Markandeya Viewing Krishna in the Cosmic Ocean (c. 1680): Art, History and Details

Markandeya Viewing Krishna in the Cosmic Ocean (c. 1680) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection.

The work and its context

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

The anonymous court artist from a Hindu kingdom in the foothills of the Himalaya mountains has chosen a web of concentric abstract shapes to represent the cosmic ocean as the backdrop for this elegant, striking composition. The sage Markandeya received the dubious gift of immortality, so even after the destruction and dissolution of the world and all its creatures, he must carry on exhausted and alone through the cosmic ocean until the next world cycle begins. At one point in the darkness he saw a branch from a banyan tree floating on the ocean’s surface, and with awe he saw the infant Krishna on one leaf, sucking his toe. When Markandeya looked into his mouth, he saw the entire universe as it was and as it will be. This story and imagery shows that with the destruction of the universe comes the infancy of evolution, and creation will begin anew.

Object facts

• Title: Markandeya Viewing Krishna in the Cosmic Ocean
• Date: c. 1680
• Culture: Northern India, Jammu and Kashmir, Pahari Kingdom of Basohli
• Type: Painting
• Technique: Gum tempera on paper
• Dimensions: Image: 15.2 x 10 cm (6 x 3 15/16 in.); Overall: 20.5 x 15 cm (8 1/16 x 5 7/8 in.)
• Collection: Indian Art
• Department: Indian and Southeast Asian Art
• Accession number: 1967.241

A detail from the museum

Sherman E. Lee, who was the director of the Cleveland Museum of Art from 1958 until 1983, and his wife Ruth donated this painting.

Collection credit

Gift of Dr. and Mrs. Sherman E. Lee

Further reading listed by the museum

• Spink, Walter M. Krishnamandala. Ann Arbor: The University of Michigan, 1971.
• 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.