Taking of the toll, Dana-Lila (c. 1760): Art, History and Details

Taking of the toll, Dana-Lila (c. 1760) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection.

The work and its context

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

Radha, the blue god Krishna’s beloved, raises one hand, reddened with henna (temporary natural dye), to strike him. Cows and her companions look on. This interlude is based on a devotional poem written by Dev Datt (about 1673–1745), in which he imagines this scene. Radha has dressed up as a soldier of the evil tyrant Kamsa. She shouts, “You are accused of taking the toll from milkmaids. . . . You are a traitor!” In the distance at the top of the painting, Krishna’s friends, who do not know that the couple is playing, run away in fear.

Object facts

• Title: Taking of the toll, Dana-Lila
• Date: c. 1760
• Culture: Northern India, Pahari kingdoms
• Type: Painting
• Technique: Gum tempera and gold on paper
• Dimensions: Page: 26.2 x 19.9 cm (10 5/16 x 7 13/16 in.); Image: 21.2 x 17.9 cm (8 3/8 x 7 1/16 in.)
• Collection: Indian Art
• Department: Indian and Southeast Asian Art
• Accession number: 2018.86

A detail from the museum

One milkmaid points to her mouth in a gesture of surprise.

Collection credit

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

Further reading listed by the museum

• Griswold, William, Cameron Kitchin, Chase F. Robinson, Cleveland Museum of Art, Cincinnati Art Museum, and National Museum of Asian Art (Smithsonian Institution). Pahari Paintings: Art and Stories, edited by Sonya Rhie Mace, Sarang Sharma, and Vijay Sharma. Cleveland, Ohio: Cleveland Museum of Art, 2026.

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.