Krishna (The Dark One) is the eighth avatar of the Hindu god Vishnu, the Lord of Preservation. He was born in pastoral Vrindavan near Mathura, Uttar Pradesh. As a child, he was very rambunctious. His antics and adventures are called Krishna Lila (The Sport of Krishna).
Here, Krishna is depicted as a naked child performing the charming (lalita) dance posture while standing on his left leg with his right leg raised and supported by the pericarp of a lotus flower (karnika). He is crowned and wears earrings, armlets, bracelets, anklets, a chest ornament (channavira), and a belt with pendant bells. In his right hand, he holds a ball of butter representing his stealing and eating butter from his mother’s churn. In his outstretched left hand, he holds an overturned drinking cup, which may refer to a siphon cup symbolizing the myth of when the flooding river Yamuna rose only to the level of baby Krishna’s feet and then drained while he was being carried across the river by his father Vasudeva to escape the evil King Kamsa.
