Plate 37
Radha’s Longing — Guler, Punjab Hills, C. 1810 — Bharat Kala Bhawan, Banaras
In Indian painting and poetry, it was women driven to distraction by unappeased longing rather than men hungry with desire who formed the chief subject of romantic art. Pictures focussed on woman in all her varied moods and flattered the male mind by portraying her wilting with sadness when deprived of husband or lover.
The present picture shows Radha frenziedly contemplating her lonely state. Ornaments grown too hot for wearing—from the passion burning in her heart—are strewn about the bed, while hands tightly clasped suggest her wild unhappy torment. The vast and barren hills, empty angular buildings, tiny guttering candles and lonely flowering tree provide a sympathetic setting.
With its sinuous line and innocent delight in feminine form, the picture is typical of Guler painting at the start of the nineteenth century.