Radha

ca. 1660 - ca. 1670

Painting, in opaque watercolour on paper, the nayika (heroine) is here interpreted as Radha whose secret meeting place with Krishna is in danger of being revealed; the tree outside her house is to be cut down as per the instructions of her suspicious husband. Radha snatches the axe from the hands of a bewildered boy and throws it into a pond to prevent him from carrying out the orders. In the absence of the husband, Krishna sits indoors in a luxuriously decorated chamber calmly watching the scene outside. Chocolate brown background with, at the top, a streak of sky. Pavilion with grey pillars and pale blue inner wall with three alcoves containing golden vessels, the centre one with two apples. At the bottom a dark green plinth, with projecting shape, perhaps a simplified version of a 'monster-head'. This is an architectural type which became common in painting of the hill-regions.