These Paintings Warn You: As You Sow, So Shall You Reap!

The Story of Indian Karni-Bharni Paintings

Karni-Bharni Painting depicting 3 of the 7 Jain hells from the manuscript of Samghayanarayana, India, 17th century. Source- Wikimedia Commons

Karni-Bharni is a compound word. It means ‘reap as you sow’ in Hindi. Karni is translated to deeds, and Bharni is return in Hindi. This is the philosophy of Karma, which every Indian is aware of, but I am referring to a painting tradition here. This painting tradition originated in the 15th century and continued until the 19th century.

The painters of this tradition depicted the variety of bodily sufferings and punishments of hell. These descriptions of hell emerge from Hindu philosophy and Puranic traditions, which advocated the philosophy of reward and punishment. As we see, Yama, the Hindu god of death, is the protagonist of these paintings, and his court is the place where Karma wreaks havoc on poor souls. Many of these paintings were inspired by Jainism’s visions of hell.

Court of Yama, by Gursahai — Indian Drawings from the Paul F. Walter Collection, Source-Wikimedia Commons

In a sense, the philosophy behind Karni-Bharni art is focussed on the human body, and how we use it living in this world. An important aspect of these paintings is that they were drawn with the single hairbrush technique of the Guler school of Himachal Pradesh (India).