The Birth of Krishna, from a Sursagar of Surdas (Indian, c. 1480–1580) (1705–10): Art, History and Details

The Birth of Krishna, from a Sursagar of Surdas (Indian, c. 1480–1580) (1705–10) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection.

The work and its context

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

The blind poet and Hindu saint Surdas (1578/79–c. 1581), a devotee of Krishna, is shown in the hut at the lower right corner playing cymbals to measure meter as he recites his poem, called Sursagar. Verse 5 is written at the top of the page, and the scenes of festivities surrounding the arrival of the newborn Krishna are depicted throughout the rest of the painting. His adoptive mother Yashoda lies with the infant in the chamber at the upper left. His dark skin led to his being named Krishna, meaning dark, and shown as blue. Women clamor at her door to see the baby, as the men of the village receive silver coins being distributed on behalf of Nanda, the village elder and Krishna’s adoptive father, who is seated at the left receiving two well-wishers. Below, men and children of the cowherd village celebrate by pouring pots of curds and ghee over each other and dancing to the sounds of horns and drums.

Object facts

• Title: The Birth of Krishna, from a Sursagar of Surdas (Indian, c. 1480–1580)
• Date: 1705–10
• Culture: Northwestern India, Rajasthan, Rajput Kingdom of Mewar
• Type: Painting
• Technique: Gum tempera, ink, and gold on paper
• Dimensions: Image: 33.6 x 22.2 cm (13 1/4 x 8 3/4 in.); Overall: 37 x 25.4 cm (14 9/16 x 10 in.); with mat: 49 x 36.3 cm (19 5/16 x 14 5/16 in.)
• Collection: Indian Art
• Department: Indian and Southeast Asian Art
• Accession number: 1984.65

A detail from the museum

Many poets in Udaipur styled themselves as "Surdas."

Collection credit

Edwin R. and Harriet Pelton Perkins Memorial Fund

Further reading listed by the museum

• Tōyō kaiga no seika: tokubetsuten: Kurīvurando Bijutsukan no korekushon kara [東洋絵画の精華: 特别展: クリーヴラント美術館のコレクションから= Highlights of Asian painting from the Cleveland Museum of Art]. Nara, Japan: Nara National Museum, 1998.
• Hawley, John Stratton. Sūrdās: Poet, singer, saint. Delhi: Primus Books, 2018.
• Diamond, Debra, and Dipti Khera, eds. A Splendid Land: Paintings from Royal Udaipur. Munich, Germany: Hirmer Publishers; Washington, DC: National Museum of Asian Art, Smithsonian Institution, 2022.

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.