The Development of Hindu Iconography c13.45

c13.45

A short account may be given here about a peculiar practice of painting divine figures and mythologies associated with them with coloured rice-powder in particular parts of the shrine current even now in different parts of India. In many Vaiṣṇava shrines of Bengal it is still adopted to illustrate the stories connected with the early life of Kṛṣṇa through the medium of differently coloured, but dry, rice-powder. A part of the shrine, generally a section of the *nāṭamaṇḍapa*, is set apart for this purpose; on a raised flat platform (usually wooden) there, are painted these scenes with great care by the judicious and deft use of this dry powder. This is done at the time of such Vaiṣṇava festivals as Jhulanayātrā, Janmāṣṭamī, Rāsayātrā, etc., and its purpose is mainly decorative and edifying. Such pictorial representation