39 S H I VA F E E D S PA R VAT I I N A F O R E S T G R O V E
INDIA (UDAIPUR), 1675-1680 HEIGHT: 29.8 CM WIDTH: 23.4 CM
Opaque watercolour heightened with gold on paper. A folio from a dispersed Gita Gauri series. The Rajasthani Hindi inscription written in devanagari in the yellow text panel gives us the subject of the painting: “Urvashi is shyly telling Mahadeva (Shiva) to take the form of Ardhanarishvara. [She says to Shiva] the bed is decorated with a torana (arch) of flowers. I am not so brave [so] you take the first step”. On the verso is the folio number 9 and a collector’s stamp, probably that of the Late Kumar Sangram Singh of Nawalgarh who owned this painting and several other published pages of the Gita Gauri series. Gauri means “golden” and is one of the names or epithets of the goddess Parvati, the wife of Shiva. Gita means “song” so Gita Gauri may be translated as “The Song of Gauri”. According to Andrew Topsfield, who illustrates folio 16 from this series in Court Painting at Udaipur: Art under the patronage of the Maharanas of Mewar, 2002, p. 93, fig. 56, the Gita Gauri of circa 1675-1680 depicts the passionate dalliance of Shiva and Parvati, recalling the amours of Krishna and Radha in the Gita Govinda and the Rasikapriya. Multiple scenes of the divine lovers are compressed within the vertical format to lively effect. Plain coloured backgrounds, relieved by scattered white flowers and a broad white
horizon band with star-lit sky above, are a common feature of this series.1 Topsfield observes that several hands can be discerned, one of them probably that of the painter Mun.2 Folio 16 depicts Shiva and Parvati bathing in the purifying waters of the holy Manasarovar lake, situated high on the Tibetan plateau near Mount Kailash and the source of the river Ganga. The present painting, folio 9, depicts Shiva at the centre seated in a forest grove feeding Parvati with a choice array of delicacies, with Ardhanarishvara standing to the left and Shiva seated above being visited by apsaras (angels or divine beauties). Kama, the god of love, shoots his arrow from a tree, followed by Indra on his flying elephant, Airavata, against a starry sky lit by a full moon. Shiva can be identified by the crescent moon, the symbol of time; the river Ganga flowing from his matted locks of hair; and the snake, symbol of worldly attachment, that coils around his arm. His body is smeared with greyish ash (vibhuti). To the right is a darkened bedchamber prepared for love-making, to which the feeding of Parvati is the tender prelude. The apsaras dwell in Indra’s paradise, Svarga. The apsara in conversation with Shiva is Urvashi, the chief of the apsaras. Since the inscription has Urvashi telling Shiva to go to the bed first as she is shy and nervous, Robert Skelton has suggested that in this scene, Parvati may have gone into the form of Urvashi. A painting from this Gita Gauri manuscript, folio 8, is in the Museum of Fine Arts Boston (acc. no. 664.124). It depicts how the gods orchestrate a match between Shiva and Parvati, with Indra bringing Urvashi as
go-between to the shrine in which Parvati is seated, before flying off to negotiate with Shiva. Another painting, folio 3, is in the Edwin Binney, 3rd Collection at the San Diego Museum of Arts. This depicts Shiva and Parvati locked in an embrace seated on a swing within their Himalayan cave near Lake Manasarovar. This shows that they were lovers even before Urvashi brings them together in folios 8 and 9. It is possible that they had a quarrel as Parvati seems to storm off to the left, and folios 8 and 9 represent not their matchmaking by the other gods but their reconciliation after a lovers’ tiff. Ardhanarishvara represents their most complete union, where they become one.
Provenance: Collection of Kumar Sangram Singh of Nawalgarh, painting no. B-45 George P. Bickford Collection, acquired before 7th February 1964 Private New York Collection
Exhibited: On loan to the Cleveland Museum of Art, 7th February 1964 to 12th September 1980.
Acknowledgement: We would like to thank Joan Cummins and Robert Skelton for their expert advice and Rao Rajeesh for his kind identification of the figures.
References: 1. Andrew Topsfield, Court Painting at Udaipur: Art under the patronage of the Maharanas of Mewar, 2002, p. 93.
According to Anna Dallapiccola, Ardhanarishvara means “the Lord being half-woman”.3 This is a peaceful aspect of Shiva in his androgynous form, symbolising the inseparability of the male and female principle, the cause of creation.4 Ardhanarishvara has been interpreted, among other meanings, as the union of the passive spirit (purusha) and the active nature (prakriti), or as an embodiment of the universe. The same notion is conveyed, in a more abstract form, by the linga emerging from the yoni.5
2. Ibid. 3. Anna L. Dallapiccola, Dictionary of Hindu Lore and Legend, 2002, p. 28. 4. Ibid. 5. Ibid.