Indian Sculpture c8.190

c8.190

74. Shepherd scene in Vṛndāvana, part of Govardhanadhara relief, Kṛṣṇa maṇḍapam, Māmallapuram. Middle seventh century. The figures appear either to emerge from within the rock: the cows, the flute player, the female figure with the infant, or else they are set against its flat surface: the main group of cow-calf and milking cowherd (gopa) and the female figure, who carries a vessel for churning the milk (?) on her head. Peculiar is the fashion of wearing the hair in the case of the cowherd. It is cropped and thick, with single curls except for the long skein of hair at the apex of the head, which is coiled round the middle and is laid across the curls.