At the Bank of Yamuna
"At the Bank of Yamuna",  Watercolour, 1987, Vrindavan, Mumbiram
"At the Bank of Yamuna", Watercolour, 1987, Vrindavan, Mumbiram

Sitting at his favorite spot at the banks of Yamuna on hot afternoons Mumbiram used to make small landscapes as well as portraits through the idyllic afternoons of spontaneous communion.

During his walks through the winding by-lanes of Vrindavan Mumbiram became friends with a householder brahmin, named Shankar Pahilwan, who ran a chai-shop in the Athkhamba area in the old bazaar. He had built a hut on the sandy banks of the Yamuna. It had become a meeting place for independent seekers to commune and meditate. On the right side in the painting you can see the backwall of that hut built in bricks.

Mumbiram would spend long quiet afternoons in this hut reading and making sketches. In the background there are the historical red stone canopies overlooking the Shringaar Vat area. This was where Radha and Krishna often decorated each other after conjugal sporting in the shady bowers. Sometimes he would sit under these canopies. These are now endangered by so-called government-funded development projects.