Das Avataras, Ten Incarnations of Vishnu (verso), from a Kalighat album
Shri Gobinda Chandra Roy (Indian, active late 1800s)
c. 1890
- Medium
- Woodcut, hand colored with gum tempera
- Classification
- Painting
- Dimensions
- Secondary Support: 29.9 x 48.5 cm (11 3/4 x 19 1/8 in.); Painting only: 28.3 x 42.7 cm (11 1/8 x 16 13/16 in.)
- Culture
- Eastern India, Bengal, Kolkata, Kalighat
- Museum
- Cleveland Museum of Art, Indian and Southeast Asian Art
- Credit line
- Gift of William E. Ward in memory of his wife, Evelyn Svec Ward
- Rights
- Public domain (CC0), as the museum states it.
- Who can see it
- Tweens profiles and older: its subjects are known and suit older children. How works are placed
View at the Cleveland Museum of Art
About this work
This hastily hand-colored woodcut depicts a set of ten avatars, or incarnations, of the Hindu god Vishnu as recognized in 1800s Bengal. In each avatar, Vishnu descended to earth in order restore balance and order to the world. In the top register, from left to right, are Vishnu’s avatars as fish, tortoise, boar, man-lion, and Brahmin. Below are Parashurama, Rama, Krishna, Jagannath, and Kalki. The image of Rama shows him after his victory over the demon Ravana. He sits with Sita, crowned, holding bow and arrow. His monkey general Hanuman stands before him in a gesture of adoration.
