Among the works of many Indian contemporary art masters are Anil Relia’s historic Pichvais, which find their way into a book. BY Uma Nair

Nestled in a lush paradisal terrain in Ahmedabad is collector and art director Anil Relia’s palatial mansion that houses his enviable art collection. Among the many Indian contemporary art masters are his historic pichvais, which find their way into a book — Nathdwara Paintings from the Anil Relia Collection (Kalyan Krishna and Kay Talwar Nyogi Books). This magnum opus celebrates Relia’s collection along with vignettes of art history. Intricate and intense are a series of pichvais that echo the beauty and tensile power of Shri Nathji in all his fervour and ferment.

Krishna as Shri Nathji

Here are the images that present the magnificence of creating masterworks with opaque watercolour and gold on cloth. Krishna as Shri Nathji, repeated in several places, dancing with the gopis in the forest, with peacocks in dense foliage and cows with protective hand prints and temples in the foreground — a surfeit of images talk to us about the incantation of the bhajans, shlokas, mantras and the bedrock of the devotional inner spirit.

Leafing through the book, one understands that devotees of Shrinathji established an elaborate worship pattern based on raga (music), bhoga (food), vastra (clothing) and shringara (adornment). This transformed the deity into a world-affirming god. This is the essence of pushti-marga, which sees the pleasures of the world as a manifestation of god’s grace and enjoys them along with the god.

Gangetic Plain to Rajasthan

Worshipped in the Gangetic area until the 17th century, the deity was moved on a bullock cart to Rajasthan to protect it from idol breaking activities of the Mughal Emperor, Aurangzeb. One recalls reading that the cart carrying the deity got trapped in soft mud in the place now known as Nathdwara, gateway to the lord. The city of Nathdwara is the home of Shrinathji and the most important temple town devoted to him. The layout of the city is typical for a Rajasthani palace, with numerous gates painted with confronted elephants, winding alleys and gleaming white walls. At the centre of the town is the icon devoted to Shrinathji, with worshippers and cows gathered in the main square before him in celebration of the Govardhana puja.

Grandeur of Gopashtami

Pichvais were commissioned for either a public temple or private shrine on the occasion of a holiday or festival. Gopashtami is a festival that is dedicated to lord Krishna and cows. It is the coming-of-age celebration when Krishna’s father, Nanda Maharaja, gave him the responsibility for taking care of the cows of Vrindavan. On this day, herders bring hundreds of cows and their calves to Nathadwara, where the cows are decorated for the occasion. They are painted with designs similar to those in the present pichvai, their horns are gilded and some wear ankle bracelets and peacock-feather crowns. This book has a series of fascinating images.

One can never tire of the solo Shri Nathji images. In one of the pictures, he is wearing a brocade chakdar vagha, beaded necklaces, lotus garland, a large peacock-feather headdress, holding the lakut and lotuses in his right hand, backed by a patterned backgrounds, with the golden pandan box, betel leaves and covered pitcher of holy Jamuna water at his feet, a row of garlanded cows bearing auspicious handprints at bottom, all within floral borders the worship of Shri Nathji is prime and primordial.

The blue-skinned god, surrounded by silver silhouettes of gopas and gopis, is mesmeric and magical, offerings in the foreground and the priests dressed in yellow and offering oil lamps add to the fervour.

Collector and devotee

India’s most gorgeous pichvais lie in museums abroad specially with the Sackler and Freer Galleries, Museum of Boston and Met museum New York. This book tells us the power of the Indian collector and his place in the firmament of Indian art history, especially in the domain of textiles. The beauty of the book is in its inane iconic distinction. Relia affirms the place of both collector and devotee. In an India that forgot to protect and preserve its temples, this book is a testimony to our mythic vitality and virtuosity of artistic dimensions.

When you look at these originals, you realise the impact of the temple hanging designs lord Krishna standing under a tree, playing a flute, with a cow nuzzling at his foot. The presence of the gopis, the pensive power of the trees and showers of flowers become the spiritual ferment of eternal nature. The images of diminutive cows and cowherders appearing either in the main focus or in the horizontal band create a significance for the term Gopala. Of course, sublime is Krishna milking the cow and the kalpavruksha behind in the background is a tale for many ages. From foliage patterns to lotus ponds, the book is a feast for the senses. Most figures are delineated in gold against a dark blue ground or presented in the sunlit sunshine of crimson and orange tinted gorgeousness.

Of deepened resonance and celestial rhythm is the ras lila on Sharad Purnima. Split into chapters of scholarship and intensity in research the in-depth narrative by Kalyan Krishna and Kay Talwar bring us into the maw of a rare spirit. Whether it is the circle of opalescent light beams or the fully waxed autumn moon seen in a dense grove the reader is drawn into a state of rapturous enchantment, and we understand the craving of the gopis wanting to be with their lord Krishna. In more ways than one, this book presents a divine lila ensuing as we drink of the manifestations of lord  Krishna.We are left with multiple images of the  ras lila or divine dance that culminates when Krishna as Shri Nathji presents his darshana.