KOZHIKODE/ KOTTAYAM: A painting of Lord Krishna as an infant by Jasna Salim, a 28 year-old devout Muslim homemaker and mother of two from Koyilandy in Kozhikode, was ritually presented on Sunday before the deity at Sree Krishna Swamy temple in Ulanadu, a small village near Pandalam in Pathanamthitta district.
For Jasna, once fondly nicknamed ‘Kanna’ (‘dear child’ and a synonym for Krishna) by her family, it was a dream come true to have her painting of the infant Krishna (Unni Kannan) formally accepted by a Hindu temple. Though she had earlier gifted her paintings to Guruvayur Sree Krishna temple and also to a temple at Koyilandy, it was on Sunday for the first time that she could present it before the deity.
“I was moved by the gesture of the Ulanadu temple authorities when the priest adjusted the Tulasi garland which adorned the deity a bit so that I could see the flute held by Lord Krishna properly,” said Jasna. She added that she had gone to the temple after offering her regular morning namaz.
Jasna’s interest in painting was by accident, while she was recuperating after a fall during her pregnancy, but soon became a passion. “I used to be called Kanna by my parents and relatives in my childhood. When I saw an image of Lord Krishna as a child in a newspaper while I was bedridden, I felt an urge to paint the picture and it came out well,” Jasna said, adding that she was hardly a born artist and had struggled to draw even the country's map during her student days. She has painted hundreds of pictures ever since this accidental artistic foray six years ago, and all her creations have featured just one single image — Lord Krishna.
Jasna, whose immediate family comprises her husband Salim, who is employed in Dubai, and two children Lenshan and Leniska, revealed that initially she had to face opposition from some family members from her maternal side for drawing Lord Krishna, with some of them saying that it was against Islamic religious principles. “But my husband and immediate family members supported me as they know that I am painting the image of Lord Krishna in the pursuit of art. Also there have been many instances in which Hindu families have made arrangements for me to offer namaz when I visit their houses and so what is wrong in drawing and giving a painting which helps a person of another religion pursue their faith,” she said.
Ajith Kumar, the secretary of the Ulanadu temple committee, said that the temple authorities had requested Jasna for such a painting after coming to know that she had presented a similar one to Guruvayur temple. “The deity in this temple is Lord Krishna as a boy. Most of the paintings of Jasna were also of Lord Krishna of that age,” he said. He also said that a Pune-based devotee group ‘Tatvamasi’ helped in making this happen. “She had learnt more about the temple from the Facebook page of the temple and was also keen to present her paintings here,” added Ajith Kumar. He clarified that nobody is barred from visiting this temple.
Jasna once gifted one of her Lord Krishna paintings to a Hindu family in her neighborhood and they kept it in their pooja room. “Later they told me that many of their wishes got fulfilled after that. Over a period of time people started approaching me for paintings and I was happy to paint Lord Krishna for all of them,” Jasna said. She said that she paints around five to six pictures a month and she has been getting a good number of orders, mostly from Tamil Nadu and Karnataka.
