A rare Glimpse of the Golden Period of Nathdwara Painting

Context

Recently, a new book features 60 miniature works from the collection of the late Gokal Lal Mehta.

About

About Nathdwara paintings:

Nathadwara is a small town some 40 kilometres north of the Udaipur city in Rajasthan.
The Nathdwara School of Painting is a subset of Mewar School and is seen as an important school in 17th and 18th century.
Nathadwara is the present headquarters of the Pushti Margiya Vaishnavite cult.
The art practice includes haveli-painting traditions like pichhvais—textile wall hangings as the backdrop of Srinathji, and other embroidered designs and murals
Nathdwara paintings are of different sub-styles of which Pichhwai paintings are the most popular.
The word Pichhwai derives from the Sanskrit words pich meaning back and wais meaning hanging.
These paintings are cloth paintings hung behind the image of the Hindu god Shrinathji.

Styles of Rajasthani Painting:

Starting from the 16th century, when the Rajasthani Painting originated, the main schools emerged, including:

Mewar School: Chavand, Nathdwara, Devgarh, Udaipur and Sawar
Marwar School: Jodhpur, Kishangarh, Bikaner, Nagaur, Pali and Ghanerao styles
Hadoti School: Kota, Bundi and Jhalawar styles
Dhundar School: Amber, Jaipur, Shekhawati and Uniara styles

About Pushtimarg:

Pushtimarg is a form of Krishna worship or adoration as founded by Shri Vallabhacharya (1479–1531 AD), a Telugu Vaidiki Brahmana, who was also the propounder of Shuddha-Advaita or pure nondualism.
Vallabhacharya was a contemporary of Sri Krishnadeva Raya of the Vijayanagara Empire, and attended his court to participate in a prolonged debate on the merits and demerits of Dvaita and Advaita philosophies.
Pushtimarg is a variant of the Bhaktimarg or the path of devotion, which is mentioned in the Bhagavadgita as the direct and the simplest approach to achieve liberation.
It centers around pushti bhakti.
- Pushti means nourishing and bhakti means devotion.
- Pushti bhakti means nourishing the soul with divine love and happiness through devotion and selfless service to Lord Krishna, the supreme deity.
Unlike the nondualism (Advaita) of Shankaracharya, Vallabhacharya’s pure nondualism (Shuddha Advaita) regards the world as the creation of Krishna are real, not an illusion.
It is the physical or material aspect of Krishna himself.
All the deities who are part of God’s creation arise in him and exist in him.
Therefore, as suggested in the Bhagavadgita, one should worship Krishna only to attain him rather than worshipping the lower gods, demi-gods, etc.