Screw-pine: ketakī, Pandanus odoratissimus,—fragrance.
Shirīsh: Acacia sirissa,—tenderness.
Tamāl: Garcinia zanthochymus,—straight stem, dark leaves (the colour of Krishna).
Tāla: palmyra, Borassus flabelliformis,—round fruits.
ILLUSTRATIONS.
(Transcriber's note: The page images used to prepare this text did not include the illustrations).
One and the same lyrical tradition is the common inheritance of all Hindustan; it finds expression now in poetry, now in music, and now in painting. Hence it is that the schools of painting, though they are local, illustrate all the ideas of the Vaishnava poets as directly as the songs themselves. Amongst Rājput paintings it would perhaps be possible to find an appropriate illustration to every line of Vidyāpati, or of any other Vaishnava singer; not that Vidyāpati was known to the western painters, but their and his experience was the same. Just as the Vaishnava songs are word-painted miniatures, rather than narative, so with the Rājasthānī and still more with the Pahāri Rājput paintings; these are likewise musical delineations of brief moments of the soul's history. It is hoped that the reproductions given here will help to actualise the meaning of Vidyāpati's words, for those who are unfamiliar with the Vaishnava tradition.
The key to each picture is given in the quoted text, to which the following notes are supplementary:
Facing page 3: Jaipur painting of the 18th century, very brilliant in sunset colourings, representing a girl returning from a Shaiva shrine.
The original in the collection of Mr. N. Blount, Calcutta.