Nathdwara Paintings from the Anil Relia Collection - Niyogi ...

Nathdwara Paintings from the Anil Relia Collection

Nathdwara Paintings from the Anil Relia Collection

The Portal to Shrinathji

Kalyan Krishna & Kay Talwar

Note to Readers

We have uniformly subtracted fifty-seven years from the Vikram Samvat year to arrive at its Common Era equivalent.

We have eliminated the short ‘a’ at the end of words except in the cases of commonly accepted spellings. Also, some short ‘a’s in compound words often remain for the sake of pronunciation. It is not a perfect solution but an attempt to replicate the way the words are pronounced. Please forgive us for what appears to be inconsistency.

We have also decided to transliterate as d and as r in order to come closer to the actual way these consonants are pronounced.

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Text ©: Kalyan Krishna and Kay TalwarImages ©: Anil Relia

Editor: Sucharita GhoshDesign: Nabanita Das

ISBN: 978-93-89136-72-2Publication: 2021

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5

ContentsForeword by Tryna Lyons 07Authors’ Note 09Introduction 11The Ritual Cycle 21Catalogue of Nathdwara Paintings 27

Plans of the Shrinathji Temple 28

The Prakatya: The Emergence of Shrinathji 32

Spring (Vasant): The Season of Colour 41

Summer (Grishma) 59

Monsoon (Varsha) 71

Autumn (Sharad) 93

Winter (Hemant/Shishir) 125

The Eventful Years: 1907–1909 135

Images of Shrinathji 147

Darshan Paintings 152

Krishna’s Lilas 170

Nineteenth and Twentieth Century Manoraths 174

Nathdwara and Its Neighbours 181

The Artist’s Hand Revealed 195

The Influence of Popular Prints 215

Technique 231

Appendices 241

Svarups 242

Svarup Chart 248

Ashtasakha 250

The Goswamis of Mathura 253

Genealogical Tree 256

Glossary 258

Bibliography 260

Acknowledgements 263

Anil Relia’s collection of Nathdwara paintings had its origin in 1996, when his interest was

piqued by an unusual sketch. The drawing turned out to be the work of renowned artist Ghasiram (1869–1931), and its acquisition sent Ahmedabad-based Relia off on a journey of exploration and growing connoisseurship. He proceeded to assemble a well-rounded, meticulously authenticated collection comprising examples of the several genres for which this Rajasthani school of art is known. A pair of distinguished experts in the field, Kalyan Krishna and Kay Talwar, agreed to prepare a catalogue after taking a look at the significant paintings it would cover. The two scholars have collaborated before, producing catalogues for the Calico Museum (1979) and Tapi Collection (2007).

As the authors detail in their introduction, Nathdwara was until recently a place where time seemed to have been arrested. Eighteenth-century temple traditions and nineteenth-century workshop practice prevailed, and artists seeking to portray the playful activities of the child-god Shrinathji had only to look down their own narrow lanes to see plump cows, mischievous children and marauding monkeys just like those that romped through the narratives they were painting in their studios. The temple doors were (and still are) thrown open at set times, permitting devotees and pilgrims to take a few moments out of their day to visit the deity who dwells at the centre of their town, and who commands their hearts. The

collection of paintings we see here, organized around the seven to eight viewings (darshan) that take place every day, the colourful festivals strewn across the seasons, and the special paintings commissioned by priestly aristocrats and wealthy patrons, affords us a glimpse of a community preoccupied with the life and loves of Krishna.

This inward-looking world was not, however, immune to artistic and political developments outside its boundaries. Chapters on the fertile cross-influences among various schools of painting in the region and on the role of popular prints in modernizing Nathdwara’s aesthetic preferences reveal a group of artisans willing to consider new ways of seeing and depicting. Further sections on painting technique help us understand the complex process of getting pigment onto a support, from making the paintbrush and preparing the pigments to the final burnishing of the surface. Even though some of these procedures have been lost, curtailed or abandoned in recent years, they constitute a determinant of the classic Nathdwara school of painting. A group of sketches takes us even closer to the creative process, as we look over the artist’s shoulder while he gets his initial idea down on paper. In this chapter, ‘The Artist’s Hand Revealed’, we find the drawing that first sent Anil Relia on his voyage of discovery (CAT 80).

Taking a cue from Amit Ambalal (Krishna as Shrinathji, 1987), Krishna and Talwar have analyzed the paintings as historical documents. Through an

Foreword

examination of contemporary written accounts describing particular ceremonies, and careful study of priestly genealogies, the two investigators have been able to single out a number of the participants shown in these painted records of temple ritual. They have also revisited seventeenth-century sectarian annals with a view to preparing fresh accounts of the discovery and wanderings of Pushtimargi images, and biographies of the eight principal poets responsible for its devotional literature. These reconfigurations, although relegated to the appendices, will surely be of great use to future researchers.

This authoritative and engaging catalogue will reward the reader with its appealing works of art and scholarly insights.

Tryna LyonsAuthor of The Artists of Nathadwara: The Practice of

Painting in Rajasthan

Anil Relia, art collector and entrepreneur, is known for his passionate pursuit of the arts. Throughout

his life from the founding of the Archer Graphic Studio and Gallery to the amassing of an extensive collection of Indian portraiture and the cataloguing of his own collection, Mr Relia has been drawn to the world of the artist and the painted image. It is extremely gratifying that the Relia family would entrust the cataloguing of his Nathdwara collection to us. It is our hope that our presentation matches both Anil Relia’s level of knowledge and passion for the arts.

In his The Indian Portrait - II: Sacred Journey of Tilkayat Govardhanlalji (1862–1934), Nathdwara Mr Relia relates that he became interested in Nathdwara painting when he found a beautiful drawing of the wedding procession of Damodarlal, the son of Tilakayat Govardhanlalji (see CAT 80). It was a fortuitous beginning since the drawing was later identified by scholar Tryna Lyons as the work of Ghasiram, the

legendary artist of Nathdwara. With encouragement from artist/author and friend, Amit Ambalal, Relia began collecting paintings and drawings from the famous pilgrimage site in Rajasthan. He currently has about 250 pieces that range from icon paintings made for the pilgrimage trade to representations of historical celebrations in the temple.

Kalyan Krishna Kay Talwar

Authors’ Note

Nathdwara on the Banas river with Shrinathji Temple (1973). Photograph courtesy of Kalyan Krishna

Introduction

Tucked into the folds of the Aravalli Hills, about thirty miles north-east of Udaipur, is the bustling

pilgrimage centre of Nathdwara, home to Shrinathji, the living image (svarup) of Krishna raising Mount Govardhan. The establishment of the deity’s haveli (mansion/temple), in Mewar in the seventeenth century, gave rise to a town that completely revolved around Shrinathji and the activities at his palatial shrine. The haveli brought together a myriad of diverse social groups such as masons, potters, tailors, silversmiths, embroiderers, brocade weavers, enamel (meenakari) workers, cooks and carpenters, all performing divine service (seva) for the child-god Krishna. Most importantly it fostered the growth of a painting community, drawn from various towns in Rajasthan, that came to serve the needs of the haveli and the pilgrims.

Nathdwara became a unique centre, its rituals and traditions remaining virtually unchanged for over 300 years. Until recently it was in a time capsule, maintaining artistic traditions that had vanished from the Rajput courts. It was the archive for the styles and techniques of the courtly painting studios of Rajasthan as well as the home to its own unbroken artistic tradition for over three centuries. There were hundreds of artists from the Jangir and Adi Gaur castes dedicated to serving the temple and providing painted icons for the pilgrimage trade. It is sad to learn from Madhuvanti Ghose that all this is now being threatened, eroded by the growth of the town and the encroachment of the twenty-first century.1

Over the last forty years Nathdwara’s uniqueness has garnered the attention of scholars and produced an explosion of research on the pilgrimage centre. When we first worked on the Calico Collection of Nathdwara pichhavais (Indian Pigment Paintings on Cloth) in the early seventies there were very few publications about Nathdwara. Most notable were Robert Skelton’s Rajasthani Temple Hangings of the Krishna Cult (1973), Renaldo Maduro’s Artistic Creativity in a Brahmin Painter Community (1976) and Rajendra Jindel’s Culture of a Sacred Town (1976). Since then outstanding art historians such as Tryna Lyons, B.N. Goswamy, Amit Ambalal and Madhuvanti Ghose have made significant contributions to the understanding and preservation of the history of Nathdwara’s artistic community. In addition to the art historical aspect of the sacred town, there has been an avalanche of material published on the literary, political, socio-economic and anthropological facets of Nathdwara. The plethora of online texts and translations as well as the new publications bowing the library shelves attest to Nathdwara’s continuing appeal as a research subject.

NathdwaraUntil the seventeenth century Nathdwara (Door to the Lord) was only a remote dusty village called Sinhar in the state of Mewar.2 It soared to fame when Shrinathji and his followers, threatened by the rise to power of the iconoclastic Mughal Emperor

Nathdwara and the History of the Vallabhacharya Sampraday

13Introduction •

Aurangzeb, fled Krishna’s sacred homeland of Braj and sought refuge in Rajasthan. It is said that the Maharana of Mewar with a retinue of 100,000 warriors went out to escort Shrinathji personally to his capital of Sesodias but that the bullock cart carrying Krishna became bogged down in the mud in the small village of Sinhar.3 It was taken as a sign that Shrinathji had selected this spot along the Banas River as a haven.

This is the most commonly accepted version of the move and one that we subscribed to in our 1979 publication, but it is debatable whether the Vallabhacharis, so named for their guru Vallabhacharya (VS 1535–1587; 1478–1530 CE), fled the area out of fear of persecution or whether they made a judicious decision to resettle in Rajasthan. It is possible that the uncertainty caused by Aurangzeb’s threats reduced the pilgrimage trade and affected the temple revenue.4 The Shrinathji ki Prakatya Varta records that Aurangzeb’s messenger delivered an ultimatum to Vallabha’s grandsons that ‘either the fakir of Gokul show some miracle or leave the Mughal Empire’.5 This rude warning must have come as a shock. Prior to Aurangzeb’s reign the Vallabhacharis had enjoyed Mughal favours and were protected by several firmans issued by Akbar and Shah Jahan that gave them grazing rights over the land stretching from Gokul to the whole district of Mahaban. In addition, they enjoyed the privilege of being exempt from taxation.6 It is debatable whether they fled or simply decided to reestablish the sect in the land of wealthy Rajasthani maharajas whom they had cultivated as devotees. E. Allen Richardson argues that Maharana Raj Singh of Udaipur, beginning in 1665, with the gift of the village of Asotiya in Mewar to two goswamis, was preparing a place for the Vallabha Sampraday and that Maharana Raj Singh foresaw the economic and social benefits of bringing the popular sect to Mewar.7

Among the Vallabhacharis there is a story that explains the situation without tarnishing their relationship with the Mughals. On one of his missions, Vitthalnathji (VS 1572–1642; 1515–1585 CE), the son of Vallabhacharya, had visited Sinhar where he initiated into the sect one Ajabkunvar, the sister-in-law of the legendary Bhakti poetess Mirabai. Ajabkunvar became so passionately attached to Shrinathji that she asked him to visit her every night. Shrinathji granted her wish and came every evening, traversing hundreds of miles from Braj, to play with her his favourite parcheesi-like game of chaupar. Finally, seeing him red-eyed and exhausted from his travels, Ajabkunvar requested Shrinathji to settle in Mewar permanently. Shrinathji replied that it was not possible for him to do so now but that he would in the future after the time of Vallabhacharya and Vitthalnathji.8 In 1669 when the persecution grew acute, Vitthalnathji and Vallabhacharya had both passed away. It was time for the promise to be fulfilled. The bullock chariot carrying Shrinathji reached Sinhar in VS 1728 (1671 CE) and it came to rest beneath a pipal tree where Ajabkunvar’s house had been located.9 It was to be Shrinathji’s new home. Tradition holds that Shrinathji’s shrine is the only one in the sect with a tiled roof in imitation of Ajabkunvar’s house.10

Interestingly the account of the move in the Shrinathji ki Prakatya Varta records none of the pomp that James Tod describes in his Annals of Rajasthan. According to Harirai (b.1590), author of the Shrinathji ki Prakatya Varta, and a member of one of the thirty-six families that accompanied Shrinathji to Rajasthan, the move was done as quietly as possible.11 Perhaps it was the Maharana of Mewar who wanted to make a great show of Shrinathji’s arrival whereas the Vallabhacharis wanted only safety for their svarup.

No doubt the flight was a major disruption for the Vallabhacharya Sampraday. When the upheaval

• Nathdwara Paintings from the Anil Relia Collection14

occurred in 1669, the sect had been established well over 150 years on Mount Govardhan, the location where Shrinathji first appeared. It was a shift not taken easily for this was Krishna’s birthplace, the playground for his lilas (sports) and most importantly the site of Shrinathji raising Mount Govardhan as an umbrella to protect his people from the punishing deluge sent by the storm god Indra. Even though the teenaged Tilakayat Damodarji (VS 1711–1760; 1654 –1703 CE) was supported by his uncles, Gopinathji and Balakrishnaji, it must have been an emotionally trying decision for him to make. The sect had strong roots in Braj.

Yet the Vallabhacharya Sampraday was an immensely popular sect with many adherents. Both Vallabhacharya and Vitthalnathji had made extensive pilgrimages throughout Gujarat and Rajasthan recruiting new followers. Besides Shrinathji’s appeal to the common people, almost every royal house of Rajasthan could be counted among Shrinathji’s devotees.

After Shrinathji’s arrival in Sinhar a shrine was erected in VS 1728 (1671 CE) which was purposefully designed as a haveli (mansion) instead of the traditional shikara-style (towered) temple.12 The architect of the new temple built on the pattern of an aristocrat’s mansion was Gopaldas Ustad under the supervision of Hariraiji, the author of the Shrinathji ki Prakatya Varta. Every part of the new structure was to recall the sacred topography of Braj, Krishna’s homeland.

Today pilgrims throng the halls of the haveli for every ceremony, jostling each other to reach the Nij Mandir where Shrinathji resides. The viewing periods are short, and thousands seek his darshan (viewing). Although the seva (service) is done with the utmost respect the crush of pilgrims tries the patience of those attempting to feel at one with their Lord. Outside in the streets there is almost a carnival-like

atmosphere. Entire lanes are dedicated to outfitting the private shrines of pilgrims. There are shops filled with embroidered fabrics to embellish the sacred chambers and glittery brocade dresses fashioned for every size and shape of image as well as a profusion of painted, printed and sculpted images of Shrinathji. Prasad, which is made in the haveli kitchens in great quantities, is available for purchase. There are piles of ghee-laden laddus, pots of thick sweet rabri and mounds of savoury besan sev – all Krishna’s favourites. Nathdwara fosters an entire industry dedicated to the worship of Shrinathji.

Since the founding of Nathdwara, artists have been drawn to this sacred place to fulfil the needs of the haveli and to provide pilgrims with painted devotional images for their shrines. While the other schools of Rajasthani painting have died out for lack of royal patronage, Nathdwara has continued, fed by the passionate desire of devotees to serve Shrinathji and to be one with their Lord.

Vallabhacharya (VS 1535–1587; 1478–1530 CE):13 His Life, Philosophy and the Founding of the Vallabhacharya SampradayVallabhacharya was a remarkable man. Part philosopher, part mystic, he was a teacher with great abilities and even greater vision. He wrote almost all his religious treatises in Sanskrit, a language not accessible to the common man, but he recruited four poets of Braj to compose couplets for Shrinathji in the vernacular of Braj Bhasha, a language that could speak to the souls of Shrinathji’s followers.14 Vallabhacharya was both an erudite scholar and an advocate for everyman. His greatest contribution was the creation of the Pushtimarg (Path of Grace) doctrine that gave the people a vehicle to actualise the divine without renouncing the world. They were able to remain a part of their families and active in