The art of sañjhi from Vraja

You didn’t come this far to stopSañjhi is an ancient art form rooted in the cultural and devotional tradition of Vraja. Originating from folk mythology, the festival of sañjhi signifies the worship of the goddess Sañjhi, a personification of sandhya, twilight. In Vraja, twilight time both in the morning and evening is a period of worship, and Sañjhi Devi as a divinity is venerated at evening twilight time. Her worship is performed by the unmarried girls from rural Vraja, who in this manner seek to obtain a suitable husband. According to folk customs, designs are prepared from cowdung and flowers to be worshiped as the embodiments of Sañjhi Devi in the evening. The rite of worship is conducted every day during the dark fortnight of the month of Ashvina (September-October), the period during which the festival of sañjhi is celebrated.

As a traditional art of Vraja, Lord Krishna’s homeland, sañjhi is intrinsically linked to the transcendental sports of the divine couple Krishna and Radha, whose play of love is depicted in the sañjhi designs. Vaishnava theology traces the origin of sañjhi to the divine lila itself: sañjhi designs were created by Radha in order to evoke Lord Krishna’s presence. Folk mythology also holds another version of the same lila, according to which it was Lord Krishna who, at evening twilight time, prepared a beautiful image of Radha made of flowers in order to appease her.

The early tradition of preparing sañjhis made of cowdung and flowers, which is still practiced in the villages, has been taken up by the Vaishnava temples and developed into a highly sophisticated art form practiced by specially trained Brahman priests. The major type of temple sañjhi is prepared from dry colors upon an octagonal earthen platform symbolizing an eight-petalled lotus. The heart (hauda) of the design constitutes the seat of the divine couple, the sanctum sanctorum; from here, an intricate layout of artfully interlocked diagonal patterns enables the expansion of divinity towards the eight directions. The worship of a mystic design as in sañjhi is rooted in early Hinduism and Tantrism, and has obvious parallels in Vajrayana and Mahayana Buddhism. In both cases, song rendered in front of the design constitutes the central element of worship.

A visual art form in its essence, sañjhi has left a deep impression upon the devotional poetry of Vraja, whose repertoires are rich of verses relating to the sañjhi festival. Composed for liturgical use, these verses are rendered during the dark fortnight of Ashvina when sañjhis are prepared at the temples. Being a representation of the divinity, the sañjhi design is created behind closed doors throughout the day, displayed during the evening hours in conjunction with the musical presentation of sañjhi verses in the style of Vaishnava devotional music known as haveli sangita (‘music of the haveli-type temples’).

Thematically, two types of verses are suitable to be rendered on the occasion of the sañjhi festival: those belonging to the specific sañjhi repertoire, as well as verses referring to the respective aspect of the divine lila depicted in the sañjhi design. The verses of the sañjhi repertoire, again, reflect both dimensions of the sañjhi festival: the rural practice of creating flower sañjhis, which is also scenically portrayed in the rasalila dramas, and the temple art which is always displayed in conjunction with musical performances. Vaishnava devotional poetry places the rural sañjhi tradition in the context of Krishnaite mythology, with verses relating to Radha and her companions creating flower designs to worship the goddess Sañjhi.

Besides the rural designs made of cowdung, various types of sañjhi are prepared as part of the temple art. The principal type being made from dry colors, sañjhis are furthermore created from flowers as well as from dry colors on and under water. The art of sañjhi constitutes an essential and indispensable component of the traditions of art and culture in Vraja. Having been an integral component of the liturgical schedule in the Vaishnava temples during the mediaeval period, sañjhi - like many traditional art forms - has nowadays become rare and its practice has been maintained by only a few temples, the temple of Radharamana at Vrindaban being one of them. Efforts for the preservation and re-vitalization of this unique cultural treasure of Vraja are imperative at present, lest devotional religion itself declines for lack of its vital medium of expression which is art.