Triveni Journal

1927 | 11,233,916 words

Triveni is a journal dedicated to ancient Indian culture, history, philosophy, art, spirituality, music and all sorts of literature. Triveni was founded at Madras in 1927 and since that time various authors have donated their creativity in the form of articles, covering many aspects of public life....

Studies in Rajput Painting

By G. Venkatachalam

II. NAYAKA-NAYIKA SERIES

Love, both human and Divine, was a subject of deep study in Ancient India, and there is a profound science and art of love elaborated into a system of philosophy which is at once interesting and instructive. Its great exponent was a Rishi, Vatsyayana, and his ‘Kama-sastra’ is a standard work on the subject. The modern science of sex psychology is merely a tiny fragment of that old science which dealt with not only physical sex-appeal, sex-impulse and sex-attraction, but with deeper founts of human nature. It is both a psychological and physiological treatise; a mine of information on one of the fundamental forces of life. That Vatsyayana was a clever psychologist with a vivid imagination and penetrating intuition, will be apparent from the following poetic conception of his on the origin of the first woman: "When Brahma", he writes, "the Creator of the Universe, was minded to give a helpmate to man, he became, to his consternation, aware that he had already used up the whole of his material on the creation of man. Not knowing what to do, Brahma looked about him and too the stuff to fashion woman from the rest of his creations. He took the lovely curve of the moon, the sinuous undulations of the body of the snake, the mobile grace of the quaking grass, the satin softness of the flower, the tender tendrils of the climbing creeper, the witchery of the dancing sun-beam, the slender suppleness of the willow, the vanity of the proud peacock, the ingratiating wiles of the cat, the sweetness of honey, the gentleness of the dove, the cruelty of the tiger and withal the coldness of ice and the heat of the fire. After this manner did Brahma create woman."

The rise and spread of Vaishnavism with its ‘Bhakti’ cult brought about strange psychological changes in the nature of the people. Devotion and service were held up as the modes of salvation, and the union of the human and Divine soul (which in their essence were one) was the aim and end of life. This path to union with God was made intensely personal and direct, and every devotee sought after his Beloved through song, music, poetry and worship. Outpourings of devotional songs and hymns considerably enriched the literature of the period and a new kind of mysticism influenced the life and arts of the people. Love-songs, love-poetry and love-festivals were much in vogue, and various new cults arose out of them. The central theme for artists and writers was the love of Radha and Krishna, symbolising the love of the human soul for the Divine, and this, in its higher aspect, became a great elevating spiritual force, and in its lower aspect became a kind of degraded sex-worship. The painters of those days have found rich materials in this for their art, and another strikingly interesting feature of the Rajput School of painting is the depiction of Erotics in pictorial forms. They are as significant as the ‘Ragamala’ series. In many respects, except for the theme, the pictures look alike in treatment and technique.

The ancient writers classified this subject into very many details, and clever psychologists as they were, they analysed both men and women according to their temperaments and their emotional nature, and categorically divided them under eight main headings, Nayakas and Nayikas as they were called. A Nayaka is a man-lover or hero and a Nayika is the heroine. There are eight types of them, and these formed an absorbing theme for the Rajput painters. Here, as in ‘Ragamala’ pictures, the interpretations were the artists’ own, and to those who knew its vocabulary, grammar and idiom, its meaning and significance were

quite clear.

One of the commonest of representations in this series is the Abhisarika Nayika, where the Abhisarika, or the young girl-lover, goes in search of her lover in the night time, through dangers and difficulties. The picture is a study in nocturne. The timid figure of the young girl dressed in coloured garments stands out against the dark ground of the night. The sky is threatening with heavy clouds, and lightning is flashing illuminating the dark spaces of the trees. A storm is brewing and the birds are on the flight. The rain is pouring down and serpents are hissing about her. The picture is treated in a realistic manner, but some of the significant motifs are symbolically treated.

Another favourite theme is Virahini. There are many versions of this subject. The girl-lover is consumed with the fire of love for her separated lord and she is seen lying on a couch of leaves to keep her cool. Two maids are fanning her with their hands and at the same time offering her sandal paste and lotus flower to soothe and comfort her, but she is not consolable. In another version of the same theme, the girl is seen reproaching an artist whom she had commissioned to execute a portrait of her separated lord, and the verse behind the picture is interesting and reads as follows. She says to the painter: "From evening to morning and morning to evening, the days are passing and months go by. What do you know of the woes of another? I gave you clean paper, fresh and shining like glass. Ah! painter, how many days have gone by, and you have not drawn the picture of my friend." In Uta Nayaka, we have the familiar scene of the heroine waiting anxiously the coming of her lover at the place of tryst in a lonely grove beside a bed of leaves. She is depicted in nervous expectation and she is holding the stem of a tree to support herself. There is a pond of lotus near by and a deer is drinking water.

Mr. O. C. Gangoly has an interesting note on one of them, the Vasaka-Sayya : "It is a picture of a white pavilion painted on a ground of deep Indian red, surrounded by a group of trees, with one human figure, a lady dressed in a diaphanous skirt, standing at the entrance to the pavilion. The bed which is kept ready for the expected guest in the shrine of love is emphasized by the blankness of wall, which in its turn is contrasted with the crowd of trees which practically fill the space outside, poignantly suggesting that everybody is here but the beloved one. In the words of an old Vaishnava song, ‘My temple alone is empty’. It is a vigil of love and she is waiting for her lover, standing motionless on the tip-toe of expectation. Her loneliness is laid stress on by the echoes of five straight perpendicular cypress trees, schematic in their rigidness. The monotonous red is the very symbol of prolonged agony of separation, which is the burden of the song and the theme of the picture."

Some of the best specimens of this series are from the brush of Kangra masters and therefore of exceeding beauty and charm. The ‘Ragamala’ series are mostly from the artists of the Rajasthani school and therefore of earlier date than the ‘Nayaka’ series. These pictures are more than mere pictures; they are not only pleasing to the aesthetical sense with their flowing lines and harmonious colours, but they reflect in a great measure the idealism and the sweet serenity of Indian life. They are an index to the cultural level of the people, a mirror of their mode of life and expression, a commentary on an interesting phase of Indian history. Few artistic endeavours in the world can lay claim to such originality, variety, sweetness of conception and perfection of achievement.

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