NATHDWARA OR KISHANGARH, RAJASTHAN, INDIA, MID-19TH CENTURY

Wall hangings of this type are associated with the Srinathji temple in Nathdwara. Hangings were associated with specific festivals, and hung or removed according to the time of year. They served to convey the stories associated with particular festivals, often focussing on the youthful escapades of Krishna which were a particular focus of the followers of Vallabhcharya (d.1531).

The festival of Daan Lila is concerned with the story of Krishna demanding a toll of milk from a group of cow-herds (Gopis), a request with which they reluctantly comply. There are several pichhvais in the Calico Museum, Ahmedabad, which depict this scene (Kay Talwar and Kalyan Krishna, Indian Pigment Paintings on Cloth, Ahmedabad, 1979, pp.23-5, nos.11-15). Stylistically, it is closer to another example in the collection associated with the festival of Sharada Purnima (Talwar and Krishna, op.cit., p.29, no.20). Like ours, that example takes as its setting the shrine at Nathdwara, where Krishna stands on a pediment flanked by Gopis. As well as the pose of Krishna being similar, in both paintings deities can be seen riding above the scene in their vimanas, and the textile is bordered with miniature depictions of other significant festivals. An important distinguishing feature of this example, however, is its size: of the collection of the Calico Museum published by Talwar and Krishna, only two other examples are greater than three metres wide.