Studies in Indian Art c12.s6.17

c12.s6.17

2. *Sadyah-snātā*,—Woman after bath. This scene carved on pillar No. 1509 in the Mathura museum depicts a woman wearing a short petti-coat and wringing out water from her wet locks after bath (*keśa-nistoya-kāriṇī*); a swan is shown receiving the drops in its beak. This idea has found favourite repetition in classical Hindi poetry and continued as a motif in Indian art right upto the 19th century. It was fancied that Kṛishṇa himself incarnated as a *haṃsa* to drink the drops of water from Rādhā's hair.