Thursday, 24 April 2014

The Message of the Eyes

The Message of the Eyes

by Fattu. From Bihari Sat Sai series.
Kangra School.  Late 18th century AD.

               Indian poets have bern written rapturously about the eyes of a Nayika and Nayak. For,  the eyes are the windows to the soul of the person. In Bihari's poem one Sakhi (friend) says to the other: "Although her glance may wonder to others, but it turns away immediately Seeing her own lord her gaze  becomes steady like the mariner's compass."
         In another couplet he writes describing the behaviour of lovers through the exchange of glances as :
             "They speak, disagree,  rejoice, get annoyed, get reconciled again, feel pleased, and then absorbed,
While seated in the crowded hall, they speak to each other with their eyes".
            Fattu seems to have painted the latter couplet in this painting.  Radha is crossing a hall when she suddenly realises that Krishna is staring at her. She turns around, looks at him, and the message is conveyed.  The Sakhis standing in the hall have understood the undercurrents of love between the lovers. Gossip has started.
           To communicate with divinity one doesn't need a middleman. To look at God one needs to close one's eyes and communicate directly to Him. Even while living a busy life, one can be in communion with God. Hence the lovers in a crowded hall.

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