- Title
- Krishna Receives the Sacred Thread and Returns his Preceptor Sandipani's Son, Folio from a Bhagavata Purana (Ancient Stories of the Lord)
- Date Made
- circa 1680-1690
- Medium
- Opaque watercolor on paper
- Dimensions
- Sheet: 9 x 14 in. (22.86 x 35.56 cm); Image: 8 1/4 x 13 1/4 in. (20.96 x 33.66 cm)
- Accession Number
- AC1995.220.2
- 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. Vishnu appears as a succession of heroic animals and semi-mortal saviors, called avatars, through which he intervenes in times of unrighteousness.
The inscription on the reverse from a Braj summary of the Bhagavata Purana identifies the scenes. Krishna and Balarama had gone to Avantipur to study the Vedas and Upanishads under the guru Sandipani. After finishing their study, they asked Sandipani to choose any gift. He asked that his son who had died in the ocean be returned to life. Krishna and Balarama went to the ocean and asked it to return the child but were told that a demon in the form of a conch named Pashcajana had taken him. Krishna dove into the ocean and killed the demon but did not find the boy. Krishna took the demon’s conch shell and he and Balarama went to the realm of Yamaraja, the lord of death. They announced their arrival by blowing the conch shell. Yama produced the boy, who they returned to his father. Krishna and Balarama then went back to their home in Vrindavan where they were joyously welcomed (Bhagavata Purana 10:45:30-50).
See its series mate AC1995.220.3. Additional folios from this dispersed series are in the Brooklyn Museum (84.206.1) and Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Richmond (86.169).
