Kangra Paintings and the Portrayal of the Feminine

Introduction (Tara)

The Pahari school of art has its genesis in the Himalayan uplands, in the valleys of Rabi,
Beas, and Sutlej, where Rajput warriors set up numerous principalities. Forty small states
covered about 340 km, which yielded over 50,000 paintings during the late 17th and 18th
centuries. Beginning in Basohli, in the Jammu region, it slowly made its way to the Guler
paintings, which eventually merged into the Kangra school, both in terms of politics and its
pictorial representations.

Sansar Chand of Kangra, who ruled from 1774/5-1823, was the greatest patron of art in the
region of the Kangra valley. Under his reign, the Rajput painting of Northern India, referred
to as the Kangra style, reached perfection. In his biographical details provided by the traveller
William Moorcroft, we notice that he was fond of drawing, and had many artists under his
reign. He had many paintings of the feats of Krishna and Balaram, Arjuna, and subjects from
the Mahabharata. Eventually, he fell to the status of a vassal under the Sikhs at Lahore, but
the temples and palaces he built during his reign, as well as his patronage of the arts impacted
this school in a major way.

Kangra paintings contain the brilliant lyricism of the story of Krishna, which is made visual.
The landscape is assimilated to the mood of the personages, through symbolism and poetic
suggestion. Symbols are extremely powerful in the Kangra paintings - flowering sprays
suggest the cloistered gardens of the lovers hearts have burst into blossom, bare branches
could indicate desolation of separation, sadness, or loneliness.

The kangra school is one of the most productive, despite its rapid development and short
duration. Themes depicted in the paintings include Krishna Lila, Nala and Dayamanti, etc.
more rarely amongst the snow-clad peaks of the Himalayas. The narrative and erotic themes
provide, incidentally a precious picture of intimate daily life at a Rajput court; this is
especially the case with the Nala and Damayanti series, where marriage ceremonies, official
duties, daily prayers, meals and love scenes are all represented. In addition to the costumes
we find a highly characteristic feature the Jugli, worn by women, a sort of empire gown
fastening at neck and waist, opening between the fastenings and permitting a glimpse of the
breasts, and with long tight wrinkled sleeves and a long flowing skirt.

Patronage (Anoushka)

In the middle of the 18th century A.D. When the plains of Northern India were convulsed by
the invasion of Nadir Shah (1739), followed by the incursions of Ahmad Shah Abdali, a
strange event took place in the Punjab hills, viz. the birth of the Kangra School of Painting at
Haripur-Guler under the patronage of Raja Govardhan Chand (1744-1773), a prince with a
refined taste and a passion for paintings. Raja Govardhan Chand ruled Guler at a time when it
was one of the biggest innovative driving forces in Pahari painting. He gave asylum to
refugee artists trained in the Mughal style of painting.

Instead of painting flattering portraits of their masters and hunting scenes, the artists adopted
themes from the love-poetry of Jayadeva, Bihari and Keshav Das, who wrote ecstatically of
the love of Radha and Krishna. Thus developed a school of painting with a new spirit, whose
artistic works are suffused with romantic love and bhakti mysticism.

Prakash Chand (ruled 1773-1790), the successor of Govardhan Chand, also continued the
patronage of the artists, and there are a number of beautiful paintings in which his wives and
children are shown. There must be a number of other paintings also, including some on
love-poetry, which were painted under his patronage. He was, however, a spendthrift, and in a
few years he became bankrupt.

Painting in the Kangra region blossomed under the patronage of a remarkable ruler, Raja
Sansar Chand (1775–1823). It is believed that when Prakash Chand of Guler came under
grave financial crisis and could no longer maintain his atelier, his master artist, Manaku, and
his sons took service under Sansar Chand of Kangra. Sansar Chand ascended to the throne at
the tender age of 10 years after the kingdom had been restored to its earlier glory by his
grandfather Ghamand Chand. They belonged to the Katoch dynasty of rulers, who had been
ruling the Kangra region for a long time until Jahangir conquered their territory in the
seventeenth century and made them his vassals. After the decline of the Mughal power, Raja
Ghamand Chand recovered most of the territory and founded his capital town of Tira
Sujanpur on the banks of river Beas and constructed fine monuments. Raja Sansar Chand
established supremacy of Kangra over all surrounding hill states. Tira Sujanpur emerged as
the most prolific center of painting under his patronage. An earlier phase of Kangra kalam
paintings is witnessed in Alampur and the most matured paintings were painted at Nadaun,
where Sansar Chand shifted later in his life. All these centers were on the banks of river Beas.
Alampur along with river Beas can be recognised in some paintings. A lesser number of
paintings was done in Kangra as it remained under the Mughals till 1786, and later, the Sikhs.
Sansar Chand’s son Aniruddha Chand (1823–1831), too, was a generous patron and is often
seen painted with his courtiers.

During Sansar Chand’s reign, the production of Kangra School was far greater than any other
hill state. He exercised wide political power and was able to support a large studio with artists
from Guler and other areas. The Kangra style soon spread from Tira Sujanpur to Garhwal in
the east and Kashmir in the west. Painting activity was severely affected around 1805 when
the Gurkhas besieged the Kangra fort and Sansar Chand had to flee to his hill palace at Tira
Sujanpur. In 1809, with the help of Ranjit Singh, the Gurkhas were driven away. It was under
his patronage that Jayadeva’s Sanskrit love-poem, the Gita Govinda, Bihari’s Satsaiyya, the
Bhagavata Purana, the romantic tale of Nala and Damayanti, and Keshavdas’ Rasikapriyaand
Kavipriya were translated into paintings of exquisite beauty.
Historiography (Raahel)

1) The first European to see the famous collection of the paintings of Maharaja Sansar Chand
was William Moorcroft , an English traveller, who, in 1820 has traveled widely in the
himalysas, who halted at Alampurand Tira-Sujanpuras as a guest of Maharaja Sansar Chand.
Sansar Chand was a great patron of these paintings. In his book, Travels in the Himalayan
provinces of Hindustan and the Punjab, he has mentioned about Kangra paintings.

2) The real discovery of the Kangra School of Painting can be owed to Dr. A.K.
Coomaraswamy. He paid a visit to Amritsar and Kangra in 1910, and obtained a large
collection of these paintings from the Amritsar dealer, Radha Krishna Bharany. His first essay
in the Burlington Magazine of 1910 on ’Pahari Drawings’ opened a new chapter in Indian
art history. Until now the products of the Kangra School were confused by European writers
with Mughal miniatures, and it was Coomaraswamy who recognised the Hindu painting of
Northern India as a distinct entity in his great work Rajput Painting (1916), in which he
described some specimens of paintings from Rajasthan and the Punjab and Jammu hills. He
not merely pointed out the significance of objects described in their historical context, but
also as the expression of ideas.

3) Coomaraswamy’s works inspired a number of scholars to undertake the study of Kangra

Painting. O.C. Gangoly, in 1926 published a portfolio of paintings from the Punjab
Hills as well as Rajasthan in his Masterpieces of Rajput the paintings to the places where
they were painted. He was followed by N.C. Mehta (1926), who in his ‘Studies in Indian
Painting’ , reproduced a few exquisite specimens of Kangra paintings of the Gita Govinda,
which he erroneously ascribed to the Tehri-Garhwal School.

4) In 1930, J.C. French undertook his famous tour of the Punjab Himalayas and discovered a
number of collections of paintings. There were other occasional references, like those in the
writings of Hermann Goetz and Jean-Philippe Vogel. But, essentially, facts surfacing in these
years were merely being garnered; discussion of the painters' work was still far-off.

5) An event of major importance in the research and study of Kangra Painting was the
publication of two important books by W.G.Archer in 1952, viz. Indian Painting in the
Punjab Hills, followed by a monograph on Kangra Painting with ten reproductions in colour.
Availing himself of the reading of an inscription on a Nainsukh painting by B.C. Chabra. As
reported in the catalogue of the great 1948 exhibition at the Royal Society, he pieced together,
perceptively and patiently, the style of the painter and something of his possible career. Most
books on Kangra paintings, published so far, had been enormously costly, printed in limited
editions, and hence were accessible only to a few scholars. Archer’s monograph Kangra
Painting popularised the Kangra School in the West as well as in India. he introduced the
scientific method in the study of paintings, and developed a distinct technique, which apart
from aesthetic appreciation of the paintings, deals with dating, provenance and study of
material and social environment in which the painting developed.
6) The painter Nainsukh figured also in the writing of Karl Khandalavala, who in 1958, in
an early essay, focussed on the painter's patron, Balwant Singh. Other work followed (Pahari
miniature paintings)

7) Mohinder Singh Randhawa's 1962 researchers began to yield a rough outline of

genealogies of some painter-families. Kangra valley painting, 1972. Chamba painting 1967,
Kangra paintings on love 1962, Kangra ragmala paintings (1971)

8) But the nineteen sixties saw a major change in the situation. A shift of emphasis towards
the painter and his social context was perceived in B. N. Goswamy's doctoral dissertation of
1961, The Social Background of Kangra Valley Painting. This was followed by the tapping
of two uncommonly rich and unusual sources of information on the painters: the genealogical
records kept by priests at centres of pilgrimage, and the land settlement records compiled by
the British from the middle of the nineteenth century onwards. Suddenly, a full range of
names of Pahari painters from different artist families came into view, rough dates could be
worked out, family affiliations came into focus, and fairly firm genealogical tables could be
constructed. There was much incidental information in the entries made by the painters in the
priests' registers, and an occasional drawing made in these very registers by the painter lent
both colour and credibility to the records. Basing himself on the substantial body of evidence
yielded by these unorthodox sources, Goswamy proposed in 1968 in the journal Marg, a
different way of looking at painting from the Pahari hills in his essay «Pahari Painting: The
family as the basis of style.

Materials (Akhini)

-Organic materials were being used like squirrel hair for paint brushes and natural dyes made
from turmeric, flowers, charcoal and even powdered gold mixed with wheat starch used as
binding agent to make gouache.
-These paintings were made on a special handmade absorbent paper called the “Sialkoti
Kagaz”, which was specially imported for the purpose of painting from Sialkot, which is now
located in present day Pakistan
-To enhance the texture, the paintings were burnished after completion by rubbing the back of
the paper with the help of an agate of pure marble. Thus, we observe a very charm, polish and
a certain softness of texture.

Various stages involved in the creation of Kangara painting:

The colour palette of the Kangara painting was quite distinct in nature
1. Creating a sketch in charcoal along with outlines and in depth details.

2. White Priming.The Sialkoti kagaz which is usually thick in nature received a thin coating
of zinc-white as priming after the original sketch had been drawn with pencil or brush, and
then gone over with a fine brush dipped in carmine and lamp black. These outlines shone
through the priming, which was burnished and closed the pores of the paper. After the
priming was done and the initial sketch was revived using more charcoal, we have stage 3
3. Basic colouring : On this burnished ground the colours were applied in thin coatings, which
had to be dry before they were burnished. This would help the artists to create the basic
silhouettes and also the basic colour scheme that could be enhanced later on.
Natural materials were utilised as colour such as carbon for black, red ochre, orange lead
(sindura), vermilion (hingula, sulphide of mercury), carmine, ultramarine (from lapis lazuli or
azurite), yellow orpiment (harital), terraverte and malachite greens, indigo blue (the only
vegetable color), gold powder and leaf, also silver.

4. Detailing : Basic outlines of crowns and ornaments and dresses as well as patterns would
be enhanced in this particular stage. Post this stage, the painting would be ready for
varnishing and once varnished using the marble on the back, the painting would exude a shine
or a brilliance which rendered a glimmer especially to any metallic paints used within. The
colors were applied within their respective outlines, first the color of the ground, then the
flesh colors-they range from the lightest to the darkest complexion then all the other colors,
and finally gold. No brush marks were allowed to show before the final burnishing, after
which the final outline was drawn,

Thus, the artist’s palette used a variety of colours in Kangra painting and used specialised
techniques to involve more metallic paints including silver to enhance the features as well as
the detailing of the paintings.

Themes

Gita Govinda

- Gita Govinda of 1730 seems to have a Basohli origin. Gita Govinda is a Sanskrit
work that was composed in the 12th century, it is a text by mendicant poet Jayadeva
Goswami, an ardent lover of Radha and Krishna. This text was considered very
important in India’s Bhakti movement.
- The ‘Gita Govinda’ depicts Radha, a nayika (heroine) proud of her feminine
beauty, full of longing, playful, jealous, passionate and despondent as well.
Krishna is shown as the eternal and typical male, who is charming, suave These and
uncommitted
- We must also notice that Jayadeva’s Gita Govinda was the first time in Sanskrit
literature gave a distinct name and character to the gopi. For context, in the
earliest extended account of the Krishna legend, in the Harivamsa, radha is lost among
the several unnamed gopis.
- Though Radha has no separate identity without Krishna, it is under Radha’s
demanding power Krishna’s divine character changes.
- These paintings have a lyrical quality about them.
- They have been able to convey the pangs of separation, the joy of union, the sakhi
as a messenger, waiting for one’s beloved and love-longing. Jealousy and
 despondency of Radha as expressed by Jayadeva in the text have also been captured
which is a part of the romantic and erotic love format of Gita Govinda.
- These exquisite paintings with their delicate brushwork, depict in visual form the text
of Gita Govinda by portraying Krishna, Radha and the gopis in different
romantic contexts and situations as envisaged by the poet, giving us a glimpse into
their close bonding in a common shared space in the verdant groves of Vrindavan, the
banks of the Yamuna River and pleasant hilly glades.

Bhagvata purana

- The Bhagavata Purana is a Hindu scripture that primarily focuses on the life and
teachings of Lord Vishnu and his various avatars. It is one of the most revered and
popular texts in the Hindu tradition and has been a source of inspiration for many
artists throughout history, including the Kangra painters.
- The Kangra paintings of the Bhagavata Purana usually depict scenes from the life of
Lord Krishna. Some of the popular scenes include his childhood antics, his dalliance
with the gopis, his battles with demons, and his interactions with his devotees. The
paintings are known for their intricate details, such as the clothing, jewelry, and
architecture depicted in the scenes.
- The Purana celebrates the divine feminine, and many of its stories revolve
around the exploits of powerful goddesses like Radha, Sita, and Draupadi. The
Kangra painters were particularly adept at portraying the beauty and grace of these
goddesses, capturing their divine essence and spiritual power in their paintings.
- Radha is portrayed as a strong, independent woman who is deeply in love with
Krishna and is not afraid to express her emotions. The paintings depict her as a
beautiful and passionate woman who is fiercely devoted to Krishna, even in the face
of adversity. The feminist aspect of Kangra painting based on the Bhagavata
Purana is also evident in the way women are depicted in relation to nature. The
paintings often depict women in harmony with nature, highlighting their close
relationship to the environment and their deep understanding of its rhythms and
cycles.
- One example of this theme is the painting titled "Gopi's Welcoming Krishna" from the
Kangra school, which depicts a group of gopis (cowherd girls) joyfully welcoming
Lord Krishna. The painting highlights the agency of the women, who are not
portrayed as passive objects of desire but instead as active participants in the
divine love story. The painting emphasizes the gopis' devotion and their willingness
to do whatever it takes to be close to Krishna.

Nala Damayanti

- The story of Nala and Damayanti is a well-known tale from the Hindu epic
Mahabharata, which tells the story of the life and adventures of the legendary king
Nala and his wife Damayanti.
 - In terms of feminism, the story of Nala and Damayanti has been interpreted in various
ways by scholars and feminist critics. Some see the story as a celebration of female
agency and empowerment, while others view it as a cautionary tale about the
dangers of male desire and patriarchal control.
- One of the most notable feminist interpretations of the story comes from the feminist
scholar Chandra Talpade Mohanty, who argues that the story of Nala and
Damayanti can be seen as a critique of patriarchal structures and values.
According to Mohanty, the story shows how Damayanti uses her intelligence, wit,
and cunning to outsmart the male characters in the story, including her own
husband. Mohanty argues that Damayanti's ability to manipulate the patriarchal
system to her advantage is a form of resistance against the oppressive norms of her
society.
- Other feminist scholars have also explored the feminist aspects of the Nala Dayamanti
story in Kangra painting. For example, the scholar B.N. Goswamy has written about
how the paintings often depict Damayanti as a strong, independent woman who
is able to take charge of her own destiny. Goswamy also notes that the paintings
often show Damayanti as a symbol of love and devotion, challenging the traditional
view of women as passive objects of male desire.

Bihari Satsai

- Bihari Satsai is a collection of 100 poems composed by the medieval Indian poet
Bihari Lal, who lived in the 17th century. These poems are in the form of dohas,
which are couplets consisting of two lines each. The poems are primarily about the
love and devotion of Radha and Krishna, and they are known for their lyrical beauty
and spiritual depth.
- The paintings also depict the social and cultural constraints placed on women in
Indian society. In many paintings, Radha is shown as being trapped in a confined
space, such as a palace or a garden, and she is often shown as being watched by
male figures. This can be interpreted as a critique of the patriarchal norms that restrict
women's mobility and agency.

Rasikpriya

- The Rasikpriya is a famous text in Sanskrit literature that was composed by the
poet Keshavdas in the 16th century. It describes the love between the divine couple
Radha and Krishna, with an emphasis on the emotions of Radha.
- In Kangra painting, the Rasikpriya theme is often depicted in a series of paintings that
narrate the story of Radha and Krishna's love. These paintings are characterized by
their delicate lines, subtle colors, and fine details. They often depict Radha and
 Krishna in various poses and expressions, surrounded by nature, and
accompanied by other characters from the story.
- In terms of feminism, the portrayal of Radha in Kangra paintings can be seen as
subversive and empowering. Radha is often depicted as the central figure, with
Krishna taking a more secondary role. She is shown as a strong and independent
woman, fully in control of her emotions and desires. This contrasts with traditional
gender roles in Indian society, where women were often expected to be submissive
and obedient.

Srinagara

- Srinagara is a Sanskrit word that refers to the concept of beauty, love, and romance.
The theme of Srinagara is often depicted in Kangra paintings as scenes of lovers in
various stages of courtship or in the company of each other.
- One of the most famous examples of the Srinagara theme in Kangra painting is
the series of paintings titled "Rasikapriya" (Lover's Delight) by the artist
Manaku. The series depicts various scenes of romantic love between the Hindu god
Krishna and his beloved Radha and is notable for its detailed portrayal of the emotions
and expressions of the characters.
- Another example of the feminist aspect of the Srinagara theme in Kangra painting can
be found in the portrayal of the goddess Radha. In many Kangra paintings, Radha is
depicted as an independent and strong-willed woman who is not afraid to assert
her own desires and feelings. This depiction of Radha challenges the traditional
patriarchal portrayal of women in Indian society as subservient and passive.
-

Ashta nayikas

Bharat muni composed the Sanskrit treatise Natyashastra ( between 1st century BC and 3rd
century AD, with others adding to the main work) on dance and the performing arts, in which
he has classified eight types of nayikas called ashta nayikas. This theme has been well used
in painting, sculpture, dance and drama. Bharatamuni has focussed on the nayikas as she can
appear in a given drama again depending on the plot. He has envisaged women as the root
cause of happiness.

The Natyasastra describes eight types of nayikas. Though the term can encompass many
types of nayikas in many facets and contexts, the various states of the nayika in love are
depicted in drama. Bharatmuni has described many kinds of nayikas depending on other
factors like social status, nature and also on how she is treated by the king as being part of the
royal harem during ancient times. The eight nayikas or the heroines pertaining to the Śṛṅgāra
Rasa or the erotic emotion consequently depict eight kinds of heroines in union with their
beloved or sambhog, or separated from their beloved or Vipralambha in the Śṛṅgāra Rasa.
 Kangra paintings depict the feminine charm in a very graceful manner. Facial features are
soft and refined. The female figures are exceptionally beautiful.

1. Abhisarika nayika

Abhisarika Nayika can be classified as a Nayika, who is on a journey to meet her beloved.
She can be seen going through a lot of hurdles like snakes, ghosts etc. watching her. Her main
objective being - meeting her lover.

Abhisarika Nayika is further classified in five types, depending on the time of her journey.

· Sukla Abhisarika Nayika (Full Moon)

· Kṛiśhna Abhisarika Nayika (Dark Night/No-moon)
· Diva Abhisarika Nayika (Day)
· Sandhya Abhisarika Nayika (Twilight)
· Nisha Abhisarika Nayika (Night)

As seen in the painting, this Nayika can be classified as Abhisarika Nayika (Kṛiśhna
Abhisarika Nayika) as she is seen to be on a journey to meet her beloved.

This painting shows that precise moment, when the lightening has struck and the entire
ambience along with the Nayika is illuminated. The lightening is used as the main source of
illumination for the scene in order to create a scary environment.

Leading lines are used as a connecting tool between the Ghoul and the Nayika, whereas the
saturation and the contrast divides them and brings our focus back to the Nayika. The owls
present on the tree symbolise night. The tree branches bending towards the Nayika seem to be
brittle which adds to the horror of the scene. The body language of the Nayika justifies
confidence, fearlessness.

Snake is symbolised as death, however the bush in between the Nayika and the ghoul
symbolises a new beginning. The dropping of the jewels by the Nayika supports her hurry to
meet her beloved.
Representations of a woman executed in the the Kangra style, employ an elaborate visual
rhetoric to dramatize the superior beauty and charm of their heroines. It draws a relationship
between the women pictured in the paintings and their viewer. Within it, different viewers
would have responded differently to the heroine's appearance of sanctity. Thus, we shall
inspect into how Kangra images give us an important insight into different modes of
spectatorship.

SPECTATORSHIP AND FEMINITY

UNDERSTANDING THE MALE GAZE

Role of sakhis

In most north Indian court poetry, a triangular relationship exists between a man, woman and
their go-between. Kangra painters often interpret this relationship by placing the woman at
the centre of attention, making her attendants intermediaries and putting the painting's viewer
in the position of the woman's lover.

The sakhi in Indian poetry is the beloved's female confidante. In poetry and painting the sakhi
plays the go-between in the affair between her mistress, known as the nayika, and her
mistress' lover, known as the nayaka. In her capacity as go-between, the sakhi mediates
between the realms of the zenana and the outside world of men.

The poet Keshava Das describes the sakhi's contribution to love affairs in metaphorical terms:

An arch

cannot be built

without a substructure

for support

till it's strong enough

to stand on its own,

so love cannot germinate

without a go-between,

but when it has taken root

 she's no longer needed.

In the realm of painting, the sakhi's role as mediator was often expressed by placing her near
windows and doors. Standing at windows or doors, the sakhi mediates between this world of
freedom and the confinement of the courts.

The movement between the court and the hills is marked by a stylistic division made between
the landscape and the palace. In contrast to the organic forms, naturalistic detail and loosely
painted skies which spread out in painting the Kangra palace locks the heroine into a formal,
bounded space which holds her away from her lover's reach by the placement of the nayika's
attendants and by the attendants' activities.

Speaking for each of the absent lovers, listening to the couple's hopes and sighs, even
commenting on the affair to a friend, the sakhi acts out in poetry the roles of both
speaker/poet and listener.

The attendants play out a scenario unique to painting. Through their actions and gestures they
mediate between the inside of the palace and outside of the picture, where the eye of the lover
and the eye of the painting ‘s viewer becomes one. By gazing upon Nayika and displaying her
to her male admirer, the nayika's attendants bring into the painting the function of the
spectator as viewer and the function of the artist as exhibitor.

In these paintings, the nayika appears separate, posed, static and inviolate, the space around
her, flat and unreal. By flanking their mistress, serving her and gazing upon her, the nayika's
attendants turn the young woman into an object to be attended reverentially.

The comparison between the nayika and a temple icon extends even to the circumstances in
which the nayika is depicted. Images of the sheet and the toilette evoke Hindu religious
practices. Rituals in homage to the deity include bathing(snana), adorning the icon with
sandalwood paste, fresh robes, flowers. This ritual reparation of the icon is echoed by images
of the nayika’s toillete where attendants bathe, dress and adorn their mistress.

In the words of B.N. Goswamy, the ritual "implies the entry into the presence of a revered or
important person or of a deity. It emphasizes the manifestation of God's grace through the
mere sight of his image." The cloth which conceals and reveals the nayika's nude beauty
serves like the curtain which temple attendants raise and lower for darshan to sanctify the
object of sight. And like the outlines of a shrine which frame the temple deity, the sheet which
frames the nayika transforms her into an object of veneration, especially for men.

It is important to note that it is not the woman but her beauty which is venerated in these
paintings. A number of images show a maid holding a mirror to the nayika's face, while her
companions decorate their mistress' limbs. Looking in the mirror, the nayika in these images
becomes the object of her own gaze. She stares into a mirror which duplicates and frames her
image.
She is the object of several gazes-her own, her lover's (which is focused on her from a
window above), and ours, for which her image is framed successively by the cloth and the
mirror. In such paintings which represent the female beauty, all divorced from the woman
herself, becomes no more than a mirage, belonging to an ideal realm.

The concealing sheet lets the viewer see what the lover longs to see, implicating the viewer in
the lover's desire for the nayika. In this fashion, paintings, though they do not represent the
nayika, imply the presence of a male lover in the person of the Viewer.

The distance maintained between the nayika and her viewer is crucial to the construction of
desire in these paintings. Desire depends on the distance between desirer and desired: the
desirer can only want what he does not have.

The formal structures which at the same time draw the viewer towards, while holding him
away from the nayika, set up the mechanics of desire as a pursuit of objects whose attainment
is forever deferred. Like the nayika's cosmetics, the nayika's presentation constitutes an
elaborate masquerade which appears to make everything out of nothing. Within this
masquerade, the nayika is no more than the sum of the attention elaborately drawn to her and
the cosmetics elaborately adorning her.

"Masqu·erade," Doane writes, "constitutes an acknowledgment that it is femininity itself

which is constructed as a mask-as the decorative layer which conceals a
non-identity."Woman, according to this conception of masquerade, wears femininity in the
form of jewels, clothing, attitudes.

The term, “Fetish” is appropriate for the nayika as per many scholarsBy adorning her,
displaying her, revering her, the nayika's attendants will the spectator to desire their mistress,
imbuing her, through their emphatic gestures, with a "special force". However, beyond their
exalting gestures, there is only an insubstantial image-nothing. As we have seen, the exalted
quality of the nayika's image depends on the formal structures which draw to her the viewer's
desire: it is in these structures that the power of nayika images resides.

Female Spectatorship

The themes of stolen glances, teasing concealment and illicit revealment were extremely
potent for men in a court culture which strictly hid women inside the zenana. But what was
the effect of these images on women? By explicitly addressing a male gaze, representations of
the nayika with her attendants pose the problem of female spectatorship. There is evidence to
suggest that women in the north Indian courts looked at paintings, possibly patronized artists,
even painted. Assuming these paintings were looked at by women, how might female viewers
have identified with the figures represented in nayika paintings? How might they have
identified with the external spectator, the nayika or her attendants?
Organized around the relationship between the desiring gaze of the external spectator and the
image of the nayika, these paintings underlined for women viewers the necessity of seeing
female beauty with a male eye. The ability to suit herself to a male conception of femininity
was critical for a woman's self-preservation and promotion in the north Indian zenana.

They suggest strategies for achieving position: cosmetic adornments, attractive poses,
expressive attitudes which draw on the lover's desire and secure his protection. Structures of
desire in nayika paintings thus elicit from female viewers in the court zenana a longing for
beauty/power as well as beauty/sex.

Doane describes the excesses of the masquerade as a means by which women could draw a
distance between themselves and their image, playing at but refusing to identify with the
patriarchal conception of femininity. The representation of beauty in these paintings as an
artifice built on cosmetics, adornment, the rhetorical gestures of a woman's attendants,
suggests the extent to which beauty could be put on, wielded like a weapon in the fight for
power. The paintings thus open up for women a place for intervention in the patriarchal
construction of femininity even while appearing to depict them as the passive recipients/
objects of male desire. It is, however, a small and bounded place of intervention.

Women viewers may also have identified with the nayika's attendants. For some women, the
relationship between the attendants and their mistress, based in the paintings on the
attendants' rapturous gazes, fond fannings, adornings and caresses, may have conjured up a
world of women loving women-a world explicitly represented in north Indian painting and
poetry.

Spiritual Aspect

With love, there is a lover and a beloved. With religion, a devotee and the object of devotion.
The two extremes of duality must approach one another for consummation of the aesthetic
experience, known as rasa. For many Krishna devotees, conceptualizing sexual union was the
first step towards conceptualizing and thus achieving spiritual union. Worshippers of Lord
Krishna often turned to Krishna's lover, Radha, to mediate their longing for union with God.
Painters frequently portrayed the nayika and her lover as the divine Radha and Krishna.

The worshipper anticipates union with the divine. However, in the images so far discussed,
the male viewer's attraction to the nayika is founded on distance. A secular Radha, the nayika
is set apart from the viewer and her attendants. Thus, the structure of these paintings
reinforces the polarity between the viewer and the object of his sight. It is a polarity based on
a desire for union.

Consummation is withheld so that the viewer experiences desire and its object, the nayika, as
ends in themselves. Laura Mulvey has written that "fetishistic scopophilia builds up the
physical object, transforming it into something satisfying in itself."
 The visual rhetoric of nayika paintings builds the nayika into an object for the eye "satisfying
in itself'. The nayika exists solely to be looked at, while to be looked-at-ness itself becomes
an attribute worthy of veneration.

Perhaps they appreciated and were playing on the parallel that could be drawn between the
beautiful woman being "made up" by her attendants and the beautiful painting being "made
up" by the artist's hand. By this parallel, reverence and desire for the nayika's beauty was
bound up with reverence and desire for an artificial, crafted beauty, a kind of beauty
exemplified by the painting itself.