Mobility and Festivity: Krishna Icons and the Reunion of the Seven Svarūps of 1739–40

Abstract

This study brings together written and visual evidence of an imposing religious event in the Vallabha sampradāy history: a liturgical performance known as the Festival of the Seven Svarūps. Officiated at the Śrī Nāthjī temple of Nathdwara in 1739–40, it was attended by priests, royalty, and devotees to launch a new period of prosperity and well-being after challenging historical times. This study integrates diverse materials to create a vivid picture of the sumptuous festivity, its organizer (Tilkāyat Govardhanesh, b. 1707), its sponsor (Maharao Durjan Sal of Kota, r. 1723–56), and its sacred participants, the svarūps – the most treasured Krishna icons of the sect. A detailed analysis of the sources will reveal important elements, such as the intertwined network, the Rajput political allies, and the relevance and range of action of the sampradāy in the eighteenth century.

Keywords:

• festival
• Krishna
• Vallabha sampradaya
• Rajput kingdoms
• Nathdwara
• painting

Disclosure Statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1. For the Vallabha sampradāy, also known as the Puṣṭi Mārg (Path of Grace), see Richard Barz, The Bhakti Sect of Vallabhācārya (New Delhi: Munshiram Manoharlal, 1992); Shandip Saha, ‘Creating a Community of Grace: a History of the Puṣṭi Mārga in Northern and Western India (1479–1905)’ (unpublished doctoral dissertation, University of Ottawa, 2004).

2. For the Mughal and Rajput involvement with the Vallabha sampradāy, see Edwin Allen Richardson, ‘Mughal and Rajput Patronage of the Bhakti Sect of the Maharajas, the Vallabha Sampradaya, 1640–1760 A. D.’ (unpublished doctoral dissertation, University of Arizona, 1979). For its shift from Braj to Rajasthan and Gujarat, see Shandip Saha, ‘The movement of bhakti along a north-west axis: tracing the history of the Puṣṭimārg between the sixteenth and nineteenth centuries’, International Journal of Hindu Studies, 11.3 (2007), 299–318.

3. For Vitthalnath as the one who institutionalized the Vallabha sampradāy, see John Stratton Hawley, A Storm of Songs: India and the Idea of the Bhakti Movement (Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press, 2015), p. 187. For the different roles played by Vallabhacharya and Vitthalnath in the early history of the sect, see Ibid., pp. 186–89.

4. For the difference between mūrti and svarūp, see Norbert Peabody, Hindu Kingship and Polity in Precolonial India (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2006), pp. 60–61. For the history and iconography of the svarūps, see Amit Ambalal, Krishna as Shrinathji: Rajasthani Paintings from Nathdvara (Ahmedabad: Mapin, 1995), pp. 54–59.

5. For the Kingdom of Jaipur as patron of the svarūps of the Fourth, Fifth and Seventh House, see Catherine Clémentin-Ojha, Le Trident sur le Palais: Une Cabale Anti-Vishnouite dans un Royaume Hindou à l’Époque Coloniale (Paris: Presses de l’École française d’Extrême-Orient, 1999), pp. 76–77. The patronage came to an end in the 1860s in response to the notorious Maharaj Libel Case.

6. An early notable example of mobility occurred when Śrī Nāthjī searched for shelter in Rajasthan after leaving Braj. For the displacement of Krishna sculptures from Braj, see Heidi Pauwels and Emilia Bachrach, ‘Aurangzeb as iconoclast? Vaishnava accounts of the Krishna images’ exodus from Braj’, Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society, 28.3 (2018), 485–508; Alan W. Entwistle, Braj: Centre of Krishna Pilgrimage (Groningen: Egbert Forsten, 1987), pp. 183–87.

7. Traditions involving the peregrination of icons were known in other traditions as well: for an example from the Gauḍīya sampradāy in Bengal, see Pika Ghosh, ‘Sojourns of a Peripatetic Deity’, RES Anthropology and Aesthetics, 41 (2002), 104–26.

8. For the schism of the Sixth House, see Peabody, Hindu Kingship, pp. 75–78; Saha, ‘Creating a Community of Grace’, pp. 137–39, 201. Due to the schism, the icon of Bālkṛṣṇajī of Surat never participated to the festivals.

9. The 1674 congregation of icons is mentioned in Kaṇṭhamāṇī Śāstrī, Kāṃkrolī kā Itihās (Kāṃkrolī: Śrīvidyā Vibhāg, 1939), Ch. 5, pp. 147–48. The same text also mentions a gathering of four icons in November 1839 in Ibid. Ch. 7, pp. 287–88; and another assembly in 1908 in Ibid. Ch. 9, pp. 61–62. For the Kāṃkrolī kā Itihās as “the definitive text” on the history of the sampradāy in Rajasthan, see Saha, ‘Creating a Community of Grace’, p. 11. As for the dates mentioned in the present article, they have been converted from Vikram Samvat using this program: http://www.cc.kyoto-su.ac.jp/~yanom/pancanga/ [accessed 12 May 2022].

10. For the festival of 1822, see Isabella Nardi, ‘La miniatura come documento storico: le celebrazioni di Saptasvarupa Annakutotsava al Tempio di Śrī Nāthjī a Nathdwara nel 1822’, Annali Sezione Orientale, 77 (2017), 215–232; Prabhudās Vairāgī, ‘Pūjyapād Go. Ti. Śrīmān Govindlāljī Mahārāj kṛt Sapt Svarūpotsav’, in Hīrak-Jayantī-Granth (1937–1997), ed. by B. P. Devpurā (Nāthdvārā: Sāhitya-Maṇḍal, 1997), pp. 598–603 (pp. 599–601). I wish to thank Shandip Saha for bringing to my attention this article and for providing a soft copy.

11. For the festival of 1966, see Entwistle, Braj, p. 223; Vairāgī, ‘Pūjyapād’, pp. 601–03; Rajendra Jindel, Culture of a Sacred Town: A Sociological Study of Nathdwara (Bombay: Popular Prakashan, 1976), pp. 73–74. For the video coverage of the festival, see www.youtube.com/watch?v=ejnBeH_UF8w [accessed 16 May 2023].

12. For this conversation, see Sūryamall Mīsaṇ, Vaṃś Bhāskar (Mahācampū), ed. by C. P. Deval (Delhi: Sāhity Akādemī, 2007),vol. 7, p. 4936; Mathurālāl Śarmā, Koṭā Rājy kā Itihās, ed. by Jagat Nārāyaṇ (Jodhpur: Rājasthānī Granthāgār, 2008), vol. 2, p. 11.

13. See for example Woodman L. Taylor, ‘Visual Culture in Performative Practice: The Aesthetics, Politics and Poetics of Visuality in Liturgical Practices of the Vallabha Sampradāya Hindu Community at Kota’ (unpublished doctoral dissertation, University of Chicago, 1997), p. 9.

14. For an overview of this period, see Sir Jadunath Sarkar, Fall of Mughal Empire (Calcutta: Orient Longman, 1971), vol. 1, pp. 168–70.

15. For this volume see, Saha, ‘Creating a Community of Grace’, pp. 21–22, note 35. For other sources relevant to the reconstruction of the history of the sect, see Ibid., pp. 18–21.

16. See Vairāgī, ‘Pūjyapād’, pp. 598–603.

17. For more on the 1739 festival, see Vairāgī, ‘Pūjyapād’, pp. 598–99; Śāstrī, Kāṃkrolī kā Itihās, Ch. 5, p. 165.

18. Figure 1 was first published in The Royal Bequest: Art Treasures of the Baroda Museum and Picture Gallery, ed. by Saryu Doshi (Bombay: India Book House, 1995), p. 78, where it is dated to 1739. The present study prompts a reconsideration of this date, placing the painting between 1739 and 1740. I wish to thank Shefalika Awasthi for facilitating the acquisition of a publishable photograph of Figure 1.

19. See Mīsaṇ, Vaṃś Bhāskar, vol. 7, p. 4936; Śarmā, Koṭā Rājy kā Itihās, vol. 2, pp. 10–12.

20. These are representatives of Marwar, Bikaner, Kishangarh, Jaipur, Karauli, Bharatpur, Bhainsrorgarh and Begu. For these lists of Rajput rulers, see Jagdīś Siṃh Gahlot, Rājpūtāne kā Itihās (Jodhpur: Hindī Sāhity Mandir, 1960), vol. 2, Koṭā Rājy, pp. 63–64; Śarmā, Koṭā Rājy kā Itihās, vol. 2, p. 10; James Tod, ‘On the Religious Establishments of Mewar’, Journal of Oriental Research (1828), 270–325 (pp. 315–16).

21. For more on the Maharaj Libel Case, see David L. Haberman, ‘On Trial: The Love of the Sixteen Thousand Gopees’, History of Religions, 33.1 (1993), 44–70.

22. For the change of attitude of the Jaipur Maharaja towards the Vallabha sampradāy and the consequential expulsion of two svarūps, see Clémentin-Ojha, Le Trident sur le Palais, Ch. 4. According to the author, Gokulcandramājī of the Fifth House and Madanmohanjī of the Seventh House left their Gangori Bazar temples in Jaipur in July 1865 with their custodians and a multitude of hereditary temple assistants and servants. They first moved to Bikaner before being formally invited to settle in Kaman in 1871. It is not known when the icon of Gokulnāthjī left the city.

23. For the relations between the Vallabha sampradāy and the kingdom of Kota, see Gods, Kings, and Tigers: The Art of Kotah ed. by Stuart Cary Welch (Munich and New York: Prestel, 1997); Taylor, ‘Visual Culture’; Peabody, Hindu Kingship.

24. For more on Maharao Bhim Singh, the Vallabha sampradāy in Kota, and the icon of Bṛjnāthjī (also Brijnathji and Brajnathji), see Peabody, Hindu Kingship, p. 17; and Joachim Bautze, ‘Shri Brijnathji and the murals in the Chattar Mahal, Kota’, in Prācī-Prabhā: Perspectives in Indology. Essays in honour of Professor B. N. Mukherjee, ed. by D. C. Bhattacharyya and D. Handa (New Delhi: Harman, 1989), pp. 319–26.

25. For Ekliṅgjī as the protector of Mewar, see Peabody, Hindu Kingship, p. 72 note 60.

26. The poem, titled ‘Śrī jī ke pās sāto svarūp padhāre’, is included in several religious compilations that were kept in the royal library of Kota, as mentioned in Taylor, ‘Visual Culture’, pp. 74, 152, 182; and Woodman Talyor, ‘Picture practice: painting programs, manuscript production, and liturgical performances at the Kotah Royal Palace’, in Gods, Kings, and Tigers, ed. by Welch, p. 70 note 10.

27. For more information on Mathureśjī and its peregrinations, see Peabody, Hindu Kingship, p. 67; Entwistle, Braj, pp. 223–24. This issue is touched upon in Mīsaṇ, Vaṃś Bhāskar, vol. 7, pp. 5324-25, 5445, which mentions that the rulers of Bundi were traditionally initiated into the Vallabha sampradāy at the time of their accession to the throne until the icon of Mathureśjī was shifted to Kota. At that time, the rulers of Bundi embraced the Rāmānuja sampradāy and the new state deity became Śrī Raṅganāth.

28. For the Bada Mahal mural representing the icon of Mathureśjī, see Joachim Bautze, ‘Zur Darstellung der Hauptgottheiten Kotas in der Malerei der zweiten Hälfte des 18 und der ersten Hälfte des 19 Jahrhunderts’, Berliner Indologische Studien, 3 (1987), 253–278 (Abb. 16).

29. For some published examples of the Jhala ki Haveli murals, see Joachim Bautze, ‘The royal murals of Rajasthan: art in peril’, Silk and Stone: The Art of Asia, The Third Hali Annual (London, 1996), pp. 24–31; Joachim K. Bautze, ‘Time of the Maharajas as reflected in Indian painting from Kota’, in Figurations of Time in Asia, ed. by D. Boschung and C. Wessels-Mevissen (München: Wilhelm Fink, 2012), pp. 226–69 (Plate 10).

30. For more on Zalim Singh and his portraits, see Joachim K. Bautze, ‘Jhala Zalim Singh of Kota, a great patron of Rajput painting’, in Festschrift Klaus Bruhn, zur Vollendung des 65. Lebensjahres dargebracht von Freunden und Kollegen, ed. by N. Balbir and J. K. Bautze (Reinbek: Inge Wezler Verlag für Orientalistische Fachpublikationen, 1994), pp. 105–27.

31. For the 1805 manuscript, titled Śrī Vrajrājjī kā Ghar kī Utsavmālikā, or the ‘Garland of Festivals of the House of Śrī Vrajrājjī’, kept in the Government Museum of Kota, see Bautze, ‘Time of the Maharajas’, pp. 226–69. The compilation comprises 102 pages of text describing the svarūps and their liturgies, and 38 illustrations. I wish to thank Joachim Bautze for providing the two images, of which Figure 3 is published in Ibid., Plate 18.

32. The pichvāī with a tree of life design was an exceptional artwork mentioned in several sources, such as Prabhudās Vairāgī, Śrīnāthdvārā kā Sāṃskṛtik Itihās (Alīgaṛh: Bhārat Prakāśan Mandir, 1995), p. 21. For two manuscripts from Kota containing poems in praise of the pichvāī, see Taylor, ‘Visual Culture’, pp. 83–84.

33. The circulation of paintings and painters along the Mewar-Kota corridor is well documented. For the movement of painters from Udaipur and Nathdwara to Kota, see Stuart Cary Welch, ‘Kotah’s lively patrons and artists’, in Gods, Kings, and Tigers, ed. by Welch, pp. 15–38 (pp. 34–35); for the migration of an artist from Nathdwara to Kota at the time of Durjan Sal, see Kalyan Krishna and Kay Talwar, Indian Pigment Paintings on Cloth (Ahmedabad: Calico Museum of Textiles, 1979), pp. 74–75; for the Kota style used in Nathdwara painting, see Kalyan Krishna, ‘Painted Pichhavais’ in Parokṣa: Coomaraswamy Centenary Seminar Papers, ed. by G. M. Sheikh, K. G Subramanyan, K. Vatsyayan (New Delhi: Lalit Kala Akademi, 1984), pp. 134–41 (p. 137); for the pictorial connections between Bundi-Kota and Udaipur, see Dipti Khera, The Place of Many Moods: Udaipur’s Painted Lands and India’s Eighteenth Century (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2020), p. 46.

34. For the identification of this mural as a depiction of the festival of 1822, see Taylor, ‘Visual Culture’, pp. 84–85.

35. For the architecture and date of the Bada Mahal, see Giles H. R. Tillotson, The Rajput Palaces: The Development of an Architectural Style, 1450–1750 (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1987), pp. 164–65. For some of its paintings, see Joachim Bautze, ‘Portraitmalerei unter Maharao Ram Singh von Kota’, Artibus Asiae, 49.3/4 (1988–89), pp. 316–50.

36. I wish to thank Joachim Bautze for discussing this likeness with me. For more on the portraits of Maharao Bhim Singh of Kota, see Bautze, ‘Shri Brijnathji’, pp. 319–26; for a portrait similar to the one in question, see Ibid., Plate 71.

37. For a portrait of Umed Singh of Bundi in old age, see Thomas Holbein Hendley, The Rulers of India and the Chiefs of Rajputana, 1550 to 1897 (London: W. Griggs, 1897), Plate 10; for the Jat rulers of Bharatpur, see Ibid., Plate 23.

38. The painting is also analysed in John Seyller and Jagdish Mittal, Deccani Paintings, Drawings, and Manuscripts in the Jagdish and Kamla Mittal Museum of Indian Art (Hyderabad: Pragati Offset, 2018), vol. 1, pp. 176–85 (cat. no. 44). For more on the painter Muttam, see Ibid., pp. 187–95 (cat. no. 45).

39. For this important event and its date, see Śāstrī, Kāṃkrolī kā Itihās, Ch. 4, p. 108; Peabody, Hindu Kingship, pp. 62–63); Entwistle, Braj, pp. 162–63.

40. For this hypothesis, see Seyller and Mittal, Deccani Paintings, vol. 1, p. 185.

41. For a painting of circa 1750 portraying Vallabhite icons, see Vijay Kumar Mathur, Marvels of Kishangarh Paintings from the Collection of the National Museum, New Delhi (Delhi: Bharatiya Kala Prakashan, 2000), p. 54.

42. For the Vallabhite families who settled in Hyderabad and Aurangabad, see Anita B. Shah, ‘Devotion and patronage: the story of a Pushtimarg family’, in Gates of the Lord: The Tradition of Krishna Paintings, ed. by Madhuvanti Ghose (Chicago: The Art Institute of Chicago, 2015), pp. 42–53 (pp. 43–44, 52 note 16).

43. For a description of Avadhi painting from Lucknow and Faizabad in the Johnson Album, see Toby Falk and Mildred Archer, Indian Miniatures in the India Office Library (London: Sotheby Parke Bernet, 1981), pp. 135–88. Figure 8 is also published in J. P. Losty and Malini Roy, Mughal India: Art, Culture and Empire: Manuscripts and Paintings in the British Library (London: The British Library, 2012), pp. 180–82; and analysed in Isabella Nardi, ‘Reunion of Krishna icons: a painting of the Festival of the Seven Svarūps in the Johnson Album’, Asian and African Studies Blog, British Library, 1 November 2021, https://blogs.bl.uk/asian-and-african/2021/11/reunion-of-krishna-icons-a-painting-of-the-festival-of-the-seven-svarups-in-the-johnson-album.html [accessed 16 May 2023].

44. For the circulation of paintings and their reuse in Avadh, see Molly Emma Aitken, ‘Parataxis and the practice of reuse, from Mughal margins to Mīr Kalān Khān’, Archives of Asian Art, 59 (2009), 81–103 (p. 89).