06/12/2021
Rasleela is the divine dance of Hindu god Krishna. It translates to ‘Dance of Divine Love’ and is depicted by Krishna playing flute in the centre and surrounded by dancing female devotees or gopis. This much-loved bhakti portrait is transformed into many Indian art forms. Madhubani artists portray rasleela not just on canvas but on saris, dupattas and wall décor items.
I was eager to learn Madhubani from national award-winning artist Hema Devi.
As an introduction to the art lovers, Madhubani painting holds a prestigious place amidst all the folk arts in India because of its unique style and a prominent technique of kachni and bharni. In Madhubani art form, kachni means hatch and barni means to fill. In this painting, Hemaji has took us through both kachni and bharni style. This is unique and a great learning for all of us, as we learnt both the techniques in one painting.
In addition to this, I would also like to share one of the interesting part during my interaction with Hemaji was her beautiful narration of stories behind each and every aspect of the painting. She would skillfully do this while taking us through the intricacies of the art form.
One of the enchanting stories narrated by Hemaji was about the time Lord Shiva entered the rasleela dance incognito. Krishna was dancing with the gopis and Shiva quietly witnessed the dance in a corner and watched the energetic performance.
As the dance came to an end, Krishna felt something was amiss. To his surprise, one of the gopis mentioned to him that there was a new "gopi" in the corner and he had three eyes. Krishna understood that it was none other than Lord Shiva and had a hearty laugh at the entire scenario.
Such are the interesting narrations and interactions that we have with Catterfly artists and moderators. They very well know how to engage the audience and make them learn art in an amusing way.Thank you https://instagram.com/catterfly_art.and.culture?utm_medium=copy_link
