Lord Krishna was the hero of the great hindu epic, Mahabharata. Here he is shown in his childhood (the young Krishna is also popularly known as Bal Gopala), with his foster mother, Yashoda. Krishna spent his childhood in vrindaban, under the care of his foster parents, Yashoda and Nanda - the leader of cowherds. The real parents of Lord Krishna, Devaki and king Vasudeva were held captive by the evil brother of Devaki (and uncle of Krishna), Kansa, because of a fear in Kansa borne out of a divine voice from the skies which had declared that the son of Devaki would be the cause of death of Kansa. Devaki had given birth to six sons and a daughter before giving birth to Krishna. However Kansa had killed all the six infants right after their birth. When Krishna was born in the dead of night, all the guards and Kansa himself strangely fell asleep, because of a divine intervention, while King Vasudeva escaped from the prison with his son Krishna. Through the stormy weather, he carried Krishna to Vrindaban, where unknown to anyone else, he surreptitiously exchanged Krishna for the son of Nanda and Yashoda and came back to his prison. Thereafter, Krishna was brought up by Yashoda and Nanda and later, in his youth, when he go to know of his origins, he went to Mathura and slayed the evil ruler Kansa and restored the throne to his real father, king Vasudeva.
Jamini Roy Paintings
Jamini Roy was born in 1887 in the Bankura distict of Bengal. Brought up as an artist under the tutelage of Abanindranath Tagore (elder brother of nobel laureate in literature, Rabindranath Tagore, and himself, a famous artist), he grew up with the same ideas and styles that so many of his contemporary artists had, resulting in a non-uniqueness in his artwork, which was limited to impressionist landscapes and portraits.
Recognizing the need for Indian art and himself to develop a unique style and identity, around 1925, he began experimenting with folk art in India, borrowing ideas from the Kalighat paintings and the terracotta work of the Vishnupur temple. By the 1930s, he had switched over completely to indegenous styles and medium for his art - using his own painting surfaces of cloth, wood or eve cane mats coated with lime, instead of the traditional canvas used by painters, and earth and vegetable colors for paints. His artwork definitively stepped away from the familiar styles of schooled training in art and embraced the wild lyrical beauty of the folk art of Bengal.
His initial days of penury and obscurity gave way to success and fame as his his art found patronage during the 1940s amongst the middle class Bengalis as well as the Eurpoean community, with his work finding appreciation in exhibitions held in London and New York. In 1955, he was awarded the Padma Bhushan, a coveted national honour. He died at the age of 85, in the year 1972.
Lord Krishna was the hero of the great hindu epic, Mahabharata. Here he is shown in his childhood (the young Krishna is also popularly known as Bal Gopala), with his foster mother, Yashoda. Krishna spent his childhood in vrindaban, under the care of his foster parents, Yashoda and Nanda - the leader of cowherds. The real parents of Lord Krishna, Devaki and king Vasudeva were held captive by the evil brother of Devaki (and uncle of Krishna), Kansa, because of a fear in Kansa borne out of a divine voice from the skies which had declared that the son of Devaki would be the cause of death of Kansa. Devaki had given birth to six sons and a daughter before giving birth to Krishna. However Kansa had killed all the six infants right after their birth. When Krishna was born in the dead of night, all the guards and Kansa himself strangely fell asleep, because of a divine intervention, while King Vasudeva escaped from the prison with his son Krishna. Through the stormy weather, he carried Krishna to Vrindaban, where unknown to anyone else, he surreptitiously exchanged Krishna for the son of Nanda and Yashoda and came back to his prison. Thereafter, Krishna was brought up by Yashoda and Nanda and later, in his youth, when he go to know of his origins, he went to Mathura and slayed the evil ruler Kansa and restored the throne to his real father, king Vasudeva.
Jamini Roy Paintings
Jamini Roy was born in 1887 in the Bankura distict of Bengal. Brought up as an artist under the tutelage of Abanindranath Tagore (elder brother of nobel laureate in literature, Rabindranath Tagore, and himself, a famous artist), he grew up with the same ideas and styles that so many of his contemporary artists had, resulting in a non-uniqueness in his artwork, which was limited to impressionist landscapes and portraits.
Recognizing the need for Indian art and himself to develop a unique style and identity, around 1925, he began experimenting with folk art in India, borrowing ideas from the Kalighat paintings and the terracotta work of the Vishnupur temple. By the 1930s, he had switched over completely to indegenous styles and medium for his art - using his own painting surfaces of cloth, wood or eve cane mats coated with lime, instead of the traditional canvas used by painters, and earth and vegetable colors for paints. His artwork definitively stepped away from the familiar styles of schooled training in art and embraced the wild lyrical beauty of the folk art of Bengal.
His initial days of penury and obscurity gave way to success and fame as his his art found patronage during the 1940s amongst the middle class Bengalis as well as the Eurpoean community, with his work finding appreciation in exhibitions held in London and New York. In 1955, he was awarded the Padma Bhushan, a coveted national honour. He died at the age of 85, in the year 1972.)
