With Plates3and5, part of the series attributed to Purkhu.
Led by Nanda, the majestic figure in the front bullock-cart, the cowherds are moving a day's march across the River Jumna to enjoy the larger freedom of Brindaban. Their possessions—bundles of clothes, spinning-wheels, baskets of grain and pitchers—are being taken with them and mounted with Yasoda on a second cart go the children, Balarama and Krishna. With its great variety of stances, simple naturalism and air of innocent calm, the picture exactly expresses the terms of tender familiarity on which the cowherds lived with Krishna.
Krishna Milking
Like Plate4, an illustration of an isolated episode. Krishna, having graduated from tending the calves, is milking a cow, his mind filled with brooding thoughts. A cowgirl restrains the calf by tugging at its string while the cow licks its restive offspring with tender care. Other details—the tree clasped by a flowering creeper, the peacock perched in its branches—suggest the cowgirls' growing love. The image of tree and creeper was a common symbol in poetry for the lover embraced by his beloved and peacocks, thirsting for rain, were evocative of desire.
In style, the picture represents the end of the first great phase of Garhwal painting (c. 1770-1804) when romantic themes were treated with glowing ardour.
The Quelling of the Snake Kaliya
With Plates3,5and6, an example of Kangra painting in its most serene form.
Krishna, having defied the hydra-headed snake whose poison has befouled the River Jumna, is dancing in triumph on its sagging heads. The snake's consorts plead for mercy—one of them holding out bunches of lotus flowers, the others folding their hands or stretching out their arms in mute entreaty. The river is once again depicted as a surging flood but it is the master-artist's command of sinuous line and power of suffusing a scene of turmoil with majestic calm which gives the picture greatness.
Although the present study is true to theBhagavata Puranawhere the snake is explicitly described as vacating the water and meeting its end on dry land, other pictures, notably those from Garhwal[129]follow theVishnu Puranaand show the final struggle taking place in the river itself.
[129]
Reproduced A.K. Coomaraswamy,Rajput Painting(Oxford, 1916), Vol. II, Plates 53 and 54.
Reproduced A.K. Coomaraswamy,Rajput Painting(Oxford, 1916), Vol. II, Plates 53 and 54.
Balarama killing the Demon Pralamba
A further example from the Kangra series, here attributed to Purkhu.
As part of his war on Krishna and young boys, the tyrant Kansa sends various demons to harry and kill them, the present picture showing four stages in one such attack. To the right, the cowherd children, divided into two parties, face each other by an ant-hill, Krishna with arms crossed heading the right-hand group and Balarama the left. Concealed as a cowherd in Krishna's party, the demon Pralamba awaits an opportunity of killing Balarama. The second stage, in the right-hand bottom corner, shows Balarama's party giving the other side 'pick-a-backs,' after having been vanquished in a game of guessing flowers and fruit. The third stage is reached in the top left-hand corner. Here Pralamba has regained his demon form and is hurrying off with Balarama. Balarama's left hand is tightly clutched but with his right he beats at the demon's head. The fourth and final stage is illustrated in the bottom left-hand corner where Balarama has subdued the demon and is about to slay him.
The picture departs from the normal version, as given in theBhagavata Purana,by showing Balarama's side, instead of Krishna's, carrying out the forfeits. According to thePurana, it was Krishna's side that lost and since Pralamba was among the defeated, he was in a position to take Balarama for a ride. It is likely, however, that in view of the other episode in thePuranain which Krishna humbles his favourite cowgirl when she asks to be carried (Plate14), the artist shrank from showing Krishna in this servile posture so changed the two sides round.
The Forest Fire
Under Raja Kirpal Pal (c. 1680-1693), painting at Basohli attained a savage intensity of expression—the present picture illustrating the style in its earliest and greatest phase. Surrounded by a ring of fire and with cowherd boys and cattle stupefied by smoke, Krishna is putting out the blaze by sucking the flames into his cheeks. Deer and pig are bounding to safety while birds and wild bees hover distractedly overhead.
During his life among the cowherds, Krishna was on two occasions confronted with a forest fire—the first, on the night following his struggle with Kaliya the snake when Nanda, Yasoda and other cowherds and cowgirls were also present and the second, following Balarama's encounter with the demon Pralamba (Plate 10), when only cowherd boys were with him. Since Nanda and the cowgirls are absent from the present picture, it is probably the second of these two occasions which is illustrated.
For a reproduction in colour of this passionately glowing picture, see Karl Khandalavala,Indian Sculpture and Painting(Bombay, 1938) (Plate 10).
The Stealing of the Clothes
Despite the Indian delight in sensuous charm, the nude was only rarely depicted in Indian painting—feelings of reverence and delicacy forbidding too unabashed a portrayal of the feminine physique. The present picture with its band of nude girls is therefore an exception—the facts of thePuranarendering necessary their frank inclusion.
The scene illustrated concerns the efforts of the cowgirls to win Krishna's love. Bathing naked in the river at dawn in order to rid themselves of sin, they are surprised by Krishna who takes their clothes up into a tree. When they beg him to return them, he insists that each should freely expose herself before him, arguing that only in this way can they convince him of their love. In the picture, the girls are shyly advancing while Krishna looks down at them from the tree.
The Raising of Mount Govardhana
With Plate7, an example of Garhwal painting and its use of smoothly curving line.
Krishna is lifting Mount Govardhana on his little finger and Nanda. the cowherds and cowgirls are sheltering underneath. The occasion is Krishna's slight to Indra, king of the gods and lord of the clouds, whose worship he has persuaded the cowherds to abandon. Incensed at Krishna's action, Indra has retaliated by sending storms of rain.
In the picture, Indra, a tiny figure mounted on a white elephant careers across the sky, goading the clouds to fall in torrents. Lightning flickers wildly and on Govardhana itself, the torn and shattered trees bespeak the gale's havoc. Below all is calm as the cowherds acclaim Krishna's power.
Krishna with his Favourite after leaving the Dance
Besides Purkhu, at least two other master-artists worked at Kangra towards the end of the eighteenth century—one, responsible for the present picture and Plates14and15, being still unknown. He is here referred to as 'the master of the moonlight' on account of his special preoccupation with moonlight effects.
The present picture shows Krishna and a girl standing by an inlet of the River Jumna. The girl is later to be identified as Radha but in theBhagavata Puranashe is merely referred to as one who has been particularly favoured, her actual name being suppressed. The moment is some time after they have left the circular dance and before their sudden separation. Krishna, whose hand rests on the girl's shoulder, is urging her forward but the girl is weary and begs him to carry her. The incident illustrates one of the vicissitudes in Radha and Krishna's romance and was later to be endowed with deep religious meaning.
Krishna's Favourite deserted
From the same series as Plates13and15by 'the master of the moonlight.'
The girl's request (Plate13) that Krishna should carry her brings to a head the question of Krishna's proper status. To an adoring lover, the request is not unreasonable. Made to God, it implies an excess of pride. Despite their impassioned love-making, therefore, the girl must be humbled and as she puts out her arms and prepares to mount, Krishna vanishes.
In the picture, the great woods overhanging the rolling Jumna are tilting forward as if to join the girl in her agonized advances while around her rise the bleak and empty slopes, their eerie loneliness intensified by frigid moonlight.
The Quest for Krishna
By the same 'master of the moonlight' as Plates13and14.
Krishna's favourite, stunned by his brusque desertion, has now been met by a party of cowgirls. Their plight is similar to her own, for, after enjoying his enchanting love, they also have been deserted when Krishna left the dance taking his favourite with him. In the picture, Radha holds her head in anguish while to the right the cowgirls look at her in mute distress. Drooping branches echo their stricken love while a tree in the background, its branches stretching wanly against the sky, suggests their plaintive yearning.
The Eve of the final Encounter
From the same series as Plates3,5,6,8,9and11, here attributed to the Kangra artist Purkhu.
Invited by Kansa, the tyrant king, to attend a festival of arms, Nanda and the cowherds have arrived at Mathura and pitched their tents outside the walls. Krishna and Balarama are eating their evening meal by candle-light, a cowherd, wearing a dark cloak to keep off the night air, is attending to the bullocks while three cowherd boys, worn out by the day's march, rest on string-beds under the night sky. In the background, Krishna and Balarama, having finished their meal, are peacefully sleeping, serenely indifferent to the struggle which awaits them the next day. The moon waning in the sky parallels the tyrant's declining fortunes.
The End of the Tyrant
In the same style as Plate16, but perhaps from a different series.
The festival of arms is now in progress but has already taken an unexpected turn. Set on by the savage elephant, Krishna and Balarama have killed it and taken out the tusks. They have then engaged two giant wrestlers, Krishna killing his opponent outright. In the picture Balarama is about to kill the other wrestler and Krishna, holding an elephant tusk under his arm, looks at the king with calm defiance. The king's end is now in sight for a little later Krishna will spring on the platform and hurl him to his death. Gathered in the wide arena, townspeople from Mathura await the outcome, while cowherd boys delightedly encourage the two heroes.
The Rape of Rukmini
Compared with Krishna's life among the cowherds, his adventures as a prince were only scantily illustrated in Indian painting—his consort Rukmini being totally eclipsed in courtly favour by the adored cowgirl, Radha. The present picture—one of the very few to represent the theme—shows Rukmini and her maids worshipping at the shrine to Devi, the earth mother, on the morning of her wedding. Her proposed husband is Sisupala and already he and his party have arrived to claim her hand. In despair Rukmini has apprised Krishna of her fate but does not know that he will intervene. As she worships, Krishna suddenly appears, places her on his chariot and, in the teeth of Sisupala's forces, carries her away. The picture illustrates the dramatic moment when after descending on the shrine, Krishna effects her rescue.
The picture is in an eighteenth-century style of painting which, from antecedents in Kashmir and the Punjab Plains, developed at Bilaspur. This small Rajput State adjoined Guler in the Punjab Hills and shared in the general revival of painting caused by the diffusion of artists from Basohli.
Krishna welcoming the Brahman Sudama
Sudama is a poor Brahman whose devotion leads him to go to Dwarka, and seek out Krishna. Krishna remembers the time when they had shared the same preceptor and warmly welcomes him to his princely palace. The picture shows Sudama in rags seated on a stool while Krishna washes his feet and hails him as a Brahman. In close attendance are various ladies of the court, their graceful forms transcribed with sinuous delicacy and suave poetic charm.
Although an episode in Krishna's later career as a prince and one designed to buttress the priestly caste of Brahmans, the story—with its emphasis on loving devotion—is actually in close accord with Krishna's life among the cowherds. For this reason, it probably continued to excite interest long after other aspects of his courtly life had been ignored. In this respect. Sudama's visit to Krishna is as much a parable of divine love as Krishna's dances with the cowgirls.
The Beginnings of Romance
The first poem to celebrate Radha as Krishna's supreme love is theGita Govindaof Jayadeva, written at the end of the twelfth century. The poem recounts Radha's anguish at Krishna's fickleness, his subsequent repentance and finally their passionate re-union.
The present picture with its glamorous interpretation of the forest in spring illustrates the poem's opening verse and re-creates the setting in terms of which the drama will proceed. Nanda, the tall figure towering above the cowherd children, is commanding Radha to take Krishna home. The evening sky is dark with clouds, the wind has risen and already the flower-studded branches are swaying and bending in the breeze. Krishna is still a young boy and Radha a girl a few years older. As Radha takes him home, they loiter by the river, passion suddenly flares and they fall into each other's arms. In this way, the verse declares, the loves of Radha and Krishna began. The left-hand side of the picture shows the two lovers embracing—the change in their attitudes being reflected in their altered heights. Krishna who originally was shorter than Radha is now the taller of the two, the change suggesting the mature character of their passionate relations.
The picture with its graceful feminine forms and twining lines has the same quality of rhythmical exaltation as Plates19and35, a quality typical of the Garwhal master-artist in his greatest phase.
Krishna playing on the Flute
As Radha wilts in lonely anguish, a friend describes how Krishna is behaving.
'The wife of a certain herdsman sings as Krishna sounds a tune of loveKrishna here disports himself with charming women given to love.'
'The wife of a certain herdsman sings as Krishna sounds a tune of loveKrishna here disports himself with charming women given to love.'
'The wife of a certain herdsman sings as Krishna sounds a tune of love
Krishna here disports himself with charming women given to love.'
In the picture, Radha sits beneath a flowering tree, conversing with the friend while, to the right, Krishna plays the flute to a circle of adoring girls.
The painting is by a Kangra master, perhaps Kushala, the nephew of the Guler artist, Nainsukh, and illustrates the power of Kangra painters to imbue with innocent delicacy the most intensely emotional of situations. It was the investment of passion with dignity which was one of the chief contributions of Kangra painting to Indian art.
Krishna dancing with the Cowgirls
Besides describing Krishna's flute-playing, Radha's friend gives her an account of his love-making.
'An artless woman looks with ardour on Krishna's lotus face.''Another on the bank of the Jumna, when Krishna goes to a bamboo thicket,Pulls at his garment to draw him back, so eager is she for amorous play.''Krishna praises another woman, lost with him in the dance of love,The dance where the sweet low flute is heard in the clamour of bangles on hands that clap. He embraces one woman, he kisses another, and fondles another beautiful one.''Krishna here disports himself with charming women given to love.'
'An artless woman looks with ardour on Krishna's lotus face.''Another on the bank of the Jumna, when Krishna goes to a bamboo thicket,Pulls at his garment to draw him back, so eager is she for amorous play.''Krishna praises another woman, lost with him in the dance of love,The dance where the sweet low flute is heard in the clamour of bangles on hands that clap. He embraces one woman, he kisses another, and fondles another beautiful one.''Krishna here disports himself with charming women given to love.'
'An artless woman looks with ardour on Krishna's lotus face.'
'Another on the bank of the Jumna, when Krishna goes to a bamboo thicket,
Pulls at his garment to draw him back, so eager is she for amorous play.'
'Krishna praises another woman, lost with him in the dance of love,
The dance where the sweet low flute is heard in the clamour of bangles on hands that clap. He embraces one woman, he kisses another, and fondles another beautiful one.'
'Krishna here disports himself with charming women given to love.'
The present picture illustrates phases of this glamorous love-making—Krishna embracing one woman, dancing with another and conversing with a third. The background is a diagram of the forest as it might appear in spring—the slack looseness of treatment befitting the freedom of conduct adumbrated by the verse. The large insects hovering in the branches are the black bees of Indian love-poetry whose quest for flowers was regarded as symbolic of urgent lovers pestering their mistresses. In style the picture illustrates the Jain painting of Western India after its early angular rigidity had been softened by application to tender and more romantic themes.
Krishna seated with the Cowgirls
After flute-playing and dancing (Plates21and22), Krishna sits with the cowgirls.
'With his limbs, tender and dark like rows of clumps of blue lotus flowers.By herd girls surrounded, who embrace at pleasure any part of his body,Friend, in spring, beautiful Krishna plays like Love's own selfConducting the love sport, with love for all, bringing delight into being.'
'With his limbs, tender and dark like rows of clumps of blue lotus flowers.By herd girls surrounded, who embrace at pleasure any part of his body,Friend, in spring, beautiful Krishna plays like Love's own selfConducting the love sport, with love for all, bringing delight into being.'
'With his limbs, tender and dark like rows of clumps of blue lotus flowers.
By herd girls surrounded, who embrace at pleasure any part of his body,
Friend, in spring, beautiful Krishna plays like Love's own self
Conducting the love sport, with love for all, bringing delight into being.'
And it is here that Radha finds him.
'May the smiling captivating Krishna protect you, whom Radha, blinded by love,Violently kissed as she made as if singing a song of welcome saying,"Your face is nectar, excellent," ardently clasping his bosomIn the presence of the fair-browed herdgirls dazed in the sport of love.'
'May the smiling captivating Krishna protect you, whom Radha, blinded by love,Violently kissed as she made as if singing a song of welcome saying,"Your face is nectar, excellent," ardently clasping his bosomIn the presence of the fair-browed herdgirls dazed in the sport of love.'
'May the smiling captivating Krishna protect you, whom Radha, blinded by love,
Violently kissed as she made as if singing a song of welcome saying,
"Your face is nectar, excellent," ardently clasping his bosom
In the presence of the fair-browed herdgirls dazed in the sport of love.'
The picture shows Krishna surrounded by a group of cowgirls, one of whom is caressing his leg. To the right, Radha and the friend are approaching through the trees. The style with its sharp curves and luxuriating smartness illustrates a vital development of the Jain manner in the later sixteenth century.[130]
[130]
For a first discussion of this important series, see a contribution by Karl Khandalavala, 'AGita GovindaSeries in the Prince of Wales Museum,'Bulletin of the Prince of Wales Museum. Bombay(1956), No. 4.
For a first discussion of this important series, see a contribution by Karl Khandalavala, 'AGita GovindaSeries in the Prince of Wales Museum,'Bulletin of the Prince of Wales Museum. Bombay(1956), No. 4.
The neglected Radha
Following his revels with the cowgirls, Krishna is smitten with remorse. He roams the forest, searching for the lovely Radha but finding her nowhere. As he pursues his quest, he encounters the friend and learns of Radha's dejected state.
'Her body is wholly tormented by the heat of the flame of desire;But only of you, so loved, she thinks in her langour,Your extinguishing body; secluded she waits, all wasted—A short while, perhaps, surviving she lives.Formerly even a moment when weary she closed her eyes.The moment's parting she could not endure, from the sight of you;And now in this long separation, O how does she breatheHaving seen the flowery branch of the mango, the shaft of Love?'
'Her body is wholly tormented by the heat of the flame of desire;But only of you, so loved, she thinks in her langour,Your extinguishing body; secluded she waits, all wasted—A short while, perhaps, surviving she lives.Formerly even a moment when weary she closed her eyes.The moment's parting she could not endure, from the sight of you;And now in this long separation, O how does she breatheHaving seen the flowery branch of the mango, the shaft of Love?'
'Her body is wholly tormented by the heat of the flame of desire;
But only of you, so loved, she thinks in her langour,
Your extinguishing body; secluded she waits, all wasted—
A short while, perhaps, surviving she lives.
Formerly even a moment when weary she closed her eyes.
The moment's parting she could not endure, from the sight of you;
And now in this long separation, O how does she breathe
Having seen the flowery branch of the mango, the shaft of Love?'
In the picture, Radha is sitting in the forest, lonely and neglected. Trees surround her, suggesting by their rank luxuriance the upward surge of spring while cranes, slowly winging their way in pairs across the blackening sky, poignantly remind her of her former love.
Krishna repentant
Learning of Radha's plight, Krishna longs to comfort her. Before approaching her, however, he spends a night passionately dallying with another cowgirl and only in the morning tenders his submission. By this time, Radha's mood has turned to bitter anger and although Krishna begs to be forgiven, Radha tells him to return to his latest love.
'Go, Krishna, go. Desist from uttering these deceitful words.Follow her, you lotus-eyed, she who can dispel your trouble, go to her.'
'Go, Krishna, go. Desist from uttering these deceitful words.Follow her, you lotus-eyed, she who can dispel your trouble, go to her.'
'Go, Krishna, go. Desist from uttering these deceitful words.
Follow her, you lotus-eyed, she who can dispel your trouble, go to her.'
In the picture, Krishna is striving to calm her ruffled feelings while Radha, 'cruel to one who loves you, unbending to one who bows, angry with one who desires, averting your face from this your lover,' has none of him.
According to the poem, the scene of this tense encounter is not a palace terrace but the forest—the Garhwal artist deeming a courtly setting more appropriate for Radha's exquisite physique. The suavely curving linear rhythm, characteristic of Garhwal painting at its best, is once again the means by which a mood of still adoration is sensitively conveyed.
The last Tryst
Having brusquely dismissed Krishna, Radha is overcome with longing and when he once again approaches her she showers on him her adoring love. The friend urges her to delay no longer.
'Your friends are all aware that you are ready for love's conflictGo, your belt aloud with bells, shameless, amorous, to the meeting.'
'Your friends are all aware that you are ready for love's conflictGo, your belt aloud with bells, shameless, amorous, to the meeting.'
'Your friends are all aware that you are ready for love's conflict
Go, your belt aloud with bells, shameless, amorous, to the meeting.'
Radha succumbs to her advice and slowly approaches Krishna's forest bower.
In the picture, Krishna is impatiently awaiting her while Radha, urged onward by the friend, pauses for a moment to shed her shyness. The picture is part of an illustrated edition of the poem executed in Basohli in 1730 for a local princess, the lady Manaku. As in other Basohli paintings, trees are shown as small and summary symbols, the horizon is a streak of clouds and there is a deliberate shrinkage from physical refinement. The purpose of the picture is rather to express with the maximum of power the savagery of passion and the stark nature of lovers' encounters.
The closing Scene
From the same series as Plate26.
After agonies of 'love unsatisfied,' Radha and Krishna are at last reconciled.
'She looked on Krishna who desired only her, on him who for long wanted dalliance,Whose face with his pleasure was overwhelmed and who was possessed with Desire,Who engendered passion with his face made lovely through tremblings of glancing eyes,Like a pond in autumn with a pair of wagtails at play in a fullblown lotus.Like the gushing of the shower of sweat in the effort of her travel to come to his hearing,Radha's eyes let fall a shower of tears when she met her beloved,Tears of delight which went to the ends of her eyes and fell on her flawless necklace.When she went near the couch and her friends left the bower, scratching their faces to hide their smiles,And she looked on the mouth of her loved one, lovely with longing, under the power of love,The modest shame of that deer-eyed one departed.'
'She looked on Krishna who desired only her, on him who for long wanted dalliance,Whose face with his pleasure was overwhelmed and who was possessed with Desire,Who engendered passion with his face made lovely through tremblings of glancing eyes,Like a pond in autumn with a pair of wagtails at play in a fullblown lotus.Like the gushing of the shower of sweat in the effort of her travel to come to his hearing,Radha's eyes let fall a shower of tears when she met her beloved,Tears of delight which went to the ends of her eyes and fell on her flawless necklace.When she went near the couch and her friends left the bower, scratching their faces to hide their smiles,And she looked on the mouth of her loved one, lovely with longing, under the power of love,The modest shame of that deer-eyed one departed.'
'She looked on Krishna who desired only her, on him who for long wanted dalliance,
Whose face with his pleasure was overwhelmed and who was possessed with Desire,
Who engendered passion with his face made lovely through tremblings of glancing eyes,
Like a pond in autumn with a pair of wagtails at play in a fullblown lotus.
Like the gushing of the shower of sweat in the effort of her travel to come to his hearing,
Radha's eyes let fall a shower of tears when she met her beloved,
Tears of delight which went to the ends of her eyes and fell on her flawless necklace.
When she went near the couch and her friends left the bower, scratching their faces to hide their smiles,
And she looked on the mouth of her loved one, lovely with longing, under the power of love,
The modest shame of that deer-eyed one departed.'
In the picture, Radha and Krishna are again united. Krishna has drawn Radha to him and is caressing her cheek while friends of Radha gossip in the courtyard. As in Plate25, the artist has preferred a house to the forest—the sharp thrust of the angular walls exactly expressing the fierceness of the lovers' desires.
Krishna awaiting Radha
Following the Sanskrit practice of discussing poetic taste, Keshav Das produced in 1592 a Hindi manual of poetics. In this book, poems on love were analysed with special reference to Krishna—Krishna himself sustaining the role ofnayakaor ideal lover. During the seventeenth century, illustrated versions of the manual were produced—poems appearing at the top of the picture and the subjects being illustrated beneath. The present picture treats Radha as thenayikaor ideal mistress and shows her about to visit Krishna, She is, at first, seated on a bed but a little later, is leaning against a pillar as a maid or friend induces her to descend. In the left-hand bottom corner, Krishna sits quietly waiting. The bower is hung with garlands and floored with lotus petals while lightning twisting in the sky and torches flickering in the courtyard suggest the storm of love. The figures with their neat line and eager faces are typical of Bundi painting after it had broken free from the parent style of Udaipur.
Radha and Krishna making Love
Like Plate28, an illustration to a Hindi poem analysing Krishna's conduct as ideal lover.
Krishna is here embracing Radha while outside two of Radha's friends await the outcome. Above them, two girls are watching peacocks—the strained advances of the birds and the ardent gazes of the girls hinting at the tense encounter proceeding in the room below.
The Udaipur style of painting with its vehement figures, geometrical compositions and brilliant colouring was admirably suited to interpreting scenes of romantic violence.
The Lover approaching
Although theRasika Priyaof Keshav Das was the manual of poetry most frequently illustrated by Indian artists, an earlier Sanskrit treatise, theRasamanjariof Bhanu Datta, excited a particular raja's interest and resulted in the production at Basohli of a vividly illustrated text. The original poem discusses the conventions of ordinary lovers. Under this Basohli ruler's stimulus, however, the lover was deemed to be Krishna and although the verses make no allusion to him, it is Krishna who monopolizes the illustrations.
In the present instance, Krishna the lover, carrying a lotus-bud, is about to visit his mistress. The lady sits within, a pair of lotus-leaves protecting her nude bust, her hair falling in strands across her thighs. A maid explains to Krishna that her mistress is still at her toilet and chides him for arriving so abruptly.
The poem expresses the sentiments which a lover, denied early access, might fittingly address to his mistress.
'Longing to behold your path, my inmost heart—like a lotus-leaf when a new rain-cloud has appeared—mounts to your neck. My eye, too, takes wing, soaring in the guise of a lotus-bird, to regard the moon of your face.'[131]
[131]