Nanda and the elders, page from a Bhagavata Purana (c. 1525–40): Art, History and Details

Nanda and the elders, page 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:

In a page from a manuscript about the life of the Hindu god Krishna, Krishna’s foster father, wearing green, confers about moving their community to a new location. Their current village has been beset by demons sent by the evil king to kill Krishna. Typical of South Asian compositions of the early 1500s, figures and other elements are arranged in horizontal rows. Above, in the story of an encounter between a gardener and a merchant’s daughter who wants a rose, we see use of the same Mughal convention, shown with a more natural conceptualization of space. Mughal compositions were often based on earlier illustrations.

Object facts

• Title: Nanda and the elders, page from a Bhagavata Purana
• Date: c. 1525–40
• Culture: Northern India
• Type: Painting
• Technique: Gum tempera and ink on paper
• Dimensions: Overall: 16.3 x 21.5 cm (6 7/16 x 8 7/16 in.)
• Collection: Indian Art
• Department: Indian and Southeast Asian Art
• Accession number: 1960.53

Collection credit

Mr. and Mrs. William H. Marlatt Fund

Further reading listed by the museum

• Archer, W. G. "Rajput Painting: Passionate Image of India." Art News 59, no. 8 (December 1960): 28.
• Lee, Sherman E. and George Montgomery. Rajput Painting; with an introductory essay and catalogue notes. New York: Asia House, 1960.
• Sherman E. Lee. A History of Far Eastern Art. 5th edition. Englewood Cliffs, NJ, and New York: Prentice Hall, Inc. and Harry Abrams, Inc., 1964.

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.