Topic: Nayika

[Nichi]

[Nichi]

[Nichi]

Negotiating for a liaison with the onlooking man

[Nichi]

Virahini

[Nichi]

This came up in the search on nayika, as a lady playing the 'go-between', but I sense there is something more to this story.

[Michael]

Virahini

distressed by separation:

"The ancient text Natyashastra elaborates on various nayikas (heroine) classified according to their situation in love. Love is classified into two categories viz. love in separation (viyog) and love in union (samyog).

The artist has portrayed the virahini nayika; she who is separated from her lover, suffering from anxiety and love longings. With vacuous eyes, she looks beyond the viewer. She sees no reason to dress in attention – seeking diaphanous clothes or ostentatious jewellery. Dressed in a simple rust-orange attire that covers her head as well and simple jewellery, she yearns for her lover; the anxious eyes, the smile-less lips, the pallor all speak of her grief. Learning on the door, she hopefully looks at the track; a miracle might happen and her lover might return.

To underplay the situation of 'viraha' and 'viyog', the artist dresses up the nayika in bright clothes but does not use restraint while portraying emotion on her face. Her sadness reaches out to the viewer."

[Michael]

Abhisarika Nayika

'Abhisarika ("one who moves") is a heroine, who sets aside her modesty and moves out of her home to secretly meet her lover.[5] She is depicted at the door of her house and on her way to the tryst, defying all kinds of difficulties like the storm, snakes and dangers of the forest.[3][5] In art, Abhisarika is portrayed often in hurry towards her destination.'

'The lady in the picture, dressed in all her finery, rushes headlong across the dark landscape to a tryst with her lover. Despite the apparent danger, the passion in Abhisarika's heart gives her the courage to overcome all. Abhisarika [literally `without fear'] as represented here could be a metaphor for the heedless ways of passionate love which worries little about danger and cares nought for the opinions of the world.'

[Michael]

Vipralabhda

'Vipralabdha ("one deceived by her lover"), also spelt as Vipralabhdha, is a deceived heroine, who waited for her lover the whole night. She is depicted throwing away her jewellery as her lover did not keep his promise. This is happens when a lover meets a Khandita and promises a tryst and breaks his promise.'

'Flowers are like arrows, fragrance becomes ill-odour, pleasant bowers like fiery furnaces,
Gardens are like the wild woods, o Kesava, the moon rays burn her body as though with fever,
Love like a tiger holds her heart, no watch of the night brings any gladness,
Songs have the sound of abuse, pan has the taste of poison, every jewel burns like a firebrand'

'She is the jilted heroine, in the throes of disappointed love, dejected and inconsolable.'

[Michael]

'The Natya Shastra describes the nayikas in the following order: Vasakasajja, Virahotkanthita, Svadhinabhartruka, Kalahantarita, Khandita, Vipralabdha, Proshitabhartruka and Abhisarika.

The nayikas are further classified in two varieties of the shringara rasa, the rasa related to love: Sambhoga (love in meeting) and Vipralambha (love in separation). Vasakasajja, Svadhinabhartruka and Abhisarika are associated with Sambhoga; the others with Vipralambha.

In the Shringara Prakasha, Bhoja relates the various nayakas and nayikas with musical ragas and raginis (a female raga).'

Natya Shastra is a kind of dance coming from a famous text written long ago. It is in my opinion, the most entrancing of all Indian dance, especially when performed by young women - it requires tremendous physical agility. Best to look up when the Natyashastra dance academies hold their graduation performances. Most large cities where Indians live will have Natyashastra dance academies.

Nayikas are also the eight forms of Durga.

[Nichi]

Hansini

Exotic India:

Indian aesthetic tradition classifies women broadly in four types. This is based on both their physiognomic attributes and the power to generate in the male various kinds of emotions.These four kinds are padmini nayika, hansini nayika, shankhini nayika and hastini nayika. The hansini nayika, the female possessed of a swan's attributes, is described as a heroine with long raised neck, bright eyes, slender waist, well-defined breasts, long thick hair dressed like a swan's tail, and a tall, lean and thin figure endowed with great agility and tempting charm.

In their representations of hansini nayikas artists have created, both on canvas and in stone, several female figures, as the one here, outstanding in both beauty and figurative grace. For symbolizing their hansini characteristic, they have rendered variedly along them the figures of swans. Here in this painting the cute female has been depicted with a swan held close to her bosom and the viewing eye might easily discern the similitude between the figure of the bird and that of the woman.

There is one problem here: that is not a swan.

[Nichi]

The Indignant Hero

[Nichi]

Svadhi Napatika

[Nichi]

Shringara

[Nichi]

Domains of Wonder

An enduring theme in Sanskrit literature is the ashta-nayika, or eight types of heroines. This painting depicts the type of heroine who has her lover completely under her control. Here she is shown seated high on a chair, well above her lover, who-taking on the form of Krishna-squats on the floor and tends to her feet. While he is completely absorbed in his gentle task, she gazes at him with delight and softness. The figures are sensitively drawn and colored, and there is great delicacy of feeling in the work.

VISIONS OF THE GREAT GODDESS

Towards the very end of the great Sanskrit love lyric, the Gita Govinda, all doubts laid to rest, all anger assuaged, Radha, secure in her power over him, 'commands' Krishna to do things for him, the poet says. Paint a leaf on my breasts!/ Put color on my cheeks!/ Lay a girdle on my hips!/ Twine my heavy braid with flowers!/ Fix rows of bangles on my hands/ And jeweled anklets on my feet! And her 'yellow-robed lover', does her bidding exactly as asked. The artist does not say it in so many words, but he is presenting her here as a svadhinapatika nayika, the heroine who has her lover completely under her control.

[Nichi]

Utka