Hidden in the hills above the Plaza de Armas, San Blas is more than a neighborhood—it’s the pulse of Cusco’s artistic soul. To enter San Blas is to step into a dream woven from cobblestone, eucalyptus, and prayer. Blue balconies lean toward the sky, adobe walls wear the stories of centuries, and artisans paint, carve, and breathe life into tradition on every corner. In San Blas, beauty is not a product. It’s a practice. 🎨🪶

By morning, sunlight spills through tangled alleys, catching the stained glass of tiny chapels and the gentle chaos of open studios. You’ll meet sculptors whose hands are coated in wood dust, painters mixing pigments made from earth and flame, and weavers whose colors recall the sky before rain. They are not just preserving culture—they are transmitting spirit through every stroke and stitch.

San Blas doesn’t shout. It whispers, and if you walk slowly, you’ll hear the voices of the past: Inca stone paths guiding your steps, colonial arches bowed under the weight of memory. In the plaza, a single harp string might summon silence, and a lone grandmother might tell you a myth that feels older than language. The sacred and the everyday hold hands here, gently.

At sunset, find a terrace above the rooftops and let yourself be still. Watch the clouds roll across Ausangate, feel the chill settle, and sip a coca tea as the city lights flicker like offerings. San Blas isn’t just a place to visit—it’s a place to remember who you are when you listen. 🌄🍃

Pichwai (pichvai) is a style of painting that originated over 400 years ago, in the town of Nathdwara near Udaipur in Rajasthan, India. Intricate and visually stunning, pichwai paintings, made on cloth, depict tales from Lord Krishna's life. Creating a pichwai can take several months, and requires immense skill, as the smallest details need to be painted with precision. Lord Krishna is often depicted as Shrinathji in Pichwais, which is the deity manifest as a seven-year-old child. Other common subjects found in pichwai paintings are Radha, gopis, cows and lotuses. Festivals and celebrations such as Sharad Purnima, Raas Leela, Annakoot or Govardhan Puja, Janmashtami, Gopashtami, Nand Mahotsav, Diwali and Holi are frequently depicted in Pichwais.

The word Pichwai comes from 'pichh' meaning back, and 'wai', meaning textile hanging. They are made by members of the Pushti Marg sect, founded by Shri Vallabhacharya in the 16th Century. Originally, pichwai paintings were used to decorate the temple of Shrinathji (Shrinathji ki Haveli) in Nathdwara, hung behind the deity to celebrate different seasons, festivals and events in Lord Krishna's life. Over time, pichwais also found a place in the homes of art connoisseurs, owing to their visual appeal. Like several other traditional Indian art forms, the art of Pichwai is also dying, and requires recognition and revival.

The art of Picchwai originated as wall hangings behind the main deity in Krishna temples in Nathdwara. They narrate stories related to Lord Krishna. Gradually with commercialisation secular themes are also incorporated in the Picchwai style of painting. Picchwais are colourful and intricate works of art with concealed symbolism in the artistic motifs. This distinct devotional art practice has passed from one generation to another and a fine example of spirituality in art for more than 400 years.

- Niddhi Soneji

References:

Artisera. (2020). Pichwai: Pichwai Paintings, Shrinathji Paintings, Krishna Art, Rajasthani Art, Pichwai Paintings Online, Pichwai Paintings for Sale. [online] Available at: https://www.artisera.com/collections/pichwai.

ArtZolo.com. (n.d.). Pichwai : The Folk Art of Nathdwara. [online] Available at: https://www.artzolo.com/blog/pichwai-folk-art-nathdwara [Accessed 15 Feb. 2021].

Art in these forms where chakra means “spinning wheel” and “vyuha” means formation. Hence, chakravyuha means the puzzled arrangement of soldiers that keeps moving in the form of a spinning wheel. Rotation of soldiers is very similar to helix of a screw commonly seen in watches. The Chakravyuha, is a multi-tier defensive formation that looks like a disc (chakra, चक्र) when viewed from above. The story of this is that Drona devised the Chakravyuha on the 13th day of the war with a motive to capture Yudhishtira, the leader of the Pandavas, as a prisoner of war. Such deadly was the trap of Chakravyuh that only few talented warriors like Krishna, Arjuna, Drona, Bhisma and Pradyumna knew the way to break in and come out of it. Chakravyuha was a very deadly defensive formation and also an offensive one in which whole arrangement of soldiers moves continuously across the battlefield, simultaneously attacking the invading warriors. It was like a spinning death machine that consumes everything that came on his path. It rotates along its axis with each layer rotating in alternate directions at different speeds to make it a great defensive formation. Chakravyuha not only rotates but also revolves in its orbit to destroy everything that comes in his path thus making it a very offensive and destructive force. Chakravyuh formation is similar to a typhoon that moves across the battlefield to destroy everything that it encounters.

Fighting inside the deadly spiral formation is very damaging mentally and the psychological impact of Chakravyuha on the body and mind is very huge. Hence, thousands of soldiers were killed in a relatively short span of time due to the psychological impact of the rotating formation.

This formation of art allows the warriors to get trapped in it.

This Vyuha art requires a large number of soldiers to be formed. When this art is formed by small number of soldiers, it can be easily engulfed by the opposition from all sides and crushed from outside the view. Secondly, this formation was best to be formed when no one in the enemy has the clue on how to break it.

Chakravyuh can be termed as the most brilliant military tactic of all times. Chakravyuh resembles the fatal formation that requires skills of the highest order to survive as many warriors easily forget the ethics of war in such a cruel formation. These art depicts how wars were pre formed and such art forms gave them the higher chances to win the battles.

- Niddhi Soneji

References:

Singh, P., 2021. The Made in India grid. [online] mint. Available at: <https://www.livemint.com/Consumer/WZkYRvA7YAlYCvjgW1gmjM/The-Made-in-India-grid.html> [Accessed 15 February 2021].

WELCOME. 2021. Chakravyuha. [online] Available at: <https://cthecosmos.com/2020/02/26/chakravyuha/> [Accessed 15 February 2021].

Mahabharata-research.com. 2021. The invincible Chakravyuha. [online] Available at: <http://mahabharata-research.com/military%20academy/the%20mysterious%20chakravyuha.html> [Accessed 15 February 2021].

Mahabharat (2018). महाभारत में चक्रव्यूह क्या था एवं उसे भेदने का तरीका। How to enter and exit chakravyuh? YouTube. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LWq0WlZuk7I [Accessed 28 Feb. 2021].