The painting illustrates a scene from the literary masterpiece, the Gita Govinda (Song of the Cowherd) composed by the poet Jayadeva in the 12th century. The painting depicts Radha and her sakhi (friend) in an idyllic hilly setting, the sacred landscape of Braj (setting of the Krishna legends) with a flowing river in the background and flowering trees all around.
Radha clutches at a tree with pink blossoms assuming a grief-stricken pose, as the sakhi listens or sings, as described in the text : "The god of love increased her ordeal, / Tormenting her with fevered thoughts, / And her friend sang to heighten the mood."
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Title:"Radha with Her Confidant, Pining for Krishna", Folio from the "Second" or "Tehri Garhwal" Gita Govinda (Song of the Cowherd)
Date:ca. 1775–80
Culture:Indian
Medium:Opaque watercolor and gold on paper
Dimensions:Page: 6 7/8 × 10 5/8 in. (17.5 × 27 cm) Image: 6 in. × 9 15/16 in. (15.2 × 25.2 cm)
Classification:Paintings
Credit Line:Gift of Steven Kossak, The Kronos Collections, 2020
Accession Number:2020.383
Radha with Her Confidante, Pining for Krishna
The narrative of the Gita Govinda, a prime document of medieval and contemporary Vishnu worship, is not easy to relate, as the poem does not recount a proper story. Rather, the text describes the various stages in the love affair of Radha, personification of devotion and loyalty, and Krishna, the eighth incarnation of Vishnu.
In Jayadeva’s long poem the Divine Couple meets (cat. 79 in this volume), makes love (cat. 81 in this volume), and separates (cat. 80 in this volume). As a result of this separation, Radha is made profoundly unhappy (cat. 84 in this volume). Yet Krishna does not care: he takes up with the obliging gopis (milkmaids) (cats. 82, 83 in this volume). Ultimately Krishna realizes his folly and asks for Radha’s forgiveness. After she forgives him, the two lovers reunite and make love, ending Jayadeva’s text on a happy note (cat. 85 in this volume).
In this fine painting the bereft Radha, leaning on a tree, discusses the absent Krishna with her sakhi, or confidante. “The god of love increased her ordeal, / Tormenting her with fevered thoughts, / And her friend sang to heighten the mood.”[1]
Terence McInerney, Steven Kossak, and Navina Haidar in [McInerney 2016]
Footnotes:
1. Miller, Barbara Stoler, ed. and trans. Love Song of the Dark Lord: Jayadeva’s Gitagovinda. UNESCO Collection of Representative Works, Indian Series. New York: Columbia University Press, 1977, p. 74.
Inscription: Inscribed on the reverse: - In black ink with four lines of Sanskrit text written in Devanagari script: Gita Govinda, part 1, stanza 26 (for an English translation, see Miller, Barbara Stoler, ed. and trans. Love Song of the Dark Lord: Jayadeva’s Gitagovinda. UNESCO Collection of Representative Works, Indian Series. New York: Columbia University Press, 1977, p. 74).
- Also inscribed in black ink with a two-line summary of the text in the Pahari dialect of Panjabi written in devanagari script.
- Also inscribed, in green ink, with an initialed signature and, in black ink, with the Indic number “20” shown twice.
Steven M. Kossak , New York (until 2020; gifted to MMA)
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Divine Pleasures: Painting from India's Rajput Courts—The Kronos Collections," June 13–September 11, 2016.
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