Among the most exquisitely detailed of all known pieces, this kantha is also one of the most carefully structured and nuanced in its presentation of Gaudiya Vaishnava devotional imagery. Each of the four sides depicts a key episode from Krishna's early life. Scenes of baby Krishna stealing butter and youthful Krishna fluting to the
gopis (cowherd women) at left and right are set within architectural frames. These balance Krishna on the composite horse (
navanarigunjara) and as ferryman (combining the
naukavilas and
danakhanda) at top and bottom.
1 The embroiderer carefully contrasts the conical breasts of the young women forming the horse with the drooping ones of the old widow in the boat. The sacred pink-and-blue lotus flowers and the
kadamba trees at the corners are equally explicit.
2 Darielle Mason, from
Kantha: The Embroidered Quilts of Bengal (2009), p. 185.
NOTES
1. For an iconographic analysis of these scenes within the Gaudiya Vaishnava context, see Pika Ghosh, “Embroidering Bengal,” this volume.
2. See Darielle Mason, “Background Texture,” this volume. While Kramrisch did not record the circumstances of her acquisition of this piece, it relates closely in palette, technique, composition, and many details to a square kantha in the Asutosh Museum of the University of Calcutta, said to have been collected in Narail, Jessore District. In Undivided Bengal, Narail constituted the eastern portion of Jessore; today it lies within Khulna Division, Bangladesh. Especially telling on the Asutosh piece is the similarity of the
naukavilas motif and, to a lesser extent, the
makhan chor scene opposite it, as well as the corner
kadambas and elements of the central roundel. This kantha, which is on permanent view at the Asutosh Museum, is published in black-and-white in Sila Basak,
Nakshi Kantha of Bengal. New Delhi: Gyan Publishing House, 2007, p. 281, no. 303; however, the relationship of color and treatment is only evident when it is viewed in person.The overlap of the images on this kantha to prints produced in Battala, North Calcutta, during the early nineteenth century also allows a relatively early dating (see Pika Ghosh, “Embroidering Bengal,” this volume).
