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Magazine
Celebrations of divinity
RANVIR SHAH
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An exhibition of the Pichhwais of Srinathji, currently on show at Surat, captures the sensuous joy of the sacred through the depiction of the life and times of Krishna.
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Coming away from the visual bombardment of beauty through so many exquisite representations and stories in adoration of Krishna, one can only be delighted at the multiple textile traditions this one piece of religious textile could encompass.
A variety of styles: A Deccani pichhwai and the Sandhya Arti pichhwai (right).
“In adoration of Krishna” — Pichhwais of Srinathji from the Tapi (Textiles and Art of the People of India) collection — is an exhibition that was recently shown in New Delhi at the National Museum and the Chhatrapati Shivaji Sanghralaya in Mumbai. Inspired after the Tapi river in Surat, the collection has been put together by Praful and Shilpa Shah of the Garden Silk Mills and is a part of their larger extensive textile collection of temple, trade and court textiles. At the moment the show is on at Surat.
A pichhwai is hung behind (peeche in Hindi, in our common understanding) the deity. These celebrated pichhwais are of the Vallabhacharya sect signifying Krishna as Srinathji, and the cult is called the Pushti Marg. The depictions bring alive entire moods based on the calendar of festivities in the temple town and the cult. Over a period, multiple media, from painting to block printing to embroidery and even lace, graced the pichhwais in the temple palaces, also known as havelis and the private home temples of wealthy merchants from Western India who belonged largely to this community. While the show displayed over 40 pichhwais and related miniatures and objects d’art from the sect, I will concentrate on the five most striking pichhwais that convey the very best of their specific genres and were the star pieces of the show.
Mellifluous lines
To start with the largest pichhwai, the one of the Evening Worship or Sandhya Arti. Done in the mellifluous lines of the Kishangarh School of painting, it is a very large piece depicting Krishna and his brother Balarama returning at the evening hour with their cows and cowherd brethren to the home of Nand and Yashoda. Architechtonically and in perspective Krishna is adored as Srinathji. In a wondrous two dimensional perspective is shown the home and palace of Nand, who awaits his adopted son’s return on a balcony. The detailing of the cowherds, their various turbans, the expressions on their faces and the delicately upward curving smiles of the faithful cows almost in a smirk of karmic bliss at being near Krishna is a joy to behold. The women of the household perform an arati and others wait in expectant moods over balconies and turrets, all for a glimpse of the divine cowherd. At the bottom in a border is depicted the river Yamuna with fully blossomed and closed lotuses and fishes sporting delicately in its waters. To realise the impact of this very large pichhwai one has to see it in actuality, to appreciate its scale.
From here we move to an unusual pichhwai used for the Gopashtami Utsava or the Festival of Cows celebrated in honour of the day when Krishna the child god becomes a full cowherd on the eighth day of the bright half of the month of Kartika, corresponding to November. What makes this pichhwai special from the others of its genre where there is usually a crowding of many cows near Krishna as he calls out on his flute is the fact that the entire pichhwai has been stamped in silver tinsel and highlighted with gold (khari technique of Gujarat/ Rajasthan). The effect is at once delightful and one can imagine the light of diyas twinkling off the reflections of the many silver cows.
This brings us to the next genre of Deccani pichhwais from South India. While no art historian has been able to make the link clearly, Dr. Saryu Doshi, in an article many years ago, came up with the most believable theory of the migration of merchants of the Pushti Marga cult to South India. Here their memories mixed with local traditions and produced some very beautiful stamped and painted pigment Kalamkari pichhwais. There are few but they are amongst the most delightful, allowing for a sense of discovery — as in a Faberge egg. The gold and silver is worked in blocks over the paintings. In some, golden flowers fall from the Kadamba tree while gopis flank an empty space where the statue of Krishna would have been kept. While art historians argue that these could also be from Western India the stylistic closeness to Kalamkari blocks brings the argument closer to the Deccan and allows us to see the synergising effects of both these schools of painting.
The community of embroiderers of Kutch had their own style of embroidery called mochi bharat or cobbler’s embroidery which comes from the chain stitch done for shoes and yet the finely embroidered pichhwais with silk thread depicting the same themes of adoration are masterpieces of devotion and handwork. Spectacular as an example of this is a half part of a pichhwai with four gopis in adoration. Their clothes and the mango tree under which they stand are an embroiderer’s dream.
As trade increased, incessant demand for the new and wondrous, to be offered to the temple and private home worship also went hand in hand. As a result of this, Nottingham, in England, and Germany produced lace pichhwais mostly in white on white and these depicted scenes from the raas lila dance to the watersports or jalvihara, both common themes. Strangely and perhaps due to their novelty as imported items, they seemed to have stopped at a given point in history, perhaps due to the influence of the Swadeshi movement on the merchant community who were a huge part of the Pushti Marg cult.
Multiple traditions
Coming away from the visual bombardment of beauty through so many exquisite representations and stories in adoration of Krishna, one can only be delighted at the multiple textile traditions this one piece of religious textile could encompass. As the strains of the asthachhap poets who sang praise to Krishna at Nathdwara plays on in the background, one is transported from museum space to the space of the temple haveli where this music and devotees celebrate in complete sensuousness the joy of the sacred through the life and times of the baby child-god-Srinathji. May they never stop doing so.
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