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Krishna Quells the Serpent Kaliya, from a Bhagavata Purana
c. 1710
- Medium
- gum tempera and gold on paper
- Classification
- Painting
- Dimensions
- Page: 40.8 x 23 cm (16 1/16 x 9 1/16 in.); Miniature: 36.9 x 19.1 cm (14 1/2 x 7 1/2 in.)
- Culture
- Northwestern India, Rajasthan, Rajput Kingdom of Mewar
- Museum
- Cleveland Museum of Art, Indian and Southeast Asian Art
- Credit line
- Purchase and partial gift from the Catherine and Ralph Benkaim Collection; Severance and Greta Millikin Purchase Fund
- 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
In the forest where Krishna lived as a youth among the cowherds, there was a great pool of water connected to the Yamuna River. The water had become toxic from the poison excreted by all the snakes living there, including the serpent Kaliya. Kaliya’s royal residence is depicted at the lower right. In order to make the pool usable for drinking and bathing, Krishna tamed the serpent king by dancing on his heads. Krishna then persuaded him to move away to the ocean.
