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 Literature of Krishna Much of South Asian painting is linked to literary texts. Images are not only physically bound together with texts in manuscripts, but they are also conceived in relationship to literary sources. Much of Indian literature began as oral storytelling and was probably accompanied by images on rolls of cloth carried by the wandering storytellers. Paintings, even when accompanying texts, however, are more than simply illustrations. Paintings are an independent means of giving form to feeling. Painting, like language, is a form of expression with its own means of access to emotional truth. Painting moves through color and proportion and line and shape to something in the viewer beyond itself, just as language moves through meaning, rhythm, rhyme, and sound to feeling outside the narrative line. Some key literary works linked to the images on view are briefly described. Mahabharata (The Great War of the Bharatas) Long epic tale in Sanskrit given by tradition to Vyasa as the author with Ganesha as his scribe. Came into its current form between 400 b.c.e. and 400 c.e. It brings together oral tales of a tribal war that took place in the Panjab early in the first millennium b.c.e. The story traces a dynastic struggle culminating in an awesome battle between two branches of a single Indian ruling family. The account of the fight between the Kurus and the Pandavas for the fertile and wealthy land at the confluence of the Jumna and Ganges rivers near Delhi is presented in a social, moral, and cosmological context. The epic is at the same time religious, philosophical, social, and historical.
Bhagavata Purana (The Ancient Text of the Lord)
The Bhagavata Purana is among the later works of the "ancient texts" (puranas) of Hinduism, but it is the most famous and widely used. The work is a chronicle of the life of Vishnu, the Preserver of the Universe and second member of the Hindu trinity, and of his avatars or incarnations. Books Ten and Eleven describe the career on earth of Krishna, Vishnu's eighth incarnation. The Bhagavata Purana contains a more detailed biography of Krishna than the other major biographical sources, the Harivamsa and the Vishnu Purana both dating from 4th century c.e. Harivamsa (Geneology of Vishnu) A collection of stories written in Sanskrit that was appended to the Mahabharata around the 4th century c.e. No single author. The strength of the Harivamsa among the great works of Krishna literature is its narrative vigor and detail about the life of the young Krishna.
Gita Govinda (The Song of the Dark Lord) This lyric poem recounts the loves of Radha and Krishna, their temporary estrangement, and their ultimate reconciliation. The poem is both erotic and metaphorical, articulating the pain and pleasure of the soul's longing for union with god.
Raisika Priya (Connoisseur's Delight) The poem analyzes lovers in terms of situations involving Radha and Krishna. In poetical language they are called nayaka (guide, leader, an eminent person) and nayika (beautiful young woman), usually translated loosely as hero and heroine.
Satasai (The Seven Centuries) A collection of seven hundred verses in Hindi celebrating the romance of Radha and Krishna. The nayika is sometimes presented as an unknown woman, sometimes as Radha herself. Other authors followed Bihari's model.
Bhagavad Gita (The Song of the Lord) The Bhagavad Gita is a message from the charioteer Krishna, to Arjuna, a hero of the Mahabharata, on the field of battle. Arjuna is troubled by the prospect of killing his friends and kinsmen in the coming battle, and Krishna teaches him in this speech the doctrine of non-attachment to actions. The Bhagavad Gita is one of the central texts of Hinduism. Paintings in this gallery from the Museum's collection are organized into three groups that relate stories of Krishna as a lover and as a hero. Click on the following links to learn more. For more information on our South Asian Collection, please visit our online catalogue.
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