Episodes from the Life of Krishna

The painting is divided into nine separate panels, each of which is a complete composition and could have been an independent picture. The artist seems to have followed the mural tradition practiced in both temples and palaces, in which the stories are similarly depicted in individual panels. This is the case with the painted wall segments from Chamba preserved in the National Museum, New Delhi.

There seems to be no particular order, chronological or otherwise, in the distribution of the various episodes from Krishna's life. Beginning from the top left and moving horizontally, the themes can be identified as follows: dalliance of Radha and Krishna; Krishna steals the clothes of the bathing cowgirls; Krishna tied to the mortar in the twin Arjuna tree incident; Krishna destroys the horse-demon Keshi; Krishna slays the calf-demon Dheruka; Krishna quells the forest fire; infant Krishna kills the ogress Putana; the submission of Brahma; and a prince or poet pays obeisance to the enthroned Krishna.

Provenance

Provenance (from the French provenir, 'to come from/forth') is the chronology of the ownership, custody, or location of a historical object.

John and Berthe Ford, Baltimore [date and mode of acquisition unknown]; Walters Art Museum, 2002, by gift.