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A Strange Parallelism and Pleasant Geometry (Temple Wood Carving of Radha Krishna)

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This huge, magnificently carved wood-statue, rare in size and quality of image, one of the finest examples of temple wood-carving, represents Krishna playing fully absorbed on his flute while Radha with a lotus in her right hand, and a pot, in left, standing close to him on his left.

The figures of Radha and Krishna are rhythmically poised. As entwining along the melody emitting from his flute the two figures seem to surge like waves, creating with their rise and fall highly delightful forms. Completely absorbed Krishna could not know when his left leg turned to right, and correspondingly his entire figure, the left knee, to further left, hips to right, shoulders to left and face to right. The melody seems to ring Radha’s being with far greater elasticity as in ecstatic dance and when completely moved and emotionally charged. A strange parallelism, perfectly aligning to Krishna’s body-posture Radha’s right leg has moved to left, hips, too far to left, the entire figure beyond belly, breasts and shoulders, to right sensuously inclining to Krishna’s figure, and a fully absorbed face to left: a pleasant geometry seeking to create the magic of diagonality. Known in Vaishnava iconography as ‘tri-bhang’ – three-curved, this posture of Krishna’s figure is the most celebrated form of his image, one enshrining the Banke-Bihari temple at Vrindavana, one of the four most venerated seats of Krishna’s Vaishnavism.

The figures of Radha and Krishna enshrine ‘prabhavali’ – fire-arch, a widely used element in South Indian divine iconography symbolising cosmos that the represented divinity pervades. The ‘prabhavali’ rises from a lotus base consisting of a pair of lotus mouldings: the lower one with a course of inverted lotuses symbolic of fertility and thus of the earth, and upper one, a course of upward lotuses symbolic of fire or energy, that is, the sky, and the rounded apex topped by a prominent Kirtimukha symbolising supreme good.

Radha and Krishna here have been carved pursuing South Indian iconographic models of Vaishnava images not merely in the style of costumes or ornaments but also in iconography and figural anatomy. Krishna has been modeled like Lord Vishnu in his proto form, and Radha, like Goddess Lakshmi.

The figure of Krishna has been carved with Vishnu-like towering tall crown, mark of Vaishnava ‘tilaka’ on his forehead, Vaijayanti on his breast and elaborate ornamentation, besides the imposing height of his figure, a rounded and little voluminous face with emotional bearing. The statue of Radha, the cowherd maiden of Vraja, reveals the same emotional fervour as should Radha mad in Krishna’s love.

As an art-piece, the statue is outstanding in plasticity, modeling, proportionate anatomy and aesthetic quality.