- Artist or Maker
- Unknown
active circa 1710-1750 - Title
- Gopis Clinging to Krishna
- Date Made
- circa 1700-1725
- Medium
- Opaque watercolor on paper
- Dimensions
- Image: 9 7/8 x 5 9/16 in. (25.08 x 14.13 cm); Sheet: 11 1/2 x 7 1/4 in. (29.21 x 18.42 cm)
- Accession Number
- M.77.19.23
- Collecting Area
- South and Southeast Asian Art
- Curatorial Notes
This striking painting serves as a metaphor for the ultimate indivisibility of the devotee with the divine in the belief system of Vaishnava Bhaktism. Its mountain-like form evocatively portrays nine adoring milkmaids (gopis) clinging to a towering Krishna, many with their hands held in the gesture of devotion. The gopis have caste markings on their foreheads and wear an assortment of beautifully patterned skirts and shawls. Krishna stands on his left leg with his right wrapped around two gopis. Each of his four arms carresses a different gopi while he stares intently into their eyes. Two cows also gaze adoringly up at Krishna.
The image appears to visualize verses analogous to those in the Bhagavata Purana (Ancient Stories of the Lord) describing the passionate interplay of Krishna and his lovers in their climactic Dance of Delight (Rasa Lila) on his final idyllic night in Braj: “Another Gopi caught hold by her arm the shoulder of Krishna.… Another Gopi smelled how Krishna’s arm placed on her shoulder was fragrant like a lily.… Another Gopi who rested on Krishna’s cheek her own.… Another Gopi … pressed to her bosom his blissful lotus-hand.” (Bhagavata Purana 10.33.11–14)
A contemporaneous Mandi painting of Shiva similarly adored by clinging women devotees is in The Goenka Collection, Kolkata.
