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.
Here, a crowned ruler, who is presumably the evil King Kamsa of Mathura, receives his demonic minister (?) while seated with a prince in a palace verandah overlooking a garden. In the foreground, a soldier and a demonic warrior approach the compound entrance and gatekeeper. The folio has been remounted with new margins and borders.
This illustration is from an incomplete and uninscribed Bhagavata Purana attributed by Milo Beach (1974 and 1992) to Kota, Rajasthan, circa 1640. Forty additional folios from this dispersed series are in the Government Museum of Kota and one is in the Victoria and Albert Museum, London (IS.150-1949).
