Vishnu Battles Madhu and Kaitabha, from a Markandeya Purana (c. 1760): Art, History and Details

Vishnu Battles Madhu and Kaitabha, from a Markandeya Purana (c. 1760) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection.

The work and its context

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

This scene from a Hindu text is set during the moments before the creation of the world. The four-armed god Vishnu has just awakened on his multiheaded serpent bed that floats on the cosmic ocean of milk. Two demons generated from his earwax, according to the text, have already begun a primordial battle between good and evil. In the foothills of the western Himalayas there were numerous small kingdoms governed by rulers who paid tribute to the Mughal emperor. The rulers of these Pahari kingdoms, including Guler, began to sponsor workshops of court painters during the 1600s, following the model of the imperial Mughal atelier. Each court developed its own painting style; at Guler, unpopulated pale expanses offset the opaque hues of clustered figures delineated by smooth contour lines.

Object facts

• Title: Vishnu Battles Madhu and Kaitabha, from a Markandeya Purana
• Date: c. 1760
• Culture: Northern India, Pahari kingdoms
• Type: Painting
• Technique: Gum tempera on paper
• Dimensions: Image: 16.7 x 25.8 cm (6 9/16 x 10 3/16 in.); Overall: 20.2 x 29.2 cm (7 15/16 x 11 1/2 in.)
• Collection: Indian Art
• Department: Indian and Southeast Asian Art
• Accession number: 1974.46

Collection credit

John L. Severance Fund

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.