A KANGRA MINIATURE PAINTING DEPICTING KRISHNA MILKING A COW (KRISHNA DUDHADHARI), LATE 18TH-EARLY 19TH CENTURY

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A KANGRA MINIATURE PAINTING DEPICTING KRISHNA MILKING A COW (KRISHNA DUDHADHARI), LATE 18TH-EARLY 19TH CENTURY North India, Punjab Hills. Ink, gouache, and gold on paper. Finely painted in bright colors, the composition depicting the blue-skinned deity crouching at the udder of a cow, his head turned as he searches among the gopis gathered around him for his beloved Radha. Below him stands his brother Balarama, distinguished by his pale complexion, blue garments, and crown, alongside further women from the pastoral community of Braj. The scene is completed by a group of richly dressed Brahmins and mendicant ascetics, the latter recognizable by their bare torsos and long beards. Dimensions: Image size 25.5 x 33.7 cm, Image incl. frame 39 x 48.7 cm Mounted and framed behind glass. (2) Although Krishna is depicted here with his customary blue skin, youthful features framed by a golden crown, and yellow dhoti, the painting includes one particularly unusual detail: a voluminous dark wrap, or dupatta, enveloping his shoulders and back and providing the key to the identification of the episode depicted in the present painting. The scene belongs to the cycle of clandestine encounters that characterizes the love of Krishna and Radha, the cowherd maiden who becomes his supreme beloved and, in later devotional traditions, the exemplary embodiment of loving devotion to the god. Their relationship forms part of the divine ‘lila’, or sacred ‘play’, of Krishna. Here, the deity has disguised himself as a milkmaid and is shown milking a cow, thereby entering the everyday world of Radha without revealing his identity and creating an opportunity to approach her and converse with her in private. An earlier representation of this subject from Kangra dated 17th-18th century, in which Krishna is similarly enveloped in a dark wrap, was published by Ananda K. Coomaraswamy, Rajput Painting, vol. 2, 1916, pl. XLV. This particular episode is not specifically recounted in the Bhagavata Purana, one of the principal literary sources for the life and exploits of Krishna, as Ananda K. Coomaraswamy observed, and may instead derive from the later tradition of devotional and courtly poetry centered on Krishna, in which the secret meetings, disguises, and stratagems of the divine lovers were elaborated at length. A possible literary parallel may be found in the Rasikapriya by Kesavdas, a late sixteenth-century treatise on the conventions and varieties of love. See Ananda K. Coomaraswamy, Rajput Painting, vol. 1, 1916, p. 34. Literature comparison: Compare a related Kulu painting of Krishna and cowherds under trees, dated ca. 1800, in the Victoria & Albert Museum, accession number IS.167-1951. Auction result comparison: Type: Related Auction: Christie’s London, 1 April 2021, lot 68 Price: GBP 21,250 or approx. EUR 32,000 converted and adjusted for inflation at the time of writing Expert remark: Compare the related manner of painting and subject. Note the different format and smaller size (15.2 x 11.8 cm). Auction result comparison: Type: Related Auction: Sotheby’s London, 26 October 2022, lot 79 Price: GBP 37,800 or approx. EUR 50,500 converted and adjusted for inflation at the time of writing Expert remark: Compare the related manner of painting, composition, and subject. Note the larger size (36.2 x 47.5 cm).

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