Chaurapancāśikā paintings are identified as the earliest known Rajasthani paintings, which are attributed to the Mewar School, dated to the early sixteenth century. These paintings are based on the Sanskrit poetry Chaurapancāśikā (Fifty Verses of the Thief), written in the eleventh century CE. It is renowned as a legendary romantic story about an illicit love affair between a princess and her tutor. Each verse of the poetry begins with adyāpi, meaning ‘I still remember,’ as the poet writes about fond memories of his beloved while reminiscing about her image. This paper aims to explore the visual modalities employed by the artists in the translation of the verses from Chaurapancāśikā into visual images. I aim to highlight the apparent duality of memory and imagination, and idealisation present in these works. The habitus of the artists and the canonical iterations of Rajasthani art under which the artists created these works will be observed. Moreover, the juxtaposition of the poetic text written above the paintings and their association with the images will be discussed to understand the dynamics of viewing these paintings. Metaphors such as reading an image or reading within the image will be explored. Following Gregory Minissale’s work on Mughal painting I will observe the visual abstractions of the text provided by the artists in the paintings, which “build a creative tension between reading, visualising images, expectation, idealisation and subconscious process” (Minissale, Images of Thought: Visuality in Islamic India 1550-1750, 30-31.).
Using formal analytical approaches to study the form of mental and eidetic images in these paintings, the paper will expand on the depiction of desire and longing in them. The paintings can be viewed as divided into spaces of desires, which correspond to the physical and mental experiences of the poet. The anti-illusionistic approach used by the artists in the paintings becomes significant in discussing aspects such as the role of the body and the role of the viewer in the paintings in the context of desire. The paintings convey numerous binaries of desire, which become apparent as one delves into their structure. These methodologies will guide us to analyse the perception of form and matter as “mental images” in these paintings.
Keywords: Memory, Mental images, Idealisation, Desire, Anti-illusionism, Chaurapanchashika
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Arnheim, Rudolf. The Power of the Center: A Study of Composition in the Visual Arts. Berkeley, Los Angeles, London: University of California Press, 1982.
Barrett, Douglas E., and Basil Gray. Painting of India, Text by Douglas Barrett and Basil Gray. Geneva?: Skira; [distributed in the U.S. by World Pub. Co.], Cleveland, 1963.
Minissale, Gregory. Images of Thought: Visuality in Islamic India 1550-1750. Newcastle upon Tyne: Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2006.
Mitchell, W. J. T. What Do Pictures Want? : The Lives and Loves of Images. London: The University of Chicago Press, 2005.
Chetan Chhiller
PhD Student
The University of Auckland, Auckland, New Zealand
https://www.linkedin.com/in/chetanchhiller
Using formal analytical approaches to study the form of mental and eidetic images in the Rajasthani paintings based on the Sanskrit poetry Chaurapancasika, dated to the early 16th century, the paper will expand on the depiction of desire and longing in them that correspond to the poet’s physical and mental experiences. I aim to highlight the apparent duality of memory and imagination, and idealisation in these works. The artists' anti-illusionistic approach allows us to discuss the role of the body and the viewer. This methodology guides analyzing the perception of form and matter as "mental images" in these paintings.