Minneapolis Institute of Art

Pichhvai (temple hanging) for the Festival of the Cows

India

Date

late 18th century

Medium

Opaque watercolor, gold, and silver on cloth

Department

Asian Art

Institution

Minneapolis Institute of Art

This pichhvai (temple hanging) on indigo dyed cotton would have been hung in a shrine dedicated to Srinathji (an incarnation of Krishna), serving as an evocative backdrop during worship of the central image. Noted for a profuse use of gold and silver, such ‘golden’ pichhvais belong to a rare group of textiles commissioned between the late 18th and early 19th centuries for members of the merchant classes that had moved from Northern India to the Deccan plateau, bringing with them a distinct tradition that fused with local aesthetic traditions to capture the spirit of joy and grace associated with the worship of their deity. Sprinkled with flowers, frolicking cows, and dutiful cowherds, it would have been commissioned on the occasion of the Festival of the Cows (Gopashtami), celebrating Krishna’s role as divine cowherd. Asia

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