Pradyumna and Mayavati Fly to Dvaraka, from the Large Basohli Bhagavata Purana (c. 1760–65): Art, History and Details

Pradyumna and Mayavati Fly to Dvaraka, from the Large Basohli Bhagavata Purana (c. 1760–65) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection.

The work and its context

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

A goddess who can fly, Mayavati brings her lover Pradyumna to be reunited with his parents for the first time since he was an infant, when he was kidnapped by a demon who was her husband. Having just slain the demon, they can be together and return to the palace where he was born. Pradyumna is the son of Krishna, and also an incarnation of the god of love, Kama. Mayavati is an incarnation of Rati, the goddess of erotic love. Later, Pradyumna also marries his cousin Rukmavati.

Object facts

• Title: Pradyumna and Mayavati Fly to Dvaraka, from the Large Basohli Bhagavata Purana
• Date: c. 1760–65
• Type: Painting
• Technique: Gum tempera, ink, and gold on paper
• Dimensions: Image: 28.1 x 38.5 cm (11 1/16 x 15 3/16 in.); Overall: 30.5 x 41.2 cm (12 x 16 1/4 in.)
• Collection: Indian Art
• Department: Indian and Southeast Asian Art
• Accession number: 1971.93

Collection credit

Andrew R. and Martha Holden Jennings Fund

Further reading listed by the museum

• Real, William A. “Exploring New Applications for Infrared Reflectography.” The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 72, no. 8 (December 1985): 390–412.

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.