Rajasthani painters often illustrated literary texts on love. Which Sanskrit treatise on rasa does not mention Krishna, though painters introduced him into its paintings as the archetypal lover?
Answer & explanation
Correct answer: option 2
The correct answer is Option (2) → Rasamanjari
Option (1) Gita Govinda — Incorrect. Jayadeva’s lyrical poem in Sanskrit portrays the love between Radha and Krishna. Krishna is part of the text itself.
Option (2) Rasamanjari — Correct. Bhanu Datta’s Sanskrit treatise on rasa classifies heroes and heroines. Krishna is not mentioned in it, but painters introduced him as the archetypal lover.
Option (3) Rasikapriya — Incorrect. Keshav Das composed it in Brajbhasha, not Sanskrit. Its emotive states between lovers are shown through Radha and Krishna.
Option (4) Bihari Satsai — Incorrect. Bihari Lal’s work of 700 verses is composed in the form of aphorisms and moralising witticism, not as a treatise on rasa.
Note: This topic was not named in the CUET 2026 syllabus, but it was part of the NCERT chapter. In 2025 and 2026, NTA also asked questions on topics in NCERT that the CUET syllabus did not name. So our mocks have questions from every part of the NCERT chapter, to give you enough practice. Read the whole chapter, not only the sub-topics named in the syllabus.
NCERT (2026-27): “Themes of Paintings – An Overview …Bhanu Datta, a Maithil Brahmin who lived in Bihar in the fourteenth century, composed another favourite text of artists, Rasamanjari, interpreted as the ‘Bouquet of Delight’. Written in Sanskrit, the text is a treatise on rasa and deals with the classification of heroes (nayakas) and heroines (nayikas) in accordance with their age — baal, taruna and praudha; physiognomic traits of appearance, such as padmini, chitrini, shankhini, hastini, etc., and emotional states, such as khandita, vasaksajja, abhisarika, utka, etc. Though Krishna is not mentioned in the text, painters have introduced him as the archetypal lover.” |