INTRODUCTION AND ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
T
he Krishnaite sect of Pushti Marg (“The Path of Grace”), also known by the name of Vallabha Sampradaya, originated at the end of the fifteenth century in the region of Braj, in modern-day Uttar Pradesh. In 1672, the sect moved to the town of Nathdwara, Rajasthan, which became its new headquarters. The town is celebrated not only for the so called haveli temple—a regal mansion that houses Pushti Marg’s most revered icon, Shrinathji—but also for its distinctive school of painting. In Nathdwara, for about three centuries, traditional, hereditary lines of painters, residing in proximity to the temple, have created artefacts catering to the needs of Pushti Marg devotees and supporting the sect’s rituals. This monograph-cum-catalogue is an excursion into some of the devotional portraits that were commissioned in the twentieth century by Pushti Marg followers visiting their most important site of pilgrimage, Nathdwara. It concentrates on a particular genre that emerged in Nathdwara at the beginning of the twentieth century, which is commonly known as the manorath. Referred to in this catalogue by the more specific designation of “popular manoraths,” works in this genre display distinct iconographic features: they portray Pushti Marg devotees next to Shrinathji, which is their most revered icon.1
Popular manoraths have occasionally appeared in catalogues of Nathdwara painting and books on Indian popular culture.2 Most studies, however, have privileged more mainstream productions, such as the Nathdwara pichhwais (temple hangings), for which this pilgrimage town is so famous. The present investigation is the first venture to place popular manoraths at the centre of an art historical enquiry and to consider them as a genre per se. This study makes no claims of exhausting the topic. Rather, it
1. For some more information on Pushti Marg and Shrinathji, see the Glossary. 2. For popular manorath images published in other sources, see Allana and Kumar 8; Ambalal, Krishna as Shrinathji 90; Dewan, Embellished Reality, cat. no. 24; Ghose, cat. no. 107; Krishna and Talwar 92, 212; Mitter, fig. 9; Pinney, “Stirred by Photography,” fig. 3.13; Nanda 63; Robbins and Tokayer, fig. 14.13; and Ruia, figs. 1–13.
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