Krishna was born a gopa (herder) and grew up in a community with his friends, the gopis (female herders.) The young playmates mature, and their encounters take on new dimensions. This picture is inscribed on the back with lines of verse written by the 17th century Hindi poet of love, Mati Rama, from his Satasai (Seven Centuries of Verse). They are the words of a young woman, spoken as a garlanded Krishna emerges into view from a thicket:

     Today for the first time seeing became worthwhile.

The painter dotes on the charged mood of this "darshan" or union through the eyes. Trees and creepers are laden with "honey-shedding" flowers, and even the open lotus buds bend to Krishna's regal light. The gopis cluster-bashful and yet brazen in their direct gaze. Krishna's beauty is dazzling:

He moves toward them with his festive stick, piercing an untold number of blossoms, aimed gently but firmly toward them. The distance between them is rich, heavy, and intoxicating, and renders the subject of the picture more a mood than a narrative.

Continue the story of Krishna: Stealing Hearts

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