Kerala Mural Paintings
SREEKRISHNA and the Cow
Krishna in tribhanga with his flute, the white cow turning to listen
Story
Lord Krishna standing in tribhanga, the triple bend at neck, waist and knee, one leg crossed behind the other, the flute lifted across his body and both hands ringed with bangles. The complexion is the soft mural blue reserved for Vishnu and his avatars, modelled by stippling so fine that the limbs seem lit from inside.
Behind him the white cow turns her head towards the sound. The ground is flat vermilion-orange, filled edge to edge with leaf-green creeper, curling tendrils and fan-shaped palmettes, punctuated with rosette medallions and a peacock-plume halo behind the crown. Krishna's dhoti fans out in bands of saffron, deep red and green, each fold ruled with fine white lines and sprinkled with small white flowers; garlands of blossom fall from the shoulders to the knees
.
The head-dress carries the full mural vocabulary — the tiered kiritam, the black hair drawn with white star-dots, the fan of leaves and lotus, the flower ear-discs.
Symbolism
- The flute
- The call of the divine; the hollow reed that sounds only when emptied of self
- Tribhanga stance
- Grace held in balance — the classical posture of ease
- The white cow
- Gentleness and abundance; the soul drawn towards the sound
- Peacock feather
- Krishna's emblem — beauty carried without pride
- Orange ground
- The sacred heat of the sanctum wall
- Creeper and blossom
- Brindavan in flower, the world responding to the music
Artistic Technique
- Freehand outline in ochre before any colour is laid
- Blue complexion built by graded stipple, never blended
- Flat vermilion ground filled with hand-drawn creeper and palmette
- White dot-and-flower ornament applied last over dried gold lines
