Basohli Gita Govinda 1

This distinct imagery of Pahari tradition was dated to 1730’s and Gita Govinda is the only work found depicted in this style. This work attributed to the artist Manku borrowed some features from its precursor, the Basohli school like lotus-shaped eyes, garments, beetle wings, the lotus-studded crown of Krishna and his Vanamala. The composition is rendered akin to Basohli in terms of thin strips of sky above and a water body below, a flat background of colour against rows of a huge variety of highly stylised trees to visualise simultaneous events happening according to the poetic description.

A sakhi (friend of Radha) is mediating between Radha and Krishna while he is seen in a distant grove waiting to hear back from the sakhi the news from Radha.