Krishna Lifts Mount Govardhan, from a Bhagavata Purana (1686): Art, History and Details

Krishna Lifts Mount Govardhan, from a Bhagavata Purana (1686) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection.

The work and its context

The museum's open-access catalogue describes the work:

After Krishna convinced the dwellers of the cowherd village in Braj to not give the annual offering to Indra, king of the gods, an enraged Indra flooded the village with heavy rainfall. Krishna, shown with four arms, lifted nearby Mount Govardhan, and the villagers took shelter underneath. The painting depicts a heavy torrent of rain, and in the upper left, Indra sits enthroned with two attendants and his white elephant mount.

Object facts

• Title: Krishna Lifts Mount Govardhan, from a Bhagavata Purana
• Date: 1686
• Culture: Central India, Madhya Pradesh, Malwa
• Type: Painting
• Technique: Gum tempera on paper
• Dimensions: Page: 19.4 x 27.6 cm (7 5/8 x 10 7/8 in.)
• Collection: Indian Art
• Department: Indian and Southeast Asian Art
• Accession number: 2018.134

A detail from the museum

The “hundred-eyed” Indra wears the garments of a Mughal emperor, with his tunic tied under the right arm.

Collection credit

Purchase and partial gift from the Catherine and Ralph Benkaim Collection; Severance and Greta Millikin Purchase Fund

View the collection record

See the museum's photographs and full catalogue entry. Catalogue text is reproduced from the Cleveland Museum of Art's open-access data, with HTML formatting removed. This object and its supplied image are designated CC0.