The 'Flute Playing Krishna' theme is very popular in Indian art. Discuss.
Flute playing Krishna is pictured as a joyous situation of Krishna's life which represents love, chastity, entertainment and romance. Every 'Art form' in India served the needs of the masses and is very much about emotional equation, so in almost every art work, this act (flute playing) abundantly represents Krishna as God of the masses.
The Vaishnava revival of the 11th and 12th centuries brought about by Ramanuja and saint poets like Jayadeva of Bengal gradually established Krishna as the supreme deity, the approachable glorious Vishnu.
Jayadeva's Gita Govindam, the song of the divine cowherd, echoed the poet's deep spirituality with Krishna as the human soul attached to earthly pleasures and Radha, the wise divine.
In 15th century and more particularly in the 16th and 17th centuries, there was a prolific popularity of paintings (specially miniature) based on the Bhagwata Purana and Gita Govinda.
Later, the poetry of Surdas, Keshavadasa, Bihari and other poets became the backdrop or springboard for their pictorial visualisation of the text.
The delicacy of the Kangra and Pahari paintings was heavily based on the weight of the Krishna theme alongwith Kangra, Guler and Basohli schools also have the same theme. In the Guler painting, 'The Divine Flautist' Krishna stands on a large lotus flower, playing the flute. He is surrounded by Gopis, whose only interest is Krishna, while a couple of cowherds appear to be looking, a little furtively, at the divine scene.
Evidence of the 'Flute playing Krishna' theme in Indian mural painting has to be traced to the magnificent large-scale depiction of the theme in. South India, particularly Kerala.
The Padmanabhapuram palace, the Mattancherry palace of Cochin (18th century) and the Padmanabha Swami temple murals are striking examples of a distinctive style of painting that is analogous to the performing art tradition of the region, particularly Kathakali.
`Krishna's Magic Flute' shows him alone, playing just for his love of music and for other beings. A pair of cranes, cows in all shades, trees, flowers, the forked lightning and other cowherds-all get transfixed in sheer ecstasy.
According to scriptures like Mahabharata and according to Krishna Bhakti Shaka, it implies that it is only Lord Krishna himself who manifests our experiences by playing the flute of our subtle system. Everything that exists, vibrates to the tune of his flute only. He is the only true source of each of our experiences and the one, who plays our life and witnesses it, but we are just listening and enjoying his sweet melody and mesmerised by it.
Depiction of Krishna with flute can be found in many temples of India. Accompanied by cows,
the Gopis (milk maids) and sometimes with village herdsmen, shows the amalgamation of common soul with divine soul.
Krishna became a favourite subject in performing arts and regional traditions of devotion developed in forms of Krishna such as Jagannatha in Odisha, Vithoba in Maharashtra and Shrinathji in Rajasthan.
Flute playing Krishna is pictured as a joyous situation of Krishna's life which represents love, chastity, entertainment and romance. Every 'Art form' in India served the needs of the masses and is very much about emotional equation, so in almost every art work, this act (flute playing) abundantly represents Krishna as God of the masses.
The Vaishnava revival of the 11th and 12th centuries brought about by Ramanuja and saint poets like Jayadeva of Bengal gradually established Krishna as the supreme deity, the approachable glorious Vishnu.
Jayadeva's Gita Govindam, the song of the divine cowherd, echoed the poet's deep spirituality with Krishna as the human soul attached to earthly pleasures and Radha, the wise divine.
In 15th century and more particularly in the 16th and 17th centuries, there was a prolific popularity of paintings (specially miniature) based on the Bhagwata Purana and Gita Govinda.
Later, the poetry of Surdas, Keshavadasa, Bihari and other poets became the backdrop or springboard for their pictorial visualisation of the text.
The delicacy of the Kangra and Pahari paintings was heavily based on the weight of the Krishna theme alongwith Kangra, Guler and Basohli schools also have the same theme. In the Guler painting, 'The Divine Flautist' Krishna stands on a large lotus flower, playing the flute. He is surrounded by Gopis, whose only interest is Krishna, while a couple of cowherds appear to be looking, a little furtively, at the divine scene.
Evidence of the 'Flute playing Krishna' theme in Indian mural painting has to be traced to the magnificent large-scale depiction of the theme in. South India, particularly Kerala.
The Padmanabhapuram palace, the Mattancherry palace of Cochin (18th century) and the Padmanabha Swami temple murals are striking examples of a distinctive style of painting that is analogous to the performing art tradition of the region, particularly Kathakali.
`Krishna's Magic Flute' shows him alone, playing just for his love of music and for other beings. A pair of cranes, cows in all shades, trees, flowers, the forked lightning and other cowherds-all get transfixed in sheer ecstasy.
According to scriptures like Mahabharata and according to Krishna Bhakti Shaka, it implies that it is only Lord Krishna himself who manifests our experiences by playing the flute of our subtle system. Everything that exists, vibrates to the tune of his flute only. He is the only true source of each of our experiences and the one, who plays our life and witnesses it, but we are just listening and enjoying his sweet melody and mesmerised by it.
Depiction of Krishna with flute can be found in many temples of India. Accompanied by cows,
the Gopis (milk maids) and sometimes with village herdsmen, shows the amalgamation of common soul with divine soul.
Krishna became a favourite subject in performing arts and regional traditions of devotion developed in forms of Krishna such as Jagannatha in Odisha, Vithoba in Maharashtra and Shrinathji in Rajasthan.