Page:A Handbook of Indian Art.djvu/370

210 the picture will find a ready response even from the unlettered peasant. That which seems to the modern Western onlooker to be strange and unreal, often indeed gross, is to the Hindu mystic quite natural and obviously true.

We are often reminded of the ancient Chandra cult and of India's name as the Land of the Moon by the frequent choice of night scenes—women praying at Siva's shrine under the crescent moon; Rādha seeking her beloved Krishna in the dark forest at midnight; two lovers riding by torchlight through a mountain pass; hunting by lamplight on the banks of a moonlit river; pilgrims sitting round a camp fire listening to the tales of a village Kathak.

The two illustrations given in Pl. LXXVII will show with what rare intuition the Hindu painter interpreted the religious feelings of the people, and the penetrative insight of his communings with the spirits of river, wood, and sky. In the first a mother with her son and daughter-in-law are worshipping at a wayside shrine under a tamarind-tree. The draperies have suffered from unskilful restoration, but the power and feeling with which the effect of night is given makes us understand Rembrandt's interest in Indian painting. In the same spirit the great Dutch master illustrated Biblical stories.

The hunting scene, fortunately in a perfect state of preservation, is perhaps intended to illustrate Rāma's life in exile on the banks of the Godaveri. There is much in it, especially in the group of deer startled by the fall of their leader, to suggest a connection with the traditions of the classic Indian school, as we know them from Ajantā.

Specially characteristic of the Hindu artist's spiritual