Pichwai art: Adding colour to the Indian culture
By: Vinita Mathur
Tags: India, Visual Design, Design, Art, Iskon

Although the majority of Pichwais are associated with particular festivals, a large member of hangings have seasonal themes and are not assigned to special days. These capture the mood of the season and provide relief from the scoring heat or piercing cold. They may be hung at any time during the appropriate season.

While the paintings depicting summer have pink lotuses, the paintings depicting “Sharad Purnima” comprise a night scene with the bright full moon.The seasonal restrictions are also closely followed. During the winter months, the scenes are not painted, but embroidered on heavy fabric or patterned in brocades. During the hot summer days the lightweight painted Pichwais with scenes of shady groves and cool streams are used in the shrine, Shri Nathji is surrounded with scenes of dense shaded trees, leaves in abundance with water or lotus ponds. With the coming of the monsoon season, the Pichwai is represented with peacocks joyfully dancing beneath the cloudy skies.

Usually, Krishna is shown standing beneath a blooming Kadamba tree with three or four gopis on either side of him. In addition to the Kadamba, there is a full or half mange tree behind each group of gopis. More commonly, Krishna’s presence among the milkmaids is merely suggested by a creeper, which twins around the trunk of the Kadamba. The posture of the Gopis play a major role in design.

They may dance for the Sharada Purnima or carry milk pots for the Daana Lila. When the background has raindrops and the sky is thick with clouds, it is the rainy season or a Varsha Pichwai. Each scene has a band of cows at the bottom of the hanging. The Morakuti Pichwai is filled with dancing peacocks. It is associated with the rainy season because at the first sound of thunder, the peacock spreads his magnificent feathers. The various other Pichwais are :

Ramnavami Pichwai

Nandmahotsava Pichwai :This tender scene described by Surdas is what is enacted on Nandamahotsava, where the vatsalya bhava or selfless parental love of Nanda and Yashoda is commemorated. On the occasion of the Nandamahotsav, celebrated the day after Janmashtami or the birth of Krishna, the doors of the inner sanctum remain open for darshan all day long. Shrinathji in his Navnitpriyaji swaroop is swung in a cradle by priests who dress up as Yashoda and Nanda to enact this scene. There are also celebratory dances with the temple servants dressed as the gopas and gopis of Vraj.As Krishna grows up, he becomes beloved of the whole village. Indulged as he is, he becomes a mischievous child, his love for milk and butter becomes legendary, and his charm grows steadily more irresistible.

Daana Ekadashi Pichwai:The festival of Daana Lila is celebrated in August-September and has its origins in bhakti poetry where Krishna demanded milk and butter from the gopis as a toll for safe passage home. It is believed that this occurred in a valley in Mount Govardhana known as Daana Ghati, and while some pichwais depict the entire narrative and enactment of the gopis sharing their milk with Krishna, others only suggest the event with Shrinathji being approached by gopis bearing milk pots on their heads. At Nathadwara, the festival of Daana Lila, goes on for twenty days! Krishna grows gradually into the perfect cowherd: the one who all cows heed, answering to his flute as if in a state of intoxication.

Braj Yatra Pichwai

Sharad Purnima Pichwai :Ras Lila or Maha Rasa on the occasion of Sharad Purnima .Bhakti, the central tenet of the Pushti Marg doctrine is epitomised by the Ras Lila, where adolescent Krishna dances with his gopis. On a full moon night in the Vraj forest, by the flowing Yamuna, Krishna’s melodious flute calls out to the gopis like the pied piper, and they are forced to abandon everything to dance with him. The spirit of abandon and surrender that the Ras Lila evokes is the realization of bhakti: it represents the ultimate union of the soul with the Lord, a joining together in a cosmic dance. Thus, it is a theme dear to most patron-devotees and an extremely popular choice for pichwais.

Chourasi Swaroop Srinathji: The pichwai painting depicts the chourasi (eighty-four) swoops (forms) of Shrinathji. In Nathdwara, the ‘shringar’ of Lord Shrinathji is changed according to the time of day, different seasons and different festivals. The deity is decorated in a specific manner for each event. This painting depicts eighty-six different figures surrounding the central Shrinathji deity, of which eighty-four show different forms or swaroops of Shrinathji. The two at the bottom left and bottom right depicts the gosai, or the head priests, who imparted learnings of the Pushtimarg sect.

Annakuta Pichwai :The episode represented by this image relates to the autumnal offerings the villagers of Vraj were about to make to Indira, the nominal king of the Gods. Krishna suggested that worship instead be offered to the spirit of the mountain that sustained the pastures and woods that supported their livelihoods — and transformed into the mountain king in order to receive their offerings. The annual reenactment of this scene thus gains the name Annakuta or ‘mountain of food’. When a wrathful Indira unleashed a rainstorm in fury, Krishna vanquished him by lifting the mountain on the little finger of his left hand — captured by the key iconographic gesture of Shrinathji’s raised left hand.

Gowardhana Dharana Pichwai: Shrinathji and his this Posture — is the Dominant Figure in Pichwais .Krishna, as a child, lifted Govardhan Parvat (hill) on his little finger for seven days, and safeguarded the people of Vrindavan from Lord Indira’s devastating thunderstorms. Right hand typically rests on his waist, or is lowered in an act of blessing.

Gopashtami Pichwai :The Gopashtami festival takes place in the late autumnal months, and marks the elevation of Krishna from a younger herders of calves to a full cowherd. Cows are adorned with henna and sindur hand prints, peacock plumes and with bells around their necks. At Nathadwara, the cows, decked in their finest, are brought into the haveli.

Morakuti(monsoon)Pichwai : Pichwais for Morakuti, as seen below, depict peacocks with crested crowns dancing in full abandon in the rainy season. Named after a small village in Vraja, near the birthplace of Radha, where peacocks abound — these pichwais mimic the ras lila, or Krishna’s dance with Radha and the gopis.

Varsha Pichwai : Varsha or Vrikshachari pichwais evoke Krishna as a vrikshacharya or tree dweller. He is only symbolically represented in the painting therefore, usually through the kadamaba tree, while in anticipation of his arrival gopis appear on either side of the tree carrying offerings of garlands, peacock fans, flowers and fly whisks.

Winter Pichwai

Different Scenes Depicted in Pichwais

Different seasons and events in Lord Krishna’s life are depicted in pichwais. Radiant pink lotuses adorn pichwais hung in summer, whereas peacocks are painted on pichwais used at temples during the rainy season.

Influence of Other Styles

Unlike the pigment-painted Pichwai, the other types of hangings such as embroidered or applique pieces were not the products of school which specialized in Pichwai. They were the works of craftsmen who excelled in sewing, weaving, or embroidery. The applique Pichwais were made by tailors employed by temples on occasions, the tailor worked in collaboration with an artist who sketched the pattern for the figures and later added the painted details.

The Zordozi hangings, which occupied an important position in the main house of the Vallabh sampradaya, were also the works of tailors. Gold or silver metal threads were stitched to satin or velvet with thin silk threads giving the works the appearance of true embroidery.

Brocade hangings are quite popular because they are well -suited to the winter weather. Such pieces are made by professional weavers on special order.