End Notes

Part 1. Introduction

Part 2. Themes Related to Jagannath

[12] Starza (1993) provides information about the processional Siva lingas (p.70), Vaishnava pillars (p.97 ff.), modern folk parallels to the sudarsana chakra (p.102 ff.), and stakes or pillar-like icons in tribal settings (p.105 ff.). [Return to text.]

[13] These descriptions are from Starza (1993, p.94-96). [Return to text.]

[14] Mohanty (1984, p.10) lists some of these veshas, and Das (1982, p.117-119) lists and describes several veshas. [Return to text.]

[15] According to Das (1982, p.117). [Return to text.]

[16] This mythological event is celebrated on the full moon day in the month of Magha (January-February) (Das, 1982, p.119). [Return to text.]

[17] This story is recounted by Mohanty (1980, p.7). Das (1982, p.120) notes that this story is mentioned in a chronicle of the Jagannath temple, in relation to King Purushottama of Orissa. This king, who ruled from 1466 to 1497, wished to marry the princess Padmavati of Kanchi but was denied her hand by her father. However, the historicity of this event is not certain. At any rate, the story was popular soon after Purushottama's reign, as a text of the first half of the sixteenth century mentions a kanchi avijana scene in the Jagannath temple. There is currently a prominent relief in the jagamohana (prayer hall) of the Jagannath temple of Puri that depicts this scene. [Return to text.]

[18] Mohanty, 1980; Cooper & Gillow, 1996. [Return to text.]

[19] Das, 1982, p.119-120. [Return to text.]

[20] So Mohanty (1980, p.10) identifies a similar scene in another badhia painting. [Return to text.]

[21] Mohanty (1980, p.10 and plates 14 and 15) identifies other patas that show a scene of the temple kitchen. [Return to text.]

[22] Mohanty (1980, p.10). [Return to text.]

[23] Das (1982, p.67, plates 7 and 8) shows an illustration of chitrakaras' wall paintings on the temple next to the Narendra tank. [Return to text.]

[24] Mohanty (1980, p.10 and Plate 15) identifies a scene of the inverted lotuses in cars as that of the ratha yatra. [Return to text.]

Part 4. Themes Related to Gods and Goddesses

[31] See Kinsey, 1986, p.60ff. [Return to text.]

[32] For details on the iconography of Siva nataraja, see Craven, 1997, p.160. For an example of an Orissan pata-chitra in which Siva holds a rosary in his lower right hand, see Mohanty, 1984, Illustration 21. [Return to text.]

Part 5. Themes from Folklore and Erotic Themes

[33] Arjuna's request for the vision occurs in Book XI of the Bhagavad Gita, a text in which, during the great battle of Kurukshetra, Krishna gives spiritual instruction to his charioteer and devotee Arjuna. Prior to this request, he has asked (in Book X) for instruction on Krishna's forms: "Therefore teach me now … all the sum of your shapes …" and "Show me beneath what form and disguise I must learn to behold you …" and "Number them all … your manifestations…" (Prabhavananda & Isherwood, 1944, p.88).

Krishna then recounts to Arjuna a long list of those various things and creatures of the world that are his self. In this listing (as translated from the Sanskrit by Prabhavananda and Isherwood, 1944, p.89) are some of his animal forms:

"Among horses, you may know me as Uchchaishrava, who was brought forth from the sea of nectar…
"I am Airavata among royal elephants…
"I am Kamadhenu, the heavenly cow…
"I am Vasuki, god of snakes…
"I am the lion among beasts…
"…Vishnu's eagle among birds…
"…the shark among fish…"

Immediately after hearing this list recounted, Arjuna asks Krishna (in Book XI) for a vision of his true form. Responding to this request, Krishna grants Arjuna the vision of that form, both glorious and terrifying. Arjuna sees the whole universe inside Krishna-Vishnu, and Krishna exhorts him again. "After Arjuna had heard these words of the Lord Krishna, he folded his palms and bowed down, trembling." (Prabhavananda & Isherwood, 1944, p.94).

This form of Krishna is called virat-rupa (omnipresent or vast form), Krishna containing the whole universe in his body. Therefore, one theme found in paintings in India is that of Krishna as a giant human being with many aspects of creation contained in his body. Swali and Swali (1984, p.24) note that this universal form of Krishna was portrayed as the virat-rupa by, for example, the painters of Nathdvara, a major Vaishnava pilgrimage center in Rajasthan; and that chitrakaras in Orissa painted Krishna's universal form, alternately, as the nava-gunjara. The preference for the nava-gunjara is exemplified by the story in Sarala Das's Mahabharata, described in the main text. [Return to text.]

[34] See Miller (1977, p.3,5) who reports that legend tells us that Jayadeva came under the influence of the Jagannath cult in Puri, and that his supposed marriage to Padmavati, a dancing girl in the Jagannath temple, may be an allusion to the poet's initiation into the Srivaishnava cult that had been established in Puri under the influence of the philosopher Ramanuja. [Return to text.]

Summary

[35] The British official and scholar of Indian art, W.G. Archer, purchased a number of pata-chitras in 1932 (Das, 1982, p.63). Especially after the efforts of Halina Zealey in the 1950s, the chitrakaras' work was introduced to a wide audience of collectors. [Return to text.]

[36] See Das, 1982, pp.81-89 for a history of the decline of the pata-chitra tradition in the first half of the twentieth century and of its rejuvenation beginning in the 1950s under the zealous patronage of Halina Zealey, who spent several years in Orissa while her husband was working on village improvement projects. Mrs. Zealey encouraged the painters' work and helped expand their markets by arranging for several exhibitions of their work both in India and in the West. [Return to text.]