The Young Damsel Feeding a Black Buck

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A mode of expressing the softest feelings a loving one cradles within her heart, enshrining since times immemorial Indian literary traditions of ‘Nayika-cult’, seeking to share her heart with a loving creature that listens to her, and is sympathetic, but like her cannot give it words, the painting represents a young maiden feeding a black buck in her pensive mood and the animal with one of its forelegs lifted, neck and haunches blown, glittering eyes and horns completely withdrawn opens its mouth for receiving her bounties. In literary tradition such maiden, neither one in separation nor in union – not with her lover but with the confidence that he is hers and hence not also away from him, is classed as one revealing ‘lalita-bhava’ – a state of mind of complete absorption into reveries of delightful moments, an aesthetic bearing difficult to define. Miniaturists have used subordinate imagery, usually a pet, as stimulus or support when seeking to express such state of mind.

Exceptionally delightful, this state of her mind : glowing when the memory of a sweet moment reverts back, and getting indisposed when the agony of the present pricks a thorn-like, powerfully reflects in the bearing of puppy flowers growing in the bed below. They seem to drowse when the feeling of being lonely pricks the mind of the damsel, and rise with far greater spirit when glows her face with reflection of a happy moment she spent with her lover. More than looking beyond her wide open eyes are fixed within, not interrogating or searching but reposing with the golden memories. Her deep rooted love, far from every kind of turmoil or upheavals, transforms into the composure of her face and reflects in her impassive eyes, and this gives to the maiden’s beauty a divine dimension. In feeding the animal she seems to have the satisfaction of nourishing her own love.

Possessed of naïve simplicity and most natural beauty the figure of the young maiden, costumed gracefully in pink lehenga and red odhini, printed with two styles of floral butis : one, in colour, and other, brocaded, the wider expanse of pink balancing the brilliance of red, almost completely dominates the otherwise softly painted backdrop. With her entire figure covered from head to feet in a large sash, full-sleeve blouse and wide flaring lehenga, wearing a few selective but rich ornaments, the young damsel’s royal status is obvious. Her fish-like eyes, considered most beautiful and highly contemplative in India aesthetics, sharp nose, cute small lips and chin, oval face, a well defined neck, fine delicate fingers with crimson palms, and an anatomy with a tall slender figure, all make her the finest model of beauty.

A marble pavilion, carpeted floor and a golden seat embedded with precious stones, crowded by attendants and lavish food and drinks laid in gold trays could reveal her class but not the naïveness of her raw beauty as reveals her figure painted against this unpretentious outdoor forest background with nothing to feed her pet but a bunch of green leaves. She is occupying the trunk of a slender willow laden with yellow flowers with red pistils as her seat. The artist has so conceived his tree that its backwards-inclining trunk provides her with a seat-like sitting space while bowing over her figure its branches look like a floral canopy affording her a rarely beautiful floral umbrella. A column of puppies, red with white, defines the painting’s bottom. The bells’ lace laid on the neck of the black buck suggests that the animal is her pet.

This description by Prof. P.C. Jain and Dr Daljeet. Prof. Jain specializes on the aesthetics of ancient Indian literature. Dr Daljeet is the chief curator of the Visual Arts Gallery at the National Museum of India, New Delhi. They have both collaborated on numerous books on Indian art and culture.