Plate 21
Krishna playing on the Flute
Illustration to the Gita Govinda
Kangra, Punjab Hills, c. 1790
N.C. Mehta collection, Bombay
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 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.