In this painting, broadly the product of folk art tradition of Mithila region in Bihar, the same as in the contemporary schooled art, the anatomy of figures has been almost fully revolutionized : a cow-form covering almost three-fourth of the horizontal stretch of the canvas and its tiny calf almost merged into the background motifs, one magnified and other miniaturized, and both, out of proportions. The waves-like curved courses in maroon and orange, rendered alternately for defining the cow’s back, appear as if distributing the verticality of the canvas – a feature more characteristic to contemporary art. The cow’s thuds, the calf is feeding on, look like a decorative Diwali hanging woven with multi-coloured threads and beads. For balancing the space even the number of thuds has been multiplied.
The mini calf has well developed respectable horns, the same as a newborn is conceived with robust moustaches. Even the size and shape of its ears have been revised for affording the horns an artistic base. Beautifully conceived as these are, the calf, as also its mother, seem to be wearing on their haunches beautifully knitted mob baby-caps. The figures of them both have been conceived more like decorative artifacts rather than as animal forms. Not merely the cow, even the calf has been saddled like a bull with saddle-cloth and bell. The gesture of cow : turning its face to Krishna who with his pipe appears to drive it, as if praying him to wait a little and let it feed its kid, is simply marvelous and is what defines the heights of arts, traditional or modern.
Such strangeness is not only in regard to the form of cow – obviously the painting’s central icon and theme, even the human anatomy of the Krishna’s figure reveals similar dimensions. Squeezed in breadth and pulled in length, the artist seems to have had greater concern for fitting his figure into the column-like vertical space which the canvas afforded him in between the figure of the cow and the border on its left. Requiring the viewing eye to make its own distinction, the artist has conceived in the same colour Krishna’s figure and his ensemble, at least a part of it. It is only from the white horizontal stripes and a narrow bottom that the pajama he is putting on becomes distinguishable. The style of his hair, the pattern of ear-rings and the character of garments, specially his half-sleeve printed blouse-type short breast-wear and the short skirt with a decorative ‘patta’ – the piece of textile worn hanging in between the legs, relieve him of his gender identity, and, except for his flute and peacock-feather type motif in his crest, and of course his act of herding a cow, he looks more like a young maiden rather than a male.
The tree, composed more like a background, covers with its branches, leaves and flowers the entire space, vertical or horizontal, even that in between the cow’s, or even the calf’s, two legs or horns. Its trunk has been raised on the extreme right of the canvas but its branches reach the far left, above and down to the ground. Bold leaves and far bolder flowers, composed of bright orange medallions contained within elaborate grayish rings, scattered all over, look like isolated motifs conceived for embellishing the background. The branches have innumerable flowers and leaves but, barring a few, not twigs or stems to hold them on.
The painting’s theme is one of the most common aspects of Krishna’s myth. A cowherd, he was often out with cows. He did not drive them with a cane but rather by the sound of his flute. Painted as driving the cow with his flute using it like a cane suggests that for Krishna his flute was his cane. In Hindu divine iconography, Vaishnava or Shaiva, goad is often the attribute which most of the divine entities carried. It suggests that they goaded with it wrong-doers to the right path, and those on right path, to its apex – the salvation. Krishna’s flute was his goad, his divine attribute to drive to the right path, not by fear but by inspiring love and beauty. Krishna did not favour that the milk of Brij was exported to Mathura where it fed Kansa and his evil-minded courtiers, and the cow’s own, the people of Brij, were deprived of it. The calf, feeding on the cow’s thuds, symbolises ‘the cow’s own’ or the rightful ones to feed on its milk.
This description by Prof. P.C. Jain and Dr. Daljeet. Prof. Jain specializes on the aesthetics of literature and is the author of numerous books on Indian art and culture. Dr. Daljeet is the curator of the Miniature Painting Gallery, National Museum, New Delhi. They have both collaborated together on a number of books.
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