Abhsarika Nayika

Abhisarika Nayika is the most sought after subject by the Pahari masters for painting. She is considered one of the most beautiful of the ashta nayikas (a classification of heroines given in the Natyasastra). Though the description of this type of nayika is brought out by the intensity of the surrounding dark night and rain, it is the choice of the artist to visually translate her attributes. Here she is rendered simple walking all alone in the middle of the night on a rainy day unmidful of the snakes and other impending dangers of night. The rain is depicted as a curtain of white dots uneven yet forming a dramatic background for her movement. Her face expresses her yearning to meet the nayika.