- Title
- The March Against King Jarasandha, Folio from a Bhagavata Purana (Ancient Stories of the Lord)
- Date Made
- circa 1640-1650
- Medium
- Opaque watercolor, gold, and ink on paper
- Dimensions
- Sheet: 6 3/4 x 8 in. (17.15 x 20.32 cm); Image: 6 x 7 3/4 in. (15.24 x 19.69 cm)
- Accession Number
- M.73.88.1
- Collecting Area
- South and Southeast Asian Art
- Curatorial Notes
The Bhagavata Purana (Ancient Stories of the Lord) is traditionally ascribed to the legendary poet-sage Vyasa in the 8th-10th century CE. It stresses the path of devotion (bhakti) to Krishna, the eighth incarnation of Vishnu, the Hindu God of Preservation. To fulfill his role as the guardian of the world and savior of humanity, Vishnu appears as a succession of heroic animals and semi-mortal saviors, called avatars, through which he intervenes in times of crisis or unrighteousness.
The devanagari inscription in the header reads, “going to fight Jurasandha [Jarasandha].” Jarasandha was a king of Magadha (ancient Bihar) who vowed to kill Krishna after Krishna had slayed the evil King Kamsa of Mathura, who was Jarasandha’s son-in-law. After Krishna challenged Jarasandha to a duel, the king chose instead to fight Bhima, one of the Pandava brothers whose exploits are recounted in the Mahabharata ([War of the] Great Bharatas). Jarasandha was then killed by Bhima in a wrestling match (Bhagavata Purana 10:72). Here, the white-skinned Balarama holding plowshare and the blue-skinned Krishna carrying a mace lead a chariot ridden by the mighty Bhima.
Additional folios from the dispersed series are in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York (1973.337 and 1974.116) and various private collections in India and the U.S.
See also M.81.277.
- Selected Bibliography
- Pal, Pratapaditya. The Sacred and Secular in Indian Art. Santa Barbara, CA: University of California, 1974.
