Krishna sporting with the gopis in the Jumna River, from a Bhagavata Purana (c. 1525–40): Art, History and Details

Krishna sporting with the gopis in the Jumna River, from a Bhagavata Purana (c. 1525–40) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection.

The work and its context

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

Abstract concentric circles depict water churned up by the gopis, or cowherd women, who are swimming and playing with joy and abandon. In their midst, the blue-skinned Krishna reaches for a gopi’s breast. Their love play is celebrated by celestial beings in the sky who offer flower garlands and beat on a drum. Every figure’s face is shown in profile—a hallmark of Indian painting of the early 1500s perpetuated by artists wishing to emphasize Indian rather than Persian depictions of the human form.

Object facts

• Title: Krishna sporting with the gopis in the Jumna River, from a Bhagavata Purana
• Date: c. 1525–40
• Culture: Northern India
• Type: Painting
• Technique: Gum tempera and ink on paper
• Dimensions: Overall: 16.5 x 22.2 cm (6 1/2 x 8 3/4 in.)
• Collection: Indian Art
• Department: Indian and Southeast Asian Art
• Accession number: 1971.171

A detail from the museum

This page is from one of the earliest surviving illustrated Hindu manuscripts on the life of Krishna, an incarnation of Vishnu.

Collection credit

Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Alvin N. Haas

Further reading listed by the museum

• P. Chandra, The Ṭūṭī-nāma: complete colour facsimile edition in original size of the manuscript in possession of the Cleveland Museum of Art. Graz : Akademische Druck- u. Verlagsanstalt, 1976.
• Chandra, Pramod, and Daniel J. Ehnbom. The Cleveland Tuti-Nama Manuscript and the Origins of Mughal Painting. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1976.
• Leach, Linda York. Indian Miniature Paintings and Drawings. Cleveland, OH: Cleveland Museum of Art in cooperation with Indiana University Press, 1986.

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.