Vishvarupa: Paintings on the Cosmic Form of Krishna-Vasudeva (Hardback)

Description

Vishvarupa is popularly known as the cosmic form that Krishna revealed to Arjuna in the battlefield of Kurukshetra in India in the Mahabharata, circa 500 bc. This was captured in verse in two chapters of the Bhagavad Gita. The concept of Vishvarupa is rooted in the Indian philosophical traditions since the Vedic times and represents a holistic inter-dependence in the manifested universe at all levels. Vishvarupa explores the relationship of man with the Cosmic Being ? the microcosm and the macrocosm. Simple but effective visual representations of this thought are found in Indian arts and culture through the millennia. Herein Krishna is present in a Brahmin, a mongrel dog, a tree and a stone in equal measure. While this book attempts to showcase for the first time a careful selection of Vishvarupa paintings between the 17th and 20th centuries to stimulate further study, it also reveals the beauty and genius of the Indian painting tradition for the lay reader.