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Artwork Details
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Title:"Krishna and Lakshmi, or Sri, Make Love in a Bower," Folio from the "Second" or "Tehri Garhwal" Gita Govinda (Song of God)
Date:ca. 1775–80
Geography:Attributed to India, Kangra or Guler, Punjab Hills
Medium:Opaque watercolor and gold on paper
Dimensions:Page: H. 7 in. (17.8 cm) W. 10 3/4 in. (27.3 cm) Painting: H. 6 1/8 in. (15.6 cm) W. 9 15/16 in. (25.2 cm)
Classification:Codices
Credit Line:On loan from the Kronos Collections
On the secluded banks of the Yamuna River the lovers Radha and Krishna are encased in a bower, seated on a bed of fragrant leaves. Their lovemaking has only just begun, as the two figures are still mostly clothed. (1) The downthrusting vine above the couple’s heads expresses Krishna’s yearning for Radha. The two trees just to the right of the bower symbolize the lovers’ differing attitudes as this amorous event unfolds. It is spring. The trees have just begun to flower. Eroticism was frankly expressed in medieval Indian art (e.g. the temple sculpture at Khajuraho and Konarak), yet this deep vein of imagery went underground in later Indian art. The erotic paintings contained in the great Series to which the present work once belonged (as well as cat. nos. 7782, 8485) , the socalled ‘second’, or ‘Tehri Garhwal’, Gita Govinda Series of ca. 17751780, are a rare exception: perhaps because they illustrated the text of Jayadeva’s Gita Govinda (late twelfth century A.D.), a monument of medieval Indian culture. According to some, Jayadeva’s poem has no mystical significance whatsoever, as the ancient Hindus were quite uninhibited and frank in accepting the truth that is flesh.(2). According to other scholars and devotees, who were influenced by the later bhakti movement, Jayadeva’s poem describes what the eighteenth century Kangra or Guler paintings surely express: the soul’s longing for the divine. In this later interpretation, the gopis represent the delights of the illusory world; and Radha, a symbol of goodness, represents human transcendence. In transcendent union with the Divine, the self is forgotten, dissolving in supreme ecstasy. (1) For the climax of this encounter, see Kathleen Kalista, Classical Indian Paintings (New York: Carlton Rochell Asian Art, 2015), no. 25. (2) M.S. Randhawa 1963, pg. 52
Inscription: Inscribed on the reverse in black ink with five lines of Sanskrit text written in devanagari script (Gita Govinda, part 1, stanza 25; for an English translation, see Miller, ed., 1977, p. 73); also inscribed in black ink with a two-line summary of the text in the Pahari dialect of Panjabi written in devanagari script
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Divine Pleasures: Painting from India's Rajput Courts—The Kronos Collections," June 13–September 11, 2016.
The Met's collection of Islamic art is one of the most comprehensive in the world and ranges in date from the seventh to the twenty-first century. Its more than 15,000 objects reflect the great diversity and range of the cultural traditions from Spain to Indonesia.
