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III. The Indian concept of love Love, one of the favourite subjects of Pahari painting, is invoked and portrayed in all its poignant aspects of pleasure and pain. Indian philosophy extols Love as a cosmic principle, being the cosmic desire and the first born out of the primeval chaos, emerging at the beginning of time to act as a catalyst in the universal process of creation [18] . Indian literature, both religious and secular, contains many allusions to metaphysical and physical love, as well as a wide range of sexual symbolism. Sexual pleasure has always been accepted as an essential aspect of human activity, for which provision has to be made in the scheme of existence. The Kamasutra describes and classifies manifold love-plays that would bring about maximum of sexual pleasure [19] . The appreciation of beauty of all kinds and the knowledge of the science of love, focusing on the capacity to give as well as to receive physical joy and happiness, are specially underlined in the treatises as essential assets of an educated person. Jayadeva and other celebrated poets of medieval times elaborate the passion of the cowherd god Krishna and his favourite milkmaid Radha, and interrelate the levels of physical and metaphysical joy. Krishna's love with Radha is condensed into a religious ecstasy. His spiritual intimacy, which he had with an individual human being, simultaneously with all creatures in a universal scale, is expressed through the sensuality of his love with Radha. Krishna and Radha have been made the vehicles of erotic emotion, with all its joys and heartaches that ultimately lead to a blissful consummation of love. The aesthetic experience of this love is the means to break the imaginary barrier dividing the humans from the divine [20] . Indian treatises on love and behaviours of lovers often consider Krishna and Radha as their idealised subjects. Poets and rhetoricians classify lovers (nayakas and nayikas) according to their temperaments and applied circumstances. The happy and unified lovers (samyoga) form one of the two broad categories, opposite to those suffering the pain of separation (viyoga or viraha). One often encounters Krishna and Radha in these roles of nayaka and nayika. In the same way, dainty women of frail beauty and willowy gaits, struck by love and by the variant sentiments of love, are also true reflections of Radha, the humble milkmaid and the beloved of God [21] . | |
