The Demon Sambar Throws the Infant Pradyumna into the River, page from a Dispersed Bhagavata Purana manuscript
c. 1775
- Medium
- Opaque watercolor on paper
- Classification
- Painting
- Dimensions
- 36.2 × 53 cm (14 1/4 × 20 7/8 in.)
- Culture
- Nepal
- Museum
- Art Institute of Chicago, Arts of Asia
- Credit line
- Gift of Everett McNear
- Rights
- Public domain (CC0), as the museum states it.
- Who can see it
- Teens profiles and older: its subject is for older viewers (war, death, the Passion, drink or the like). How works are placed
View at the Art Institute of Chicago
About this work
In this painting, moving from left to right, we see the demon Sambar throwing the infant Pradyumna (painted in blue) into the river as he knows that the newborn is fated to kill him. A large fish swallows the infant; the fish is then caught in a net by a fisherman and is carried ashore and toward the demon's palace beyond the frame, at right. Unknown to the demon, the infant is discovered when the cook cuts the fish open. A maidservant shelters the baby and raises him secretly.
Description © Art Institute of Chicago, CC BY 4.0
