Art of Legend India: Art, Paintings, Handicrafts, Jewelry, Beads, Handmade Items: Love Paintings

Handicrafts

Handicrafts are devices or works of art that are made completely by hand or by the use of relatively simple tools. Such goods are usually made in the traditional way of manufacturing goods. Therefore, the knowledge of the art of craft is usually passed down from one generation to another. The items made using these traditional methods of manufacturing are usually produced in smaller quantities and they often represent the culture or religious beliefs of the community that makes them. The goods are also handmade from natural materials that are found in the environment of the particular economy.

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Paintings

A painting is equal to thousand words, means a beautiful painting is equal to million of words. Paintings are one of the oldest art forms -- throughout history artists have played an important role in documenting social movements, spiritual beliefs and general life and culture.

History Of Paintings: The history of painting reaches back in time to artifacts from...

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Showing posts with label Love Paintings. Show all posts

Folio from a Manuscript of the Satsai of Bihari Lal: Krishna Talks to Radha's Maidservant

Posted by Art Of Legend India [dot] Com On 12:21 AM 0 comments

This painting depicts Krishna seated in a palace courtyard talking to a handmaid of Radha, who is shown beyond them in a bedchamber. Behind Krishna is a room with a large brass pot heating over a fire. A label in the upper border identifies the scene as "Upapati! Paramour! no. 194," and the text on the reverse of the painting (see Appendix) describes the demure eye contact of the divine lovers and mentions the fire in both the hearth and Krishna's heart.

The painting is thought to illustrate a passage from the Satsai (Seven hundred I verses!), one of the four great jewels of Hindi literature. Intriguingly, however, the inscribed verse does not correspond to the one given in the standard edition of the Satsai, which varies from other known versions of the text in the number and content of the verses (Holland, PP- 4-5).

The standard Salsa; consists 01 713 poetic verses, primarily in celebration of the romance of Radha and Krishna. The remaining verses describe nayakas and nayikas and the romantic sentiments associated with the six seasons of the Indian climate (sec no. 30). It was written by Bihari Lal Chaube (1595-1664), who was born in Govindpur, near Gwalior in Madhya Pradesh, into the mixed caste of Rays, which also produced several other well-known Hindi poets (Randhawa 1966, p. 15). As a child Bihari Lal moved with his family to Orchha and later to Mathura. It was in the latter city that Bihari Lal must have learnt "Braj-Bhasha," the dialect of Hindi in which the Satsai is written and which was current around Mathura, the homeland of Krishna, and was frequently used for the deity's devotional poetry and song lyrics. Bihari Lal enjoyed a profitable tenure at the court of Amber under jai Singh I (r. 1625-67), for whom the Satsai was reportedly composed in 1662 (Grierson, pp. 4-5; and Leach, p. 271). Illustrations of the Satsai were particularly popular in Pahari painting, especially in Kangra during the reign of Sansar Chand (r. 1775-1823), under whose lavish patronage this work was produced.

Stylistically, this painting is a good example of the refined almost overly so expression found in Kangra painting. The soft palette and delicate ambience are the hallmark of the realm's workshops and are particularly adept at conveying the romantic connotations of the popular theme of love.

Writer Name: - Pratapaditya Pal

Sohni Swims to Meet Her Lover Mahinwal

Posted by Art Of Legend India [dot] Com On 2:22 AM 0 comments

These two paintings illustrate the tragic tale of Sohni and Mahinwal, two young lovers who are said to have lived during the early seventeenth century in a small village in the Panjab, an area famous for its association with great lovers. Both paintings feature the key identifying motif of Sohni floating across a river on an overturned earthenware pot for her nightly tryst with her lover. The set imagery used to illustrate the romance usually includes Mahinwal tending his buffaloes on the far bank and his ascetic companion seated by the river's near edge, as in the Oudh example (A), but these features are curiously absent in the Mewar painting (a) where, uniquely, Mahinwal is represented as waiting for his nightly tryst in a small thatched pavilion decorated as an elegant bed chamber. The text above painting a conveys Sohni's apprehension about attempting the perilous river crossing. In painting A both Sohni and Mahinwal are portrayed with sheathed swords graced with golden hilts. Although not explained by any literary narrative, this feature is typical of most paintings of the lovers and may pictorially suggest their popular elevation to noble heroes in their ultimately futile struggle against rigid social mores.

According to the legend, Mahinwal, whose given name was Mirza Izzat Beg, was the son of a wealthy merchant-ruler in Turkestan who was returning home with a merchant caravan after traveling throughout northern India. After passing Lahore, the caravan stopped near the town of Gujrat, where Izzat Beg chanced upon a radiant young beauty tending her father's pottery shop. Her name was Sohni, meaning "beautiful." Izzat Beg was so overwhelmed by her loveliness that he abandoned the caravan to remain with Sohni, who soon came to reciprocate his ardor. Izzat Beg then managed to be hired by Sohni's father and was put to work tending the family's buffaloes across the river. Thus he acquired his more popular name, Mahinwal, meaning "buffalo herder."

Sohni Swims to Meet Her Lover Mahinwal, Mewar, C. 1750-75

Sohni and Mahinwal's clandestine affair continued until it was discovered by her mother and Mahinwal was ordered to never again see Sohni, who was quickly married to another potter's son and sent to her husband's family home. The distraught Mahinwal went to live with an ascetic near the river, but after accidentally meeting one day, the couple decided to resume their illicit relationship. Every night thereafter Sohni swam across the river using a large baked earthenware pot as a float. But Sohni's sister-in-law soon discovered the lovers and switched an unfired pot for the one used by Sohni to cross the river. That night a fierce storm hit, yet Sohni ignored the danger and jumped into the raging river with the deadly pot. The pot dissolved in midstream and Mahinwal leapt into the river to save his beloved, but the current was too strong and the lovers sank into legend.

Contrary to the illustrations of literary romantic themes and the loves of Krishna, which are all of Hindu cultural origin, paintings depicting Sohni and Mahinwal are based on a supposedly historical incident and are primarily associated with various Muslim and Sikh literary traditions that narrate the tragic fates bf hapless lovers. These often repeated love stories, especially those from the Panjab, typically involve couples whose affairs of the heart generated universal appeal and ennobled them with a poetic and courtly stature. Sohni's act is analogous to that of the heroine who braves the perils of the forest on a stormy night to be with her lover, and the same emotional charge of heedless desire must be understood as underlying the legend and its representations.

The romance of Sohni and Mahinwal was popular at most of the major courts across northern India, with the majority of the tale's illustrations dating from the third quarter of the eighteenth century. In the nineteenth century some illustrations of Sohni and Mahinwal achieved a new level of cultural relevance with the sudden trans-formation of Mahinwal and his associated imagery into that of Krishna. This socio-logical and artistic phenomenon demonstrates Krishna's immense appeal and is another example of his cult's assimilation of diverse religious and romantic legends.

Writer Name:- Pratapaditya Pal