housewives begin their day with a time-honoured practice
—
drawing an intricate rice flour design on the threshold of their homes. These
ephemeral patterns are believed to welcome the goddess of good fortune to
the family’s dwelling. Women in various parts of the country execute even
more elaborate ritual paintings associated with weddings, births, and festivals.
Ladies in the ancient region of Mithila, now part of the northeastern state of
Bihar, are renowned for their splendid murals. Most of these wall paintings
are made at the time of a daughter’s marriage, when the nuptial chamber is
decorated with certain motifs meant to deflect evil, and to ensure happiness and
fertility for the young couple. At the same time, paper wrappers holding gifts
for the bride are painted with similar motifs by the female members on the
groom’s side of the family.
Several painters from Mithila are represented in this exhibition. In Sita’s
Svayamvara (p. 170) we see an unknown artist’s somewhat toned-down version
of the exuberant style of her ancestors. The subject is the marriage of Rama,
hero of Ramayana, India’s great epic. In order to win Sita’s hand her suitors
were put to the test of stringing a huge bow. Rama, the avatara (incarnation) of
Vishnu, picked up the enormous bow and, pulling it back effortlessly, attached
the string. So powerful was his arm that the bow snapped and broke with the
sound of a thunderclap. According to the custom of ancient times, Sita herself
then chose Rama as her husband by placing a garland around his neck. She
is shown with her father King Janaka behind her, raising the garland to put it
over Rama’s head, as flowers rain down from heaven (the marker of a blessed
event in Hindu texts). Standing behind the groom are his brother Lakshmana
and the sage Vishvamitra, who is recognisable by the piled-up matted hair of a
renunciant and the wooden water-pot he carries.
The subject of this painting is particularly appropriate for an artist from Mithila,
the region which the epic literature identifies as Janaka’s kingdom and the
birthplace of Sita. Because Hindus configure Sita as the ideal wife, her portrayal
would have special resonance for a female artist. The painter has designed her
composition in the manner of Mithila muralists, who start at the midpoint of
the wall and work outwards. Here the centre, physically and conceptually, is the
vacant white oval within the garland. Like the dot at the centre of a mandala
(mystic diagram), it is a starting point and place of emptiness from which the
painting erupts into a wealth of decorative detail that floods the picture plane.
Since it was the union of Rama and Sita that set in motion the extraordinary
series of events told in the Ramayana, the image of a void that expands outward
in teeming minutiae seems fitting. The muted colour scheme and characteristic
profile faces with their wide-open eyes are typical of the kayastha strain in
Mithila art.
Painting on walls and on paper gift wrappers was primarily done by women of
Mithila’s kayastha (scribal) caste. In India, artistic traditions are usually family-,
clan-, or caste-based, and techniques may be jealously guarded as part of the
group’s patrimony. However, women of some other castes in Mithila, having
caught sight of the beguiling murals, also took up the craft of painting and thus
different styles developed in the region. Then, in 1966–1967 an event occurred
that changed the course of the Mithila school, bringing it into the modern
world. In response to a severe drought in Bihar, the All India Handicrafts Board
started a work scheme that supplied large sheets of paper to female artists and
paid them for their production. Soon, local ladies were producing works on a
variety of new and traditional themes. One of the first Mithila artists to gain
national and even international fame was Ganga Devi (c. 1928–1991).
Kaliya Damana (p. 171) is an example of a painting that is compositionally close to
Mithila murals although this subject does not play a part in ritual wall paintings.
The tale is from the tenth book of Bhagavata Purana, a scripture that recounts the
earthly life of Krishna, the cowherd divinity. As a child, Krishna had to overcome
a series of demonic adversaries sent by a wicked king. Once, when he and his pals
were grazing their cattle near the Yamuna river, the child deity climbed up into a
flowering kadamba tree. He then called out to one of his friends to toss a ball to
12
13
him; however, the ball fell into a whirlpool far below.Without hesitation, Krishna
dove from a branch into the torrent. In point of fact, knowing that a poisonous
many-headed serpent named Kaliya lurked there, he intended to drive the creature
away. When Kaliya spouted poison from his several mouths and tried to wrap his
coils around the boy, Krishna leapt upon his head and began to dance.
In the painting we see the pastoral deity, crowned with peacock feathers and
playing his trademark bamboo flute as he dances upon the serpent and crushes
its nine heads. Meanwhile, Kaliya’s wives beg Krishna to spare their husband.
The patterns of the huge reptile’s knotted coils contrast nicely with the floral
designs on the snake-queens’ tails. The background is replete with disc-like
kadamba (Nauclea cadamba) blossoms that fall from the tree and swirl about in the
river’s currents. Armed with the knowledge of how a Mithila artist conceives
her artwork, the viewer will now have little difficulty in spotting the wilful
central head of the serpent, slightly darker in colour than the others, as the
starting point and conceptual core of the design, which moves outward in knots
and swirls to the highly decorated corners of the paper.
A highly coloured and self-consciously folkish version of the Mithila mode
appears in the oeuvre of Bharti Dayal (b. 1961). The traditionally trained artist,
now part of New Delhi’s vibrant gallery scene, has contributed a number of
paintings to the eastern Indian portion of this exhibition. Dayal’s works employ
certain Mithila tropes that, repeated across the painted surface, produce an
attractive decorative effect with contemporary appeal (pp. 140–168).
Fig. 2: The Ratha Yatra (Chariot Journey) for Lord Jagannath
at the temple in Puri, Orissa
The special occasion is a visit he, along with his sister and brother, pays to
his aunt during the monsoon month of ashadha (June–July). This Ratha Yatra
(Chariot Journey) is a great spiritual event of eastern India.
The Ratha Yatra (p. 36), by a modern Orissan artist, shows one of India’s most
celebrated festival, during which the deity Jagannatha is taken out in procession.
Jagannatha is actually a title given to Krishna meaning “Lord of the World”,
for that is how devotees regard this deity of extraordinary appearance. In the
painting we see the three temple images being pulled through the streets of
the city of Puri in huge carts, the largest of which is 13.5 metres tall, while
people dance, play drums and music, and watch from the rooftops (fig. 2
shows a similar scene in Puri, with three chariots surrounded by hundreds
of devotees). The atmosphere of gaiety and religious fervour impressed and
bewildered early European visitors to the subcontinent. An English traveller
who witnessed the procession in 1633 was perhaps the first to claim that he saw
devotees throw themselves in front of the chariot wheels. The erroneous belief
that Hindus sacrificed themselves to Jagannatha gave rise to a new English
word “juggernaut”, meaning a huge object or force bearing down upon and
destroying everything in its path.
14
15
Painting in Orissa
While we tend to think of art as something finished, ready to be placed in a
museum or other display context, many cultures view festivals and performances
as their highest form of artistic expression. The Hindu festival is an ephemeral
cultural production repeated every year, often for centuries. The distinctive
quality of this genre is the way variations inevitably occur within a longestablished structure.
The Orissan artist’s rendering owes something to traditional map-like depictions
of the holy city of Puri. Intended to guide pilgrims, these large-scale plans
showing the location of temples and other sacred sites were represented using a
combination of side views and bird’s-eye view—looking down on the city from
above. In contrast, our painting of the Ratha Yatra (p. 36) is designed in European
fashion, with a more or less unified perspective. The mode of portrayal, with its
single viewpoint and attention to scattered and discursive details (such as the men
plucking coconuts in the far distance) originated with a kind of painting made by
Indian artists for colonial patrons.The so-called Company School, named for the
British East India Company, featured colourful celebrations, characteristic native
types, and other aspects of life in the colonies that appealed to the European elite.
Later, Indian artists adapted this style and made it their own.
The painting presents the three deities in the same order that they appear in the
temple sanctum.To the right is Jagannatha, Krishna as “Lord of the World”. In the
centre is his sister Subhadra and, on the left, their brother Balarama. The reader
may be confused upon hearing that the odd, pillar-like figure with a black face
and saucer-shaped white eyes is the same deity he has just seen in the Mithila
portrayal of Krishna dancing upon the serpent demon. Historians have proposed
a number of explanations for Jagannatha’s anomalous appearance, among them
that an Orissan tribal deity was welcomed into the mainstream pantheon and
re-envisioned as Krishna. However, we shall not go wrong if we simply accept
that different regions of the subcontinent understand and depict the Hindu gods
in ways that mesh with their variant cultural and linguistic backgrounds.
A banner to the lower right of the procession-painting proclaims, in rotund
Oriya script, the identity of Rama and Krishna. In order to understand this
statement we must pause to consider the concept of the avatara. The great god
Vishnu is believed to descend to earth in mortal form whenever demonic
forces threaten to overcome those of righteousness. Because of his salvatory
function this deity is sometimes referred to as “Vishnu the Preserver”. He has
incarnated on Earth nine times in the past, and will come once more in our
age before the universe is engulfed in the final cataclysm. Rama was, according
to most reckonings, the seventh avatara, and Krishna followed him as eighth in
the series.1
1 Note, however, that Gaudiya Vaishnava theology has Krishna as the origin of all avataras; he
takes the position held by Vishnu in other systems.
16
In The Death of Ravana (p. 42) the same Rama who broke a huge bow to win
Sita’s hand (as we saw in Sita’s Svayamvara) shoots multiplying arrows at the
ten-headed demon who has kidnapped his wife, and whom he has come to
Earth to defeat. The Orissan artist who painted Ratha Yatra also composed
this more traditional work. Rama, to the left of centre, is of the customary
greenish hue used in some schools of painting. His fair brother propels arrows
from behind a stylised tree while Hanuman, the monkey god, grasps a demon
by the hair and brandishes a mace. All three of the protagonists assume the
virabhangi (heroic posture), their chests thrust forward and legs widely striding.
The seven small demons on the right look less heroic, even hesitant as they
wave choppers uncertainly above their heads. The outcome of this battle is
not in doubt.
SOUTHERN INDIA
Tanjore Paintings
A late school of painting flourished at Tanjore [now Thanjavur] in the southern
Indian state of Tamil Nadu. As we see in the ornate Rama’s Coronation (p. 49),
the works are glittering icons designed to capture and hold the worshipper’s
gaze. Painted on cloth-covered wooden panels, the images are rendered
three-dimensional with areas of gesso, to which gold leaf is applied. These
textured portions of the painting set off the smooth, plump bodies of the
deities. Arches surmounted by temple spires indicate that these figures dwell
in consecrated space. Static, iconographically fixed, and glowing with real
and imitation jewels, the Tanjore icon of today is again popular after decades
of obscurity.
Just as Sita’s choice of a husband launched the train of events that led to her
kidnapping by cruel Ravana, so the demon’s rash deed sealed his fate at Rama’s
hands. The inevitable result of these epic incidents was the hero’s coronation
in his capital of Ayodhya. For Hindus, Rama’s long-delayed reign is the model
of just and peaceful rule, and revering an image of his enthronement augurs
harmony in the household as in the realm.The painting depicts the ideal king
on his throne, Sita on his left, with Hanuman kneeling at his master’s feet.
Other figures represented in a hierarchy of sizes, indicating their importance,
include the company of bears and monkeys who fought with Rama against
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the demonic army, and seven sages arrayed on the left-hand side of the painting.
The monarch’s royal horses and elephants appear in the lower corners. Rama
engages the viewer using a gesture of speaking with his right hand, but otherwise
these motionless personages with their inflated limbs and fixed expressions tell a
story through their hieratic placement rather than by narrative means.
Mysore Painting
Paintings of the Mysore school are sometimes confused with those from Tanjore.
Although both painting traditions trace their origins to the art of Vijayanagar
(the great south Indian empire that flourished from the fourteenth through
sixteenth centuries), subtle differences in material and technique distinguish
their production. Mysore artisans excel in the treatment of structural and
architectural features (without the inset gems or glass fragments used by Tanjore
craftsmen), and the figures in their paintings are somewhat more animated than
the static personages seen at Tanjore. We may note some of these differences in
K.S. Shreehari’s depiction of Rukmini and Krishna in a Chariot Driven by Gopis
(p. 119).
G.L.N. Simha (b. 1938) was trained in Western art but from an early age imbibed
the Mysore painting idiom of his native Karnataka state. Some of his highly
personal compositions have been worked out from a study of Sanskrit dhyanas
(visualisations of deities, designed to focus the mind for ritual or meditation).
Saraswati, Goddess of Learning and the Arts (p. 131) exemplifies Simha’s method of
composing based upon this type of descriptive verse. The four-armed goddess
holds palm-leaf manuscripts, a pen, and the veena (a musical instrument), and
is shown seated upon her wild goose, symbolising the soul. The artist’s rather
more imaginative interpretation of Varaha’s Rescue of the Earth Goddess Prithvi
(p. 129), a story found in several compilations, presents the deeds of Vishnu’s
third avatara. According to the tale, the Earth was once seized by a demon and
carried far beneath the ocean.All the gods and sages prayed for her rescue, which
was effected when Vishnu appeared in the form of a great boar named Varaha.
The boar dove into the waters, flung the demon to his death and restored the
Earth to her rightful place. In Simha’s portrayal she is shown kneeling to thank
Varaha while, below, her demonic abductor lies vanquished.
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Mysore Inlay Work
We have seen how some Indian artists interpreted episodes from the Ramayana,
an ancient scripture narrating the tale of Vishnu’s avatara, Rama. There is
another, far longer, Sanskrit epic called the Mahabharata, in which Krishna is
the protagonist. India shares with many cultures a belief that, after an initial
golden age, the world has been in a state of steady decline. The texts enumerate
four epochs, named after four throws of the dice in games of chance. The first
age might be compared to the Western double sixes, the best cast a player can
achieve. Our own fallen times, however, are like the gambler’s snake eyes. The
terrible internecine strife and war recounted in the Mahabharata is said to have
brought this degenerate age into being; indeed, our kali-yuga began with the
death of Krishna.
At the start of a battle that he knows will annihilate nearly all its combatants,
the hero Arjuna begins to have second thoughts about his role in the carnage.
His charioteer is Krishna, who in a famous section of the epic, the Bhagavadgita, tries to get his friend over this crisis of will. Yet Arjuna seems impervious
to all philosophical and practical arguments that Krishna proffers. In his doubt,
Arjuna pleads with the divine charioteer to reveal his true form. Krishna agrees,
but informs the warrior that he must first be granted divine eyes in order to see
the fearsome vision.Then, with terrifying suddenness, the god manifests himself
as a blazing immensity stretching to the horizons, within which all living beings
appear and rush headlong to destruction. This roiling mass of mouths, eyes, and
limbs, burning “like a thousand suns risen in the sky at once” is what our artist
from Mysore has attempted to depict in the humble medium of wood.
Utilising an array of coloured woods and ivory—now, usually, bone or imitation
ivory—the Mysore inlayer gouges out the rosewood base and fits in precisely
cut pieces to create his composition.The light areas may be further ornamented
by scratching a design that is then filled in with black lac (a kind of resin).
P. Gowraiah has used this painstaking technique to prepare his large-scale
composition showing the Vishvarupa (cosmic form) of Krishna in the midst
of a vast battlefield (p. 104). The opposing armies are arrayed on either side,
waiting for Arjuna to give the signal to begin fighting. The mighty warrior,
however, has sunk to his knees, his bow and quiver cast aside, awe-struck at the
extraordinary vision he has been granted. Gowraiah has positioned his design
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on the rosewood plank in such a way that the natural wood grain seems to
expand in a starburst around Krishna’s prodigious form. Once the spectacle,
which the opposing armies are unable to see has been withdrawn, the slaughter
will begin.
The Bronzes of Tamil Nadu
While Mysore wood inlay and the kind of Tanjore painting seen in Rama’s
Coronation (p. 49) are late artistic traditions, bronze temple icons have long
been fashioned by the metal workers of Tamil Nadu. They fill a liturgical need
since the gods of south India cannot be taken out of their temple sanctums for
processions the way Jagannatha and his siblings are in Orissa. Instead, the custom
is to transfer divinity ritually to a small bronze image so that it may embody the
deity for the duration of a festival, after which the divine presence is asked to
take its leave. Hence, bronzes like the Nataraja—Dancing Shiva (p. 172) are standins for heavy stone temple icons that cannot be moved. Furthermore, even when
taken through the streets in processional chariots these lovely, delicate metal
sculptures are never seen without brocaded draperies and garlands of flowers that
largely obscure their form. Nobody but the craftsman who makes them and the
priest who cares for them sees the icons “nude”, as we do in a museum setting.
Hereditary bronze smiths of India have been producing icons by the exacting cire
perdue (lost wax) process for over a millennium, since the heyday of the Chola
Empire (3rd cent. BCE–12th cent. CE). The artisan first models the figure in a
mixture of beeswax and resin. After encasing the finished wax sculpture in clay,
he places it in a fire pit so the wax melts and runs out, leaving a perfect clay
mould. This empty clay case then receives the molten metal. In former times,
priestly directives stipulated an amalgam of five metals, including some precious
gold and silver, to ensure that the metal body was fit to house the divine presence.
The icon had also to be solid rather than hollow-cast. Nowadays, however, ritual
strictures have been somewhat eased. Chola-period bronzes received minimal
cold chiselling after they came out of the mould, while the sharp edges of
modern bronzes like our Dancing Shiva indicate extensive use of the chisel.
culminating in our own decadent period, and Vishnu’s ten descents to rescue
an earth menaced by demonic forces. These ages and avataras repeat themselves
in a cycle of eternal recurrence. At the end of the four epochs the universe
is annihilated, after which Vishnu floats in quiescent state for aeons upon a
cosmic ocean, the universe contracted inside him in a seed-like form. After this
protracted stasis, the phenomenal world again emerges and the entire process
transpires once more, exactly as before.
Several of the artists in this exhibition have portrayed Vishnu resting on the
cosmic waves (see the traditional Orissan sculpture Vishnu Reclining upon Vasuki
on p. 181), and B.G. Sharma’s highly coloured Rajasthani painting of the same
subject (p. 64). Other artists illustrate the array of ten avataras, including Mysore’s
P. Gowraiah whose wood inlay version features a temple-inspired arcade and
plinth motif (p. 106), the female painter who offers a folkish Mithila interpretation
(p. 168), and a Tanjore artist who situates the reclining Vishnu in the midst of
his ten salvatory forms (p. 44). However, the Tamil Dancing Shiva (p. 172) offers a
variant way of looking at the mythos of periodicity in Hindu philosophy.
Shiva is known as Nataraja (Lord of Dance). The gestures of his lithe body
recall the classical temple performances of south India.Yet the deity’s rhythmic
movements have far greater significance than a mere dance recital because the
figure moving within a fiery ring is actually an image of the creation and
destruction of the cosmos.Whereas Vishnu was seen as engulfing the universe at
the end of Time, only to rebirth it after aeons, the dancing Shiva simultaneously
brings the world into being by shaking the hourglass-shaped drum in his upper
right hand and obliterates it with the flame held in his upper left palm. He at
once crushes the dwarf of ignorance with his right foot and gracefully points to
a raised left foot that indicates release from suffering.
We have noted in passing some iterations of time that characterise the Hindu
view of duration.Among these temporal stages figure the four successive epochs
While much more could be mentioned about the iconography of this figure,
with its flying locks that offer refuge to the River Ganga (in the shape of a
woman with folded hands), the crescent moon and Shiva’s favoured cobras, we
should also pause to admire the feat of casting that it represents.The south Indian
bronze workers produce intricate pieces like the Dancing Shiva using simple
technology but displaying an intuitive understanding of their medium. Because
the mould is broken after each casting, the sculpture must be remodelled anew
for every deity icon that is made. Hence, each bronze image is one of a kind.
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northwestern india
Paintings of RAJASTHAN
The northwestern desert state of Rajasthan is home to wonderful musical,
performative and artistic traditions. Several of the painters featured in this
exhibition hail from Nathadwara, a pilgrimage town in one of Rajasthan’s
former princely states. Nathadwara, site of an important Krishna temple, is best
known for cloth hangings known as pichhavai. These textiles were customarily
positioned behind the deity icons in temples and private house shrines, although
nowadays they may also be hung as artworks in secular settings.
In fig. 3 we see a rare early-twentieth century photograph of a house shrine
to Krishna. It shows two large stone images of the fluting deity, richly dressed
and adorned, and beneath them several other icons of stone or metal. The
pichhavai behind these sculptures, fashioned in appliqué, embroidery and paint, is
designed to make it look like the gods are in a temple.Two auspicious peacocks
perch upon the penanted roof of the simulated structure. Cows and milkmaids
approach from either side to worship Krishna in his various manifestations.
Vitthaldas Sharma (b. 1939) is a renowned pichhavai artist from Nathadwara.
Working in an idiom that favours childlike human figures and small plump
bovines,Vitthaldas paints cloth hangings that celebrate the pastoral pleasures of
Fig. 4: Vitthaldas Sharma, Nathadwara,
c. 1984
Krishna’s youth. Both his works in this exhibition, Radha and Krishna with Cows
(p. 72) and The Moon of Gokula with Cows (p. 73) are related to a festival called
gopashtami that commemorates Krishna’s graduation from the small herdsboy
looking after the calves to a full-fledged cowherd.The festival is celebrated with
great verve in Nathadwara, where cows are decorated and their horns gilded
before they are invited to the temple to feast on special sweet dishes prepared
for them.We see Vitthaldas painting a pichhavai for this occasion in a photograph
taken about 25 years ago (fig. 4).
One of Nathadwara’s most gifted living artists is Reva Shanker Sharma (b. 1935).
Although his personal style is influenced by intensely romantic eighteenthcentury paintings from Kishangarh and the Punjab Hills, he retains certain
Nathadwara traits. Two of Reva Shanker’s paintings in this exhibition, Krishna
and Radha Dancing in the Moonlight (pp. 84–85) and Krishna Watches the Gopis
While They Fetch Water (p. 86), show the master’s extraordinarily fine hand and
characteristically inspired evocation of the lush tulasi forest where the events
of Krishna’s pastoral phase were played out. Reva Shanker is most admired
by other artists for his night scenes, with the play of moonlight on water and
foliage, and for his ideally beautiful female figures.
Fig. 3: House shrine showing stone and metal images,
with an appliqué, embroidered and painted picchavai
behind the icons (probably Gujarat,
early-twentieth century)
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Other artists who emerged from the Nathadwara tradition but whole-heartedly
embraced a pan-Indian popular idiom are the cousins Indra Sharma (1923–2006)
and B.G. Sharma (1925–2008). B.G. Sharma produced highly coloured versions
of sacred events like the Rasa Lila (mystic circle dance) (p. 71), in which Krishna
magically multiplied himself so that each milkmaid was able to dance individually
with him. The Boat Lila (pp. 66–67) is another of his interpretations of a theme
known from various Rajasthani painting schools. Rendered in the saturated
hues favoured by chromolithographic presses, the vessel holding Radha, Krishna,
and music-making milkmaids dressed as princesses, floats upon the brilliant
turquoise waters of Lake Picchola (the palace-studded reservoir in the artist’s
hometown of Udaipur).
Unlike the Boat Lila, in which B.G. Sharma proposes a dreamlike image of
opulence and royal pleasure, the artist’s Krishna Expounding the Bhagavad-gita in
the Battlefield (p. 95) tackles a moment of deep philosophical import in a serrated
space cell formed by the battle-ready divisions of two opposing armies. He
presents the pre-combat moment we have discussed above, when the charioteer
Krishna tries to convince Arjuna that in performing his duty as a warrior he
will not be responsible for any deaths that occur. As we know, the explanation
proved insufficient and Arjuna was only convinced by the cosmic vision of
Krishna as all-creation and all-destruction. Although the painting does not
show the Vishvarupa, the viewer understands that it will imminently appear.
Fig. 6: Paramananda Gaur grinding indigo,
Nathadwara, October 2006
THE PRACTICE OF PAINTING IN FORMER TIMES
Machine-milled paper and chemical pigments began to appear in India’s
painting centres about 150 years ago. However, these supplies were at first
prohibitively expensive and not widely used. Once the prices went down, artists
could no longer resist the convenience of ready-made materials. Despite the
reality that painters working nowadays use commercial gouaches, most know
how to make their own paints and sometimes employ them in touching up
their compositions.Vegetal and mineral colours permit certain effects associated
with historic painting styles.What is more, the natural pigments are long-lasting
while chemical colours tend to be fugitive, fading or changing with the years.
A set of four paintings from a Ramayana series gives us some idea of the effect
of traditional, hand-made pigments (pp. 100–101).
Artists insist that handmade paper is more durable and provides a better surface
for detail work. Unfortunately, the old villages specialising in handmade paper
have mostly ceased production.The alternative is a milled product, not usually of
Fig. 5: Selection of mineral pigments, with pavri (derived from
cow urine) in the paper at the bottom, Nathadwara
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high quality in India. When it comes to brushes, many communities of painters
still make their own. There is quite a lore involved in catching the animals
(usually squirrels), trimming the tail hairs required, releasing the creatures
unharmed, and constructing the brushes using a split piece of bamboo and the
quill of a pigeon’s feather. A well-made brush holds just the right amount of
pigment and deposits it precisely as the limner wishes on the paper.
The vivid permanent colours of former times were prepared from minerals,
plants, metal oxides, and animal-based substances. In fig. 5 we see a selection of
minerals used to make paints, while in the paper below are pieces of a pigment
called pavri, processed from cow urine. The substances were finely ground and
levigated (soaked in water to separate the constituent parts), then mixed with a
gum and water to the proper consistency. The fig. 6 shows a Nathadwara artist
grinding indigo pigment in a special stone mortar.
Genuine gold and silver leaf are used in formulating metallic paints. Because
there is no good substitute for the pure precious metals, artists make their own
gold and silver pigments. The process is complex, involving more than one
set of hereditary specialists. First of all, Muslim craftsmen in Jaipur and other
centres make up little books of paper-thin sheepskin, specially tanned using rare
spices and perfumes to lend it extraordinary strength. A small square of pure
metal is placed between each of the 160 leaves of the booklet, which is closed
and placed in a heavy leather cover. The book is then pounded by hand with
an iron mallet for three full days. When it is opened, each square will be seen
transformed into a leaf of precious metal (fig. 7).
While metallic leaf is sometimes affixed directly to a painting, artists more
commonly grind the gossamer gold or silver sheets to prepare solutions. These
precious pigments must be burnished after application. A smooth agate stone
is used to polish and bring out the shine of the gold or silver details in a
miniature or pichhavai painting.Those who produce precious leaf and the paints
made from it, like the various crafts specialists who fashion the paper, pigments,
brushes, and other requirements of the painting profession, might be compared
to living libraries. India’s many shilpa shastras (traditional crafts treatises) often
suggest technical processes, but the information these compendia contain is not
very practical. The best shilpa texts are found between the ears of artists like
those represented in this exhibition.
ROD PUPPETS OF INDONESIA
The extended chain of islands that comprises Indonesia is home to a number
of distinct ethnic groups and languages. Its resilient people have absorbed and
modified cultural features from two dominant neighbours, China and India.
Sanskrit inscriptions dating to the fifth or sixth centuries have been found
on the archipelago, suggesting that some form of Hinduism was known there
from early days. However, the Indonesians have tended to refashion imported
religions, integrating them with their own indigenous beliefs. Hence, while
the puppets in this collection represent heroes and heroines from the two
great Hindu epics we have discussed earlier, the names and personalities of the
characters differ from the South Asian perception.
Puppet theatre has a long history in Indonesia.The oldest of these performative
traditions uses shadow puppets made of painted leather. The more recent
wooden rod puppets, termed golek (dolls), may have been introduced to Java
and Sunda early in the eighteenth century. Performances function as both
auspicious rituals and popular entertainment. They are usually scheduled to
coincide with special occasions such as marriages, religious festivals, or national
holidays. The dramas with their musical accompaniment often last the entire
night, only drawing to a close at day-break.
Fig. 7: Abdul Gaffar with a booklet used to make gold and
silver leaf; the booklet’s cover appears to the right in the
photograph, Jaipur 1992
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A pair of figures such as Arjuna and Shikandini (Srikandi in Indonesia)
illustrates the way epic characters are reinterpreted in the Indonesian context
(see p. 201). In India’s Mahabharata, Shikandini is one of those gender-bending
individuals sometimes encountered in Sanskrit literature. Born a woman
but raised as a male warrior, she was later successful in changing her sex
(when her name became the masculine Shikandin). However, the indomitable
Bhishma, believing her still to be female, refused to confront her in battle.
Taking advantage of this gallant reluctance to engage in combat with a
woman, the wily Arjuna hid behind Shikandin and thus managed to slay his
mighty enemy.
Clearly, none of this exploration of gender ambiguity made any sense to the
island storytellers.They configured an entirely new legend, in which the princess
Srikandi grows up as a kind of tomboy excelling in archery. She battles Bhishma
in the Mahabharata’s great war, killing him singlehandedly. Afterwards, she falls in
love with the good-looking Arjuna and becomes his second wife.
Thus the Indonesian puppet couple represents an ideally handsome hero and
his valiant consort. Although we may find the two figures rather difficult to tell
apart, variations in facial structure, posture, dress and, particularly in the gestures
made by the puppets within the drama, would immediately cue recognition
in the audiences of Sunda and Java. The Indian themes of ambiguity, trickery,
and revenge have been transmuted into a paradigmatic image of bravery and
romantic love.
THE BIRTH OF ISKCON PAINTING
When A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada (1896–1977) arrived in New
York by steamer late in 1965, he was already persuaded of his destiny to spread
Gaudiya Vaishnavism to the West. However, the religious tradition he followed,
well-known in India, seemed unimaginably strange and exotic to Americans.
Founded in the sixteenth century by the mystic Bengali saint Shri Chaitanya, the
Gaudiya system was philosophically and psychologically complex. Prabhupada
clarified the sect’s teachings for the young people who constituted the majority
of his early followers, stressing the importance of vegetarianism, clean living,
and chanting the names of Rama and Krishna.
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Fig. 8: Bharadraj showing a painting to A.C. Bhaktivedanta
Swami Prabhupada in New York in 1973; Jahnava is seated
(partially obscured) behind him
Prabhupada’s early years in New York City were fraught with hardship. And yet,
remarkably, his vision does not seem to have faltered; his diary entries record
consistent efforts to interest Americans in the scriptural works he had translated
into English. When the first art students showed up at the religious services
he sponsored, the Swami recognised the feasibility of painted icons for the
many temples he hoped to establish. He was further enthralled with the idea
of getting his cherished texts illustrated. He envisaged colourful and attractive
volumes in which representations of each episode of the Krishna story cycle
would appear next to the verses recounting it.
There were initial obstacles to realising these grand schemes. The students who
came to Prabhupada’s prayer meetings were not, for most part, well-trained
artists. What is more, the tales they were asked to illustrate were new to them.
Unlike young Indians, who grow up seeing the familiar legends of Rama and
Krishna interpreted in storybooks, movies, popular plays and even comic books,
the Americans had never seen depictions of the deities or other personages who
figured in these events. How, they wondered, might one depict the ten-headed
demon Ravana? Would the heads be placed on top of the other, or perhaps
appear as faces on a single head? Thus the Swami found himself, from the very
beginning, involved in the nitty gritty process of forming his artists even as he
guided them on their spiritual paths.
One of the art students to visit Prabhupada’s makeshift temple in the East
Village was Judy Koslofsky, later initiated as Jadurani. In her memoir she recalls
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how Gaudiya theologians set themselves apart from those they viewed as their
main rivals, the followers of the early-ninth century Shankara.The south Indian
monk had argued for an attributeless Absolute, a concept that was anathema to
Prabhupada and other Gaudiya Vaishnavas. Hence, in giving Jadurani and the
other apprentice artists a print like “Super Excellent”, the Swami meant to stress
the personal and embodied nature of God. Krishna’s divine presence is capable
of charming and fascinating the beholder—and icons depicting him should
have the same effect on their viewers.
Fig. 9: Shital Banerjee, Anjali (“Super Excellent”),
print from an oil painting of 1914–1915
the confusion and excitement of trying to teach herself oil-painting technique
while learning how the protagonists of the ancient Hindu legends should be
rendered. Prabhupada, casting about for appropriate models to show her, turned
to the imagery he had grown up with—the affordable popular prints that had
taken India by storm in the late-nineteenth and early-twentieth centuries.
Known as “framing pictures”, the prints were designed by well-known artists
and distributed through large urban publishing houses. A favourite was Anjali by
the Bengali artist Shital Banerjee (fig. 9). Prabhupada pronounced its accuracy of
detail and evocation of mood “Super Excellent”, and the moniker henceforth
stuck to the image.
Banerjee’s Krishna plays his flute while standing in the tribhangi (thrice
bent) posture of a temple sculpture. He appears in a clearing in the tulasi
forest where so many of his boyhood demon-slaying feats had taken place, now
the setting for amorous encounters with local milkmaids.The foremost of these
maidens is Radha, an important goddess in her own right. Seen here offering
flowers to the blue deity’s feet, Radha stands for the individual soul in relationship
with God.The artist’s message of devotional sentiment within a mystic connubium
is furthered by his use of the imagery of the European Romantic movement.
Motifs like the ruined temple on the right, with its improbable flock of swans
(a stand-in for the Indian goose), and the subdued treatment of the foliage,
show just how deeply European aesthetic norms had penetrated colonial Bengal.
This hybrid aesthetic would be crucial in the formation of ISKCON painting.
Between 1966 and 1970, when the first book completely illustrated in colour
was published (Krsna: The Supreme Personality of Godhead, volume 1) a number
of aspiring artists had joined Jadurani. They included Bharadraj (the “creative
genius” and designer), Muralidhar, Devahuti, Pariksit and Puskar, whose
version of “Super Excellent” appears in this exhibition (p. 253). Prabhupada
continued to provide them with printed prototypes by Indian painters of an
earlier era. These preferred artists included Rup Kishor Kapur (1893–1978),
S.M. Pandit (1916–1991), and Nathadwara artist Narottam Narayan (1896–1990),
as well as the somewhat later Indra Sharma and B.G. Sharma (whom we have
discussed above).
ISKCON painting went in several different directions after the early phase, which
Crucial to understanding why Prabhupada was so keen on developing an art
department for his fledgling North American organisation is an appreciation of
can be said to have ended shortly before Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada’s
demise in 1977. Northern Europeans dominated at Sweden’s Korsnäs Gärd near
Stockholm, while Italian artists added their own painterly fillip to the works
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produced at Villa Vrindavan near Florence. Meanwhile, the decoration of the
Palace of Gold at West Virginia’s New Vrindavan took a decidedly Rococo turn
when, in 1979, the talented Muralidhar affixed his canvas paintings to the dome
of its temple hall. Later on, a mid-1990’s influx of artists from the former Soviet
Union engendered an entirely new style, perhaps influenced by the Russian
tradition of decorative book illustration.
bondage by the mischievous baby. Bharadraj has the two princelings offering
their thanks to the infant Krishna as they emerge in a fiery cloud from the
crashing trees. Meanwhile the baby, with a sly and knowing smile, tips us off that
he is well aware his act of absolution was far more than a childish prank.
KEEPING TRADITIONS ALIVE
While we may admire the sophisticated technical accomplishment of the later
artists, there is something appealing about the charm and naïveté of the early
works. Produced in haste, often through an assembly-line process that enabled
the painters to complete a painting in as little as six days, these paintings convey
the fresh enthusiasm of the young ISKCON movement. Bharadraj’s Krishna
Frees Nalakuvera and Manigriva from Bondage (fig. 10), which appeared in the
first all-colour publication, Krsna: The Supreme…, captures a mood of childish
impudence and, like any well-constructed narrative illustration, makes the
viewer want to know the story behind the image.
We have sampled some of the traditional arts of India, and seen what happens
when the impulse to visualise Hindu concepts travels beyond subcontinental
borders.We have also remarked how new traditions, like Company Painting and
the Tanjore school, can spring up and become vibrant over a short period of
time. Hybrid forms, like the puppet theatre of Indonesia, may gain vigour from
the encounter between indigenous ideas and imported beliefs. We can see this
process in the still evolving art of the ISKCON movement.
One of the feats that astonished his elders occurred when the exceedingly
naughty toddler Krishna was tied up to a stone mortar to keep him out of
trouble.The moment his mother looked the other way the five-year-old crawled
off, dragging the impossibly heavy mortar with him, and managed to uproot
two large trees as he did so. By happy chance a pair of brothers, a century earlier
imprisoned in those very trees for ill behaviour, were thus liberated from their
What is meant by keeping traditions alive? It surely doesn’t imply that we prevent
artisans from seeing new things in order to guard the purity of their practice,
nor would it make sense to try and salvage moribund schools of art. Perhaps we
would be better off if we considered how we might provide artists with engaged
and critical patronage, encouraging them to explore the parameters of their
style while furthering conditions for lively collegial competition. These have
been the historical circumstances for excellence in the arts, and similar practices
might be expected to benefit the living traditions we see in this exhibition.
Fig. 10: Bharadraj, Krishna Frees Nalakuvera and Manigriva from Bondage,
oil painting, 1969 or 1970, in Prabhupada’s quarters at the Los Angeles
ISKCON temple
The author with the artist
Gulabchand Mistri in his studio,
Nathadwara (Rajasthan) 1992
32
33
t h e C O LL E C T I O N
34
35
INDIA
Pa i n t i n g s
Orissa
The ratha, chariots, appeared to be newly made of gold, and were as
high as Mount Sumeru. The decorations included bright mirrors and
hundreds and hundreds of yak whisks. On top of the chariots were
neat and clean canopies and very beautiful flags. The chariots were
also decorated with silken cloth and various pictures. Many brass bells,
gongs and ankle bells rang.
CHaitanya-cHaritamrita
ratha yatra, the festival of chariots in puri
the life story of krishna >
unknown artist
Pigments on cloth, 70 x 114 cm
unknown artist
36
37
the life story of rama
unknown artist
40
41
the death of ravana
krishna’s pastimes (detail)
unknown artist
Pigments on board, 63 x 63 cm
unknown artist
Watercolour on palm leaf, 152 x 47 cm
42
43
Ta n j o r e
( T am i l Nadu )
O Lord Krishna, who appears in the forms of these ten incarnations.
As Balarama, the wielder of the plow, you wore garments the colour
of a fresh blue rain cloud. These garments are coloured like the
beautiful dark hue of the River Yamuna, who feels great fear due to
the striking of your plowshare.
Dashavatara-stotra
vishnu’s ten incarnations
unknown artist
Pigments and gold leaf on cloth-covered wood, 86 x 118 cm
44
45
seven pastimes of krishna
baby krishna
unknown artist
Pigments with gold leaf on cloth-covered wood, 90 x 120 cm
unknown artist
46
47
balaji krishna (detail)
rama’s coronation
unknown artist
unknown artist
48
49
vasudeva saves newborn krishna
child krishna
unknown artist
unknown artist
50
51
Rajasthan
I worship that transcendental place, known as Vrindavan where as
loving consorts the pure Lakshmis practice the amorous service of
Lord Krishna as their only lover. There, every tree is a transcendental
purpose tree, the dust is touchstone, all water is nectar, every word is
a song, every step is a dance.
Brahma-samhita
< rasa lila
B.G. Sharma
Pigments on cotton, 175 x 120 cm
53
vallabhacharya worships shrinathaji
shrinathaji, the worshipable lord of vallabhacharya
Nainsukh Sharma
Tempera on canvas, 54 x 79 cm
unknown artist
Pigments and gold leaf on board, 102 x 162 cm
54
55
shrinathaji temple in nathadwara, rajasthan
radha, krishna and gopis in a forest pavillion
unknown artist
unknown artist
56
57
charming radha offers gentle krishna some sweets
radha accompanies krishna on a riverside walk
Rakesh Sharma
Nainsukh Sharma
58
59
krishna extinguishes the forest fire
krishna liberates the two sons of kuvera
Indra Sharma
Pigments on paper, 47 x 42 cm
Indra Sharma
60
61
krishna kills the bird demon bakasura
durga punishes the demon mahisha
Indra Sharma
Indra Sharma
62
63
vishnu receives the demigods
krishna and cowherd girls cross the yamuna
B.G. Sharma
unknown artist
boat lila >
B.G. Sharma
64
65
radha and krishna enjoy with gopis near river yamuna
radha and krishna with gopis resting in a garden of delight
B.G. Sharma
Indra Sharma
68
69
dandiya rasa—radha and krishna dance to gopis’ music
rasa lila—krishna’s divine dance
Mukesh Sharma
Pigments on silk, 57 x 85 cm
unknown artist
radha and krishna with cows >
Vitthaldas Sharma
70
71
radha and krishna on a picnic in vrindavan
cowherd boy entreats krishna to shelter them from the approaching storm
unknown artist
B.G. Sharma
< the moon of gokula with cows
Vitthaldas Sharma
74
75
radha and krishna meet at night
the divine couple’s night-time rendevous
Mukesh Sharma
Mukesh Sharma
76
77
radha and krishna in a loving embrace
krishna enchants radha with his divine flute
Nainsukh Sharma
Oil on canvas, 85 x 48 cm
unknown artist
Pigments and gold on cloth, 56 x 42 cm
78
79
radha and krishna near the river bank (scene 1)
radha and krishna near the river bank (scene 2)
Tilkesh Sharma
Tilkesh Sharma
80
81
radha and krishna take shelter by the yamuna from a rainstorm
krishna decorates radha’s hair with flowers
Tilkesh Sharma
Rakesh Sharma
krishna and radha dancing in the moonlight >
Reva Shanker Sharma
82
83
krishna watches the gopis while they fetch water
vrindavan’s residents express sorrow at krishna’s departure
Reva Shanker Sharma
Pigments and gold leaf on paper, 25 x 36 cm
B.G. Sharma
86
87
chaitanya dances to kirtan in navadwipa
krishna with friends herding happy cows
B.G. Sharma
B.G. Sharma
88
89
krishna’s flute attracts the cows
celestial cow kamadhenu bathes the shiva linga in milk
B.G. Sharma
Shyam Sharma
90
91
krishna welcomes his school friend sudama
krishna is welcomed at the royal court
unknown artist
Indra Sharma
92
93
krishna instructs a perplexed arjuna
krishna expounding the bhagavad-gita in the battlefield
Indra Sharma
B.G. Sharma
94
95
mother saraswati, the goddess of learning
sita, rama and lakshmana bless hanuman
Mukesh Sharma
unknown artist
96
97
kali slays the demon (top)
brahma, vishnu, shiva and indra behold kali (top)
Shyam Sharma
Gouache on paper, 16 x 18 cm
Shyam Sharma
brahma, vishnu and shiva visit indrani (below)
the rudras worship mahadevi (below)
Shyam Sharma
Shyam Sharma
98
99
hanuman worships rama and lakshmana (top)
rama, lakshmana and hanuman fighting ravana (top)
unknown artist
unknown artist
rama, lakshmana, hanuman and sugriva (below)
rama and vibhishana (below)
unknown artist
unknown artist
100
101
hanuman in meditation
holi—the spring festival of colours
Ramesh B. Sharma
unknown artist
102
103
MYSORE
( k a r n ata k a )
The universal form was decorated with many celestial ornaments and
bore many divine upraised weapons. He wore celestial garlands and
garments, and many divine scents were smeared over his body. All
was wondrous, brilliant, unlimited, all-expanding.
bhagavad-gita
< vishvarupa—krishna reveals his dazzling universal form (detail)
P. Gowraiah
Wood inlay, 144 x 267 cm
104
105
dashavatara—the ten divine forms of vishnu
king rama with his monkey warrior, hanuman
P. Gowraiah
P. Gowraiah
106
107
lakshmi, the goddess of fortune
krishna with a cow
K.S. Sharma
K.S. Sharma
108
109
asthalakshmi—eight manifestations of lakshmidevi
krishna captivates the gopis
unknown artist
K.S. Shreehari
Opaque watercolour and gold leaf on paper, 60 x 48 cm
110
111
vishnu flanked by his consorts
krishna receives refreshments
K.S. Shreehari
Shridar Rao
112
113
goddess durga (1)
goddess durga (2)
K.S. Shreehari
Shridar Rao
114
115
varaha lifts the earth and slays demon hiranyaksha
goddess durga (3)
unknown artist
Shridar Rao
116
117
lakshmi and narayana greet hayagriva and narada
rukmini and krishna in a chariot driven by gopis
Sridhar Rao
K.S. Shreehari
baby shiva >
G.L.N. Simha
118
119
hanuman, the beloved monkey god
hanuman carries gandhamadana mountain to lanka
G.L.N. Simha
Sridhar Rao
< ardhanarishvara—the composite form of shiva and parvati
G.L.N. Simha
122
123
baby ganesha
ganesha’s boyhood
G.L.N. Simha
G.L.N. Simha
124
125
hayagriva delivering the four vedas to brahma
demigods pray to sankarshana
G.L.N. Simha
G.L.N. Simha
126
127
a vision of the creation of cosmos
varaha’s rescue of the earth goddess prithvi
G.L.N. Simha
G.L.N. Simha
128
129
kunti impregnated with yudhisthira from the heart of yamaraja
saraswati, goddess of learning and the arts
G.L.N. Simha
G.L.N. Simha
130
131
shanti kali nursing infant shiva, with sages standing in attendance
dhanvantari holding the pot of amrita, the nectar of immortality
G.L.N. Simha
G.L.N. Simha
132
133
krishna, the butter thief
mother yashoda asks for the churning rod from endearing krishna
G.L.N. Simha
G.L.N.Simha
134
135
k er a l a
Surrounded by his loving cowherd friends, Krishna went to the place
where he had been tending his cows. The cowherd girls returned to
their homes, singing joyfully about the lifting of Govardhana Hill
and other glorious deeds performed by Lord Krishna, who had so
deeply touched their hearts.
Bhagavata Purana
< krishna, the lifter of govardhana hill
Rakesh
Watercolour on paper, 33 x 25 cm
137
demonic putana in a duel with krishna
rama and his three brothers
unknown artist
unknown artist
138
139
Mithila
(bihar)
The sun illuminates both internally and externally by expanding its
rays; similarly, the Supreme Lord, by expanding his universal form,
maintains the creation.
BhagavatA Purana
the sun and his wife
Bharti Dayal
140
141
krishna, the divine boatman
radha and krishna under a tree
Bharti Dayal
Bharti Dayal
142
143
vishnu and lakshmi offer blessings
krishna holds govardhana hill on his little finger
Bharti Dayal
Bharti Dayal
144
145
goddess durga displays her weapons
ferocious goddess kali punishes the wicked mahishasura
Bharti Dayal
Bharti Dayal
146
147
ganesha in prayer
ganesha, the elephant god
Bharti Dayal
Bharti Dayal
148
149
radha and krishna embrace
radha steals krishna’s flute
Bharti Dayal
Bharti Dayal
150
151
krishna shows arjuna his universal form
parvati and ganesha appreciate shiva’s dance
Bharti Dayal
Bharti Dayal
152
153
krishna with gopis and cows
three pastimes of krishna
Bharti Dayal
Bharti Dayal
154
155
six pastimes of krishna with the gopis
krishna lifts govardhana hill
Bharti Dayal
Bharti Dayal
156
157
peacocks
the tree of life
Bharti Dayal
Bharti Dayal
158
159
the eight principal gopis attend on the divine couple
krishna decorates radha’s hair with the help of gopis
Bharti Dayal
Bharti Dayal
160
161
krishna holding parrots
radha and krishna’s peacock dance
Bharti Dayal
Bharti Dayal
162
163
radha and krishna dancing
scenes of yashoda and krishna
Bharti Dayal
Bharti Dayal
164
165
reclining ganesha
the meeting of radha and krishna
Bharti Dayal
Bharti Dayal
166
167
the ten incarnations of vishnu
narasimhadeva protects prahlada from hiranyakashipu
Bharti Dayal
unknown artist
168
169
sita’s svayamvara
kaliya damana
unknown artist
unknown artist
170
171
SCULPTURES
If you could see, the arch of his brow,
the budding smile, on lips red as the kovvai fruit,
cool matted hair, the milk-white ash on coral skin,
and the sweet golden foot raised up in dance,
then even human birth on this wide earth would become a
thing worth having.
Thirunavakkasaru “Appar”
nataraja, the dancing shiva
unknown sculptor
Tamil Nadu, bronze, 170 x 64 x 32 cm
172
173
krishna, the divine flute player
brahma, agent of creation of the universe
unknown sculptor
unknown sculptor
174
175
vishnu, the universal preserver
hanuman
krishna’s four-armed form
unknown sculptor
unknown sculptor
Tamil Nadu, wood, 90 x 36 x 32 cm
unknown sculptor
176
177
pancha-mukha (five-faced) ganesha
shiva dances with beautiful parvati
unknown sculptor
unknown sculptor
178
179
apsaras—heavenly damsels
vishnu reclining upon vasuki
unknown sculptor
Orissa, stone, left: 182 x 66 x 43 cm, right: 184 x 76 x 48 cm
unknown sculptor
Orissa, stone, 56 x 60 x 20 cm
180
181
four-armed vishnu
shiva’s dance of destruction
unknown sculptor
unknown sculptor
182
183
beautiful saraswati
saraswati, the goddess of art and learning
unknown sculptor
unknown sculptor
Tamil Nadu, wood,126 x 62 x 20 cm
184
185
motherly love
ganesha
cow
unknown sculptor
Stone, 25 x 30 x 16 cm
unknown sculptor
Tribal art, brass, 46 x 19 x 19 cm
unknown sculptor
186
187
n e pa l a n d t i b e t
< ceremonial dagger
unknown sculptor
Newari, Nepal, silver and bronze, 20 x 5 x 5 cm
189
child buddha pointing towards heaven and earth
dancing ganesha
unknown sculptor
unknown sculptor
Newari, Nepal, painted silver with stones, 17 x 9 x 5 cm
190
191
tara, mother of compassion
kalachakra—wheel of time mandala (detail)
unknown sculptor
Newari, Nepal, gold plated silver with stones, 24 x 16 x 10 cm
unknown artist
Tempura and gold on paper and embroidered cloth, painting: 40 x 40 cm, cloth: 85 x 65 cm
192
193
prayer wheel
buddhist ceremonial crown (top)
unknown artist
Newari, Tibet, silver with stones, 8 x 8 x 25 cm
unknown artist
Newari, Tibet, silver plate with stones, 26 x 20 x 20 cm
special ceremonial conchshell (below)
unknown artist
Newari, India/Tibet, silver with stones, 20 x 20 x 56 cm
194
195
indonesia
b a l i a n d j ava
The Lord, appearing on the shoulder of Garuda, seemed like a cloud
resting on the summit of the mountain known as Meru.
BhagavatA Purana
< rama rides divine eagle garuda
unknown sculptor
Wood, 65 x 30 x 18 cm
197
mask of hanuman
unknown sculptor
Bali, wood, 26 x 22 x 12 cm
< garuda carries rama
unknown sculptor
199
krishna and jambavati
unknown artist
Indonesia, wood painted puppets (wayang golek), 73 x 16 x 13 cm
arjuna and srikandi >
unknown artist
200
rama and shinta (Sita)
hanuman, the divine monkey warrior
unknown artist
unknown artist
202
203
bhima, the warrior
unknown artist
< gatotkacha, the warrior
unknown artist
205
thailand
Rama’s complexion, resembling a celestial emerald, contrasted the
pure white features of Sita. They were both covered with golden
flower petals and their many jewels shone brilliantly.
Ramayana
sita
rama
unknown artist
Leather, 51 x 124 cm
unknown artist
206
207
A rt o f
hare krishna movement
Gaura’s exquisite complexion was the colour of glowing sandalwood
paste. His expansive chest was decorated with a gently swaying wildflower garland and his radiant, moon-like face was pleasing, cooling,
and comforting. His beauty humbled Cupid himself. His lovely face
and charming eyes added to his divine stature. His exquisite form
enchanted the minds of everyone.
Chaitanya-bhagavata
< the divine brothers, gaura and nitai, lead a sweet kirtan
Jadurani Devi Dasi
209
krishna, balarama and friends run into the woods
chaitanya, nityananda and followers in chanting party in bengal
Dhriti Devi Dasi
Ramadasa Abhirama Dasa and Dhriti Devi Dasi
210
211
vyasa envisions kali-yuga terrors
Prasanta Dasa
< krishna, the beautiful flute player
Dennis Sirrine
213
scene from the blissful life in vaikuntha
krishna enters the city of dwaraka
Pariksit Dasa
Ramadasa Abhirama Dasa
214
215
grandfather bhishma lies on the bed of arrows in kurukshetra
the king of the demons attacks narasimhadeva
Dennis Sirrine
216
217
vasudeva welcomes sage narada
the yadu princes tease narada and the sages
Ramanath Dasa
Pariksit Dasa
218
219
krishna welcomes his friend sudama
rishabhadeva instructs his sons
Dennis Sirrine
Locana Dasa
220
221
moonlight serenade
krishna’s dance in moonlight
Dhriti Devi Dasi
Saccidananda Dasa
222
223
sita’s seduction by beautiful golden deer
rama and lakshmana reunited with their mothers
Saccidananda Dasa
Saccidananda Dasa
hanuman’s army crosses the ocean to lanka >
Saccidananda Dasa
224
225
228
229
sita, rama and lakshmana return home from exile
hanuman brings the herb for wounded lakshmana
Saccidananda Dasa
Saccidananda Dasa
< rama fights the mighty demon ravana
Saccidananda Dasa
230
231
krishna and boys on a swing (detail)
radha exchanges loving glances with krishna (detail)
krishna’s romantic adventures
Rudradeva Dasa
Rudradeva Dasa
Rudradeva Dasa
232
233
krishna shows balarama the forest
enchanting krishna
radha, krishna’s consort
Rudradeva Dasa
Vrindaban Dasa
Vrindaban Dasa
234
235
shiva, the lord of yogis
lakshmidevi
Vrindaban Dasa
Vrindaban Dasa
236
237
krishna
radha
Vrindaban Dasa
Vrindaban Dasa
238
239
240
241
cowherd boys playing with krishna
villagers assault rishabhadeva
Prema Vilasa Devi Dasi
< krishna and balarama rest under a tree
Vrindaban Dasa
242
243
shiva tolerates daksha’s rebukes
king rahugana begs jada bharata’s forgiveness
Jnananjana Dasa
Acarya Dasa
244
245
devotee dreams of balaji
Lilamrta Devi Dasi
246
nityananda instructs krishnadasa kaviraja in a dream
Lilamrta Devi Dasi
247
narada instructs the sons of prachinabarhi
narada instructs prahlada in the womb
Acarya Dasa
Lilamrta Devi Dasi
248
249
bala krishna
bhima challenges jarasandha to fight
Puskar Dasa
Puskar Dasa
250
251
krishna and satyabhama
radha worships krishna
Puskar Dasa
Puskar Dasa
252
253
For those who have accepted the boat of the lotus feet of the Lord, who
is the shelter of the cosmic manifestation, the ocean of the material
world is like the water contained in a calf ’s hoof-print. Their goal
is the spiritual world where there is no misery, not the place where
there is danger at every step.
Bhagavata Purana
< krishna rescues a devotee from the ocean of illusion
255
shrila prabhupada with cane
shrila prabhupada
Saccidananda Dasa
Rudradeva Dasa
256
257
shrila prabhupada in meditation
portrait of shrila prabhupada
Anuradha Devi Dasi
Pencil on paper, 36 x 27 cm
Anuradha Devi Dasi
258
259
SCULPTURES
If you could see, the arch of his brow,
the budding smile, on lips red as the kovvai fruit,
cool matted hair, the milk-white ash on coral skin,
and the sweet golden foot raised up in dance,
then even human birth on this wide earth would become a
thing worth having.
Thirunavakkasaru “Appar”
nataraja, the dancing shiva
unknown sculptor
172
173
krishna, the divine flute player
brahma, agent of creation of the universe
unknown sculptor
unknown sculptor
174
175
vishnu, the universal preserver
hanuman
krishna’s four-armed form
unknown sculptor
unknown sculptor
unknown sculptor
176
177
pancha-mukha (five-faced) ganesha
shiva dances with beautiful parvati
unknown sculptor
unknown sculptor
178
179
apsaras—heavenly damsels
vishnu reclining upon vasuki
unknown sculptor
Orissa, stone, left: 182 x 66 x 43 cm, right: 184 x 76 x 48 cm
unknown sculptor
180
181
four-armed vishnu
shiva’s dance of destruction
unknown sculptor
unknown sculptor
182
183
beautiful saraswati
saraswati, the goddess of art and learning
unknown sculptor
unknown sculptor
Tamil Nadu, wood,126 x 62 x 20 cm
184
185
motherly love
ganesha
cow
unknown sculptor
Stone, 25 x 30 x 16 cm
unknown sculptor
unknown sculptor
186
187
n e pa l a n d t i b e t
< ceremonial dagger
unknown sculptor
189
child buddha pointing towards heaven and earth
dancing ganesha
unknown sculptor
unknown sculptor
Newari, Nepal, painted silver with stones, 17 x 9 x 5 cm
190
191
tara, mother of compassion
kalachakra—wheel of time mandala (detail)
unknown sculptor
Newari, Nepal, gold plated silver with stones, 24 x 16 x 10 cm
unknown artist
Tempura and gold on paper and embroidered cloth, painting: 40 x 40 cm, cloth: 85 x 65 cm
192
193
prayer wheel
buddhist ceremonial crown (top)
unknown artist
Newari, Tibet, silver with stones, 8 x 8 x 25 cm
unknown artist
Newari, Tibet, silver plate with stones, 26 x 20 x 20 cm
special ceremonial conchshell (below)
unknown artist
Newari, India/Tibet, silver with stones, 20 x 20 x 56 cm
194
195
indonesia
b a l i a n d j ava
The Lord, appearing on the shoulder of Garuda, seemed like a cloud
resting on the summit of the mountain known as Meru.
BhagavatA Purana
< rama rides divine eagle garuda
unknown sculptor
Wood, 65 x 30 x 18 cm
197
mask of hanuman
unknown sculptor
< garuda carries rama
unknown sculptor
199
krishna and jambavati
unknown artist
arjuna and srikandi >
unknown artist
200
rama and shinta (Sita)
hanuman, the divine monkey warrior
unknown artist
unknown artist
202
203
bhima, the warrior
unknown artist
< gatotkacha, the warrior
unknown artist
205
thailand
Rama’s complexion, resembling a celestial emerald, contrasted the
pure white features of Sita. They were both covered with golden
flower petals and their many jewels shone brilliantly.
Ramayana
sita
rama
unknown artist
unknown artist
206
207
A rt o f
hare krishna movement
Gaura’s exquisite complexion was the colour of glowing sandalwood
paste. His expansive chest was decorated with a gently swaying wildflower garland and his radiant, moon-like face was pleasing, cooling,
and comforting. His beauty humbled Cupid himself. His lovely face
and charming eyes added to his divine stature. His exquisite form
enchanted the minds of everyone.
Chaitanya-bhagavata
< the divine brothers, gaura and nitai, lead a sweet kirtan
Jadurani Devi Dasi
209
krishna, balarama and friends run into the woods
chaitanya, nityananda and followers in chanting party in bengal
Dhriti Devi Dasi
Ramadasa Abhirama Dasa and Dhriti Devi Dasi
210
211
vyasa envisions kali-yuga terrors
Prasanta Dasa
< krishna, the beautiful flute player
Dennis Sirrine
213
scene from the blissful life in vaikuntha
krishna enters the city of dwaraka
Pariksit Dasa
214
215
grandfather bhishma lies on the bed of arrows in kurukshetra
the king of the demons attacks narasimhadeva
Dennis Sirrine
216
217
vasudeva welcomes sage narada
the yadu princes tease narada and the sages
Ramanath Dasa
Pariksit Dasa
218
219
krishna welcomes his friend sudama
rishabhadeva instructs his sons
Dennis Sirrine
Locana Dasa
220
221
moonlight serenade
krishna’s dance in moonlight
Dhriti Devi Dasi
Saccidananda Dasa
222
223
sita’s seduction by beautiful golden deer
rama and lakshmana reunited with their mothers
Saccidananda Dasa
Saccidananda Dasa
hanuman’s army crosses the ocean to lanka >
Saccidananda Dasa
224
225
228
229
sita, rama and lakshmana return home from exile
hanuman brings the herb for wounded lakshmana
Saccidananda Dasa
Saccidananda Dasa
< rama fights the mighty demon ravana
Saccidananda Dasa
230
231
krishna and boys on a swing (detail)
radha exchanges loving glances with krishna (detail)
krishna’s romantic adventures
Rudradeva Dasa
Rudradeva Dasa
Rudradeva Dasa
232
233
krishna shows balarama the forest
enchanting krishna
radha, krishna’s consort
Rudradeva Dasa
Vrindaban Dasa
Vrindaban Dasa
234
235
shiva, the lord of yogis
lakshmidevi
Vrindaban Dasa
Vrindaban Dasa
236
237
krishna
radha
Vrindaban Dasa
Vrindaban Dasa
238
239
240
241
cowherd boys playing with krishna
villagers assault rishabhadeva
Prema Vilasa Devi Dasi
< krishna and balarama rest under a tree
Vrindaban Dasa
242
243
shiva tolerates daksha’s rebukes
king rahugana begs jada bharata’s forgiveness
Jnananjana Dasa
Acarya Dasa
244
245
devotee dreams of balaji
Lilamrta Devi Dasi
246
nityananda instructs krishnadasa kaviraja in a dream
Lilamrta Devi Dasi
247
narada instructs the sons of prachinabarhi
narada instructs prahlada in the womb
Acarya Dasa
Lilamrta Devi Dasi
248
249
bala krishna
bhima challenges jarasandha to fight
Puskar Dasa
Puskar Dasa
250
251
krishna and satyabhama
radha worships krishna
Puskar Dasa
Puskar Dasa
252
253
For those who have accepted the boat of the lotus feet of the Lord, who
is the shelter of the cosmic manifestation, the ocean of the material
world is like the water contained in a calf ’s hoof-print. Their goal
is the spiritual world where there is no misery, not the place where
there is danger at every step.
Bhagavata Purana
< krishna rescues a devotee from the ocean of illusion
255
shrila prabhupada with cane
shrila prabhupada
Saccidananda Dasa
Rudradeva Dasa
256
257
shrila prabhupada in meditation
portrait of shrila prabhupada
Anuradha Devi Dasi
Anuradha Devi Dasi
258
259