Art

Syamarani Dasi (aka Jadurani Dasi) is a master painter of Bhakti Art and one of the most stalwart teachers of bhakti-yoga in current times. She is among the first disciples of Srila A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, the world-renowned founder-acharya of ISKCON (the International Society for Krsna Consciousness), and she is also a prominent student of Srila Prabhupada’s close associate, Srila Bhaktivedanta Narayana Gosvami Maharaja. Under their expert spiritual guidance, she has created nearly 300 works of devotional art and is recognized as one of the most influential artists to emerge out of the Hare Krsna Movement and its subsequent school of art.

Sixteenth century in medieval Indian History has been witness to a great social movement called bhakti. The expressions of devotion by the saints, mystics and poets of this movement created scintillating patterns of literary marvels, including everlasting Ramacharitmanas by Tulsidas and Sursagarby Surdas.The popularity of Krishna devotion revived by Surdas simultaneously led to the popularity of Sursagar. The compositions were compiled, illustrated and treasured in large numbers. With the decay of the Mughal Empire and the dispersal of its atelier, the regional schools became the new patrons of art. The principality of Awadh was a great centre of all forms of art, including literature, painting and music in the nineteenth century. The paintings of these two illustrated manuscripts of Sursagar, one prepared under the royal patronage and the other under the popular stream, provide a deep insight into the style and the art of the Awadh School.