In Vrindaban

On a visit to Vrindavan in 1986, Arpana Caur chanced upon the widows of the city, moved by their living conditions, their outcast status, their personal struggles, and the depression they unknowingly faced. Thousands of shaven-headed widows lived in deplorable conditions in the city of temples, a complete inversion of her idea of a place associated with Krishna’s gopis and ras-leela. Returning to the city at a later time, she created her famous Vrindaban series, of which this painting is a part, conveying the loneliness of these women.