Shrawan…the harbinger of new life and colour to the parched earth, with its blessed rains and cool breeze, vibrant hues and running streams.
Streams whom “Surya with his bright beams hath attracted and Indra dug the path for it to travel may these streams” of SHRAWAN “give us ample room and freedom preserve us ever more ye gods with blessings” (Rig Veda)
Shrawan has been mythicised as no other season in both our culture and literature. Jaidev’s Geetgovind opens with a Shrawan setting —with Radha requesting Krishna to escort her on a day with sky overcast and dark clouds above.
It is the month for lovers and this has been depicted in various forms of art through the ages be it the in music or the Virhani Nayika in literature and paintings.
Our artists have also tried to capture this spirit of Shrawan in ochre reds, golden yellows, Krishna blues, mauves & browns, moon white and jewel greens.
The famed author Mulkraj Anand said “all art is based ultimately on intense feeling and the emotional flow directs the curves of the lines, as well as the handling of paint, the manifestation of its forceful expression being the paintings’ virtue”. I guess the same applies to sculpture and other forms of art.
In an atmosphere thus charged by the intoxicating breeze of Shrawan, our artists have sought to explore their imagination and connect us through history & mythology to the muddy splashes and joyful abandon of the rain in the month of Shrawan.
“I don’t consider myself a pessimist, I think of a pessimist as someone who is waiting for it to rain, and I feel soaked to the skin”. -Leonard Cohen
…In the colours of Sawan!.
