2-732-956 - Heritage Art/Heritage Images

Krishna and Radha Quarreling, from a Rasikapriya, c. 1680. The inscription at the top relates that the scene’s heroine is angry because her lover has been out all night and his eyes are red. She accuses him of being with someone else. The clever hero responds that his eyes are red because he misses her and has been away from her for so long. Placing the blue-skinned Krishna in the place of a lover involved with emotions and arguments humanizes the divinity. Readers of the poetry and viewers of the painting can imagine being in the position of Radha in their relationship with god. Sometimes it seems that the god has abandoned one in favor of someone else.