# Celebrations of Krishna's Birth, from a Bhagavata Purana

**Unknown artist**  
c. 1725–30  
Gum tempera and gold on paper  
Image: 22.9 x 15.2 cm (9 x 6 in.); with mat: 49 x 36.3 cm (19 5/16 x 14 5/16 in.)

Courtesy of the Cleveland Museum of Art, 1988.70. [The museum's record](https://clevelandart.org/art/1988.70).

## About this work

The Hindu kingdom of Mankot in the western foothills of the Himalayas developed a bold style of painting in which figures in strict profile stand out against an intense yellow ground. Musicians enthusiastically proclaim the arrival of infant Krishna at the village of Vraj, where he was brought as a newborn to grow to maturity in safety among the cowherders. He was secreted away from the evil king Kamsa who wanted to murder the child on account of a prophecy that foretold his own death by Krishna. Krishna’s adoptive father Nanda, the village headmaster, receives tufts of grass as tokens of congratulations from a well-wisher, while a soldier salutes him.

_Text from the Cleveland Museum of Art._

An unrecorded Northern India, Pahari kingdoms artist painted this in about 1725–30. It is now at the Cleveland Museum of Art.

### How it was made

- **Opaque watercolour.** Watercolour made opaque with white or chalk and laid in flat, even layers. Persian and Indian painters ground their colours from minerals, applied them with the finest brushes and burnished the finished page.
- **Gold ground.** Gold leaf laid over a red clay and burnished to a mirror shine, often tooled with punches so it flickers in candlelight. Behind sacred figures it stands for heavenly light.
- **Tempera.** Pigment bound with egg yolk. It dries in minutes and can’t be blended wet, so painters built up form with fine, hatched strokes. It was Europe’s main panel technique before oil.

## Facts

- Type: Painting
- Culture: Northern India, Pahari kingdoms
- Real size: about 9 × 6 in (23 × 15 cm). The 8 × 10 in print is close to life size.
- Century: 18th century
- Colour: red
- Rights: public domain (CC0 1.0); free to use for any purpose.

## Get it

- Free download, full resolution: https://img.ochreeditions.com/m/742.jpg?dl=1
- Image: https://img.ochreeditions.com/a/742/1920.jpg
- Giclée reproduction on Hahnemühle Photo Rag: 8 × 10 in $28; 11 × 14 in $38; 12 × 16 in $42; 16 × 20 in $56; 18 × 24 in $68
- Framed reproduction: 8 × 10 in $78; 11 × 14 in $98; 12 × 16 in $108; 16 × 20 in $138; 18 × 24 in $164
- Canvas reproduction: 8 × 10 in $58; 11 × 14 in $72; 12 × 16 in $79; 16 × 20 in $98
- Print-ready file: 8 × 10 in $2; 11 × 14 in $2; 12 × 16 in $3; 16 × 20 in $3; 18 × 24 in $3

Sizes stop where the museum's file would print below 150 pixels per inch. Everything sold is a reproduction, made to order. [Order a print](https://www.ochreeditions.com/art/celebrations-of-krishna-s-birth-from-a-bhagavata-purana-cma-154260).