Divine Lover In Indian Art - By: Victor Epand

The major gods in Indian art traditions have rarely been described as celibate recluses, especially in their incarnate form in their demonstrative attraction for the opposite sex.

Krishna was physically irresistibly appealing and ancient texts dwell at length on his exceptionally alluring countenance. He had a blue complexion soft like the monsoon cloud, shining locks of black hair framing a beautifully chiseled face, large lotus like eyes, wild flower garlands around his neck, a yellow garment draped around his body, a crown of peacock feathers on his head, and a smile playing on his lips, which was how he is faithfully represented since the ancient times to the modern.

Much as in the Christian art of medieval times, it is woman the Mother, the Madonna suckling a babe who has been painted with reverence, in the Indian Diaspora it is woman the beloved who has been painted with love and passion. The female friends of Krishna with their warm sensuous faces, eyes filled with passion, and delicate sensitive fingers, did not represent the beauty of a woman, but the beauty of entire womanhood. In fact, she is there as the incarnation of all the beauty of the world and as a representative of the charm of her sex.

In the embrace of Krishna, the gopis, maddened with desire, found refuge in their love dalliance with him, who was the master in all the sixty four arts of love. The gopis felt a thrill indescribable and in making love with him in that climatic moment of release, in that one binding moment, they felt that joy and fulfillment which could not but be an aspect of the divine. Through their experience, the erotic, carnal, and profane became an aspect of the sublime, spiritual, and divine.

This cumulative myth sustained one basic point for women, which was that Krishna was a personal god that was always accessible and unfailingly responsive made for women. In the popular psyche, Krishna and Radha became the universal symbol for the lover and beloved. Krishna was the ideal hero, and Radha the ideal heroine. Often the colorful legends surrounding his amorous adventures with female friends prove to be of supreme inspiration to artists.

According to tradition, unmarried girls from ten to fourteen years of age worship the Goddess Durga in order to fulfill their desire for a suitable husband. The unmarried girls were already attracted by the beauty of Krishna, which was why they daily worshiped the goddess early in the morning after taking a bath in the river Yamuna, and supplicated the goddess to arrange for their match with Krishna. It is an old tradition that among Indian girls and women that when they take a bath in the river they place their garments on the bank and dip into the water completely naked. The portion of the river where the girls and women bathe was strictly prohibited to any male, and this is still the system in some parts.

One day Krishna appeared on the scene with his friends. Observing the garments left on the bank by the bathing gopis. He collected the garments, climbed up a nearby tree, and with a smiling face aid to them, "My dear girls, please come here one after another and pray for your garments and then take them away. I'm not joking with you, just telling the plain truth. Please don't come here all at once. Come alone one by one. I want to see each of you in your complete beauty, for you all have thin waists."

When the girls in the water heard such joking words from Krishna, they showed outward resentment, but inside they were joyous to hear such a request because they were already in love with him. They answered him saying, "Do not joke with us in this way, it is unjust to us. You are a very respectable boy and very dear to us, so kindly deliver our garments immediately because we are all shivering from the cold water, and end our suffering."

About the Author

Victor Epand is an expert consultant for Krishna art, religious gifts from India, and Hare Krishna books. Please visit these sites for Indian art, religious gifts from India, and Hare Krishna books.

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