The darkness of the night deepens. It embraces all trees and flowers, and envelops those lovely abhisarikas who rush to meet their lovers - (adultresses is used affectionately. Flowers are the jewels of women. The contrasts of colors and many scents of deer musk permeate the atmosphere.
"Night is putting black kohl on their eyes
Tamala flowers cluster on their ears
The blue lotus garlands on their heads
Leaf designs of musk of their breasts
In every thicket friend
The night's dark cherished cloak
Embraces limbs of beautiful adultresses
Whose heat, rush to meet their lovers."
The play is on the word syama (dark) and nila (blue). These two are contrasted with light color of the deer musk as also its fragrance. The artist comprehends the word syama (dark) as Krsna adorning women, rather than the night embracing and adorning women who are rushing out for a tryst. The blue sky is transfigured pictorially to the figure of Krsna who appears six times in the painting, each time (except one) with Radha. In one he is putting collyrium, in the second he is adorning her with earrings of tamala flowers, in the third drawing a leaf design with deer musk, in a fourth putting a garland on her head, and in a fifth enveloping her as the night. In a sixth he sits alone representing the night. Radha sits in a seventh arched bower, holding her necklace conversing with the sakhi. A banana tree and a vivacious deer demarcate Radha's bower from the other six.
The six bowers are arranged symmetrically on different planes, and the arches of a few overlap. The composition is carefully designed and the artist takes care to pictorially visualize each word of the Jayadeva's poem. The painting exhibits impressive accuracy of design, fidelity to the text, tenderness of the couples in each bower, and reflects the artist's full acquaintance with the text and its multi-layered meaning.
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