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, Vishnu appears as a succession of heroic animals and semi-mortal saviors, called avatars, through which he intervenes in times of crisis and unrighteousness.
In this folio [#15], the action unfolds in continuous narration. In the upper left corner, the evil King Kamsa of Mathura dispatches the ogress Putana to Vrindavan to kill baby Krishna. In the upper center, after transforming herself into a beautiful nursemaid, Putana approaches Yashoda suckling Krishna. In the upper right corner, Putana lifts Krishna from his crib. In the lower register, after Putana attempted to suckle Krishna with poisoned nipples and he sucked out both the poison and her life, Putana reverted to her gigantic demonic form and fell to the ground. Krishna walks on the dead ogress. (Bhagavata Purana 10:6).
See its series mate M.75.114.4. Additional folios from this dispersed series are in the Bharat Kala Bhavan, Varanasi (9428 [#22] and 9478 [#43]); Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York (1975.410.7 [#28] and 1978.542.1 [#26]); National Museum, New Delhi; Norton Simon Museum of Art (P.2003.02.06 [#26]); San Diego Museum of Art (1990.969 [#56]); and Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Richmond (86.169 [#93]).