Kishangarh
painting, in addition to its distinctive facial style, is also renowned for its
spectacular sunsets and panoramic landscapes. Epitomizing that tradition, this
painting features a brilliant, fiery sunset in dramatic counterpoint to its
rolling green hills, white palaces, and the prominent Lake Gundalao. The grand
vistas shown in Kishangarh paintings must, however, be viewed with a deeper
symbolic meaning than mere landscape. For, just as Krishna and Radha roamed the
fields and forests of Brindavan, so too did Savant Singh and Bani Thani in
their devotional emulation of the divine couple. In place of the rural terrain
of Brindavan, the Kishangarh artists depicted the palaces and pleasure gardens
of their own court as a setting for the lovers.
Although
the ostensible subject of most Kishangarh paintings is the romance of Radha and
Krishna, on another level of interpretation the paintings can be seen as
allegories for the love of Savant Singh and Bani Thani, as well as symbolic
equations of the divine and secular lovers. Although never explicitly
expressed, this metaphorical identification is intimated by the presence of
Savant Singh/ Nagari Das's poetry on the back of a number of the works.
Radha
and Krishna are portrayed twice in this painting: once surrounded by female
attendants in the prominent royal barge and again at the bottom, alone in a
forest grove. This scene of continuous narration may illustrate a poem by
Savant Singh that describes the ideal couple as first boating on the Jamuna
River in Brindavan and subsequently trysting in a forest glen.
Writer Name:- Pratapaditya Pal
