Painting the rain: How Indian art obsesses with the monsoons

At first glance, the representation of monsoons in South Asian art would appear to be dominated by a specific set of motifs and symbolic structures—passionate lovers in the rain, young women braving clouds and lightning to meet their loved one, peacocks, lush greenery and playful animals.

In their book, Monsoon Feelings: A History of Emotions in Rain (2018), historians Imke Rajamani, Margrit Pernau, and Katherine Butler Schofield write that although these recurring themes and symbols in Indian art would lead one to assume that the monsoons elicited the same kind of emotions across time and region, that, in fact, was not true. “Monsoon feelings have a history, which encompasses both continuity and change,” they write. They also point to the rise and decline of the Indus Valley Civilisation, which they write is attributed to changing patterns of monsoons.

The monsoons, the emotions associated with them, as well as their representation in the arts, are influenced by where and when one experiences them. They are also affected by processes of migration, integration and transcultural conflations.

Take, for instance, the kingdom of Bikaner, which has historically been one of the driest states of India. However, as noted by art historian Molly Emma Aitken in her article, ‘Dark, Overwhelming, yet Joyful: The Monsoon in Rajput Painting’, “the ceilings and walls of its Junagadh Fort burst with monsoon clouds and driving lines of rain, with white cranes flying across wall panels of monsoon black.” Here, monsoon was celebrated for being auspicious and bearing the promise of fertility.

A 16th century folio from the Harivamsa showing Lord Krishna holding up Mount Govardhan to shelter the villagers of Braj. (Metropolitan Museum of Art)

Yet there are other paintings from North India that serve as reminders of the despair that too much rain can bring and the need for divine interventions in such situations. An example is a 16^th century folio from the Harivamsa showing Lord Krishna holding up Mount Govardhan to shelter the villagers of Braj.

Abhisarika Nayika braving the rains

A favourite figure in monsoon art is that of Abhisarika Nayika, one of the ashtanayikas or the eight types of heroines in classical Indian aesthetics. In paintings, Abhisarika Nayika is depicted as the fearless woman venturing into the stormy night to meet with her lover. She is shown as a pale figure in a dark, rainy, demon-infested night, mindless of the obstacles on her way, including that of vipers entangled around her legs. The rain and lightning in these paintings are the symbol of an obstacle to love, but also of the heroine’s boldness and passion.

A 19th-century Pahari painting depicting Abhisarika Nayika by Mola Ram. She turns back to see the anklet that has fallen off. There are snakes below and lightning above.

An 18th-century painting made in Kota showing Abhisarika Nayika venturing to meet her lover on a cloud-infested, stormy night.

The coming together of lovers in the rains

Yet another popular monsoon scene in medieval Indian paintings is that of lovers embracing each other to find safety, while rains break out all around them. They frequently featured the devotional imagery of Lord Krishna and his consort Radha.

A painting of Krishna and Radha embracing each other during a storm from a royal Kota-Jaipur album. Date- 1720-1730 CE. The sound of the rain is depicted by the insistent patter of white drops that collect on the canopy above the lovers’ heads.

Ragamala paintings

The monsoons went on to have a far more permeating presence in the 17^th-century paintings of musical modes that came to be called Ragamala paintings. This style of painting that originated in 17^th-century Rajasthan depicted variations of Indian musical modes or ragas. Accordingly, in these paintings, each raga is personified by a colour and a mood, and illustrates the season of the year or the time of the day when the raga is supposed to be sung.

The monsoon was associated with several ragas, and it was believed that singing them well could bring on the rain. “Over the course of the 17^th century, the ragamala painting became a favourite among Mughal and Rajput connoisseurs,” writes Aitken in her article, adding that among these, it was the Raag Megh Malhar, depicting the monsoons, which went on to become an important precursor to a radical shift in the way Rajput and Mughal painters dealt with aesthetics.

The painting shows a bejewelled prince holding a vina, and dancing joyously in the forest. He is accompanied by two dancing female musicians. The sky is full of thunder clouds with a serpentine lightning bolt, and cascading rains. Megha Malhar Raga, folio from a Ragamala. Kota, 1740 CE

Barahmasa painting

The Barahmasa is a poetic tradition that emerged in medieval North India. It usually revolved around the theme of a woman longing for her lover, and described her emotional state in context of the season of the year. The Barahmasa, as the name suggests, refers to the ’12 months’. With time, the genre lent itself to other forms of art, including dance, music and paintings.

The Barahmasa paintings began developing during the Mughal rule and were at their peak during the 18^th and 19^th centuries. Among these paintings, the ones depicting the monsoon months are known to be the most evocative, with passionate rendering of colours and textures to show young lovers staring at clouds, or the lush countryside.

An 18th century painting from the Kangra school of art. It shows Krishna and Radha watching the rain and the clouds. The painting depicts the month of Bhadon from the Barahmasa series. (Cleveland Museum of Art)

Kalidasa’s Meghaduta

The classical Sanskrit poem, Meghaduta, by Kalidasa has lent itself as a theme to artists painting the monsoon. The poem tells the story of a yaksha who longs for his wife and uses a cloud as a messenger. In Kalidasa’s poetic description, the beauty of the Himalayan landscape comes to life in the rainy season, with rivers flowing gracefully and elephants playing in the forests.

The 1960s stamp depicting Meghaduta (Wikimedia Commons)

Kalidasa’s Meghaduta was particularly popular among artists of the late 20th century. As noted by Rajamani, Pernau and Schofield in their book, “since the late 19th century, monsoon arts became increasingly nationalised.” Kalidasa’s Meghaduta was increasingly applied in these arts to evoke national pride. A 1960 stamp, for instance, depicts the yaksha instructing the messenger cloud. He releases flower petals in the monsoon winds, which are shown to be collected by a group of cranes who carry the message towards the cloud.

Ramgopal Vijayvargiya’s Meghdoot

Notable among the painted works depicting Meghdoot are those of Ramgopal Vijaivargiya, Shailendranath De, and  Harihar Lal Mead.