Krishna Dances in the Raslila with the Gopis (Female Cowherds)

Krishna is fluting at the center of a circle of dancers. The circle is composed of seven gopis
(cow maidens ) and seven figures of Krishna. The god has magically multiplied himself seven
times, so that each gopi believes he is dancing with her alone.
Demi­god musicians in the four corners provide music for this “feast of love”, while five gods,
acknowledging Krishna’s pre­eminence, hover in the sky above. These gods are, from left to
right, the moon god Chandra, driving a chariot drawn by two antelopes; the rain god Indra,
mounted on a white elephant; the four­headed Brahma, mounted on a goose; the cobra-
decorated Shiva, mounted on a bull; and the sun god Surya, driving a chariot drawn by two
horses. The gods are throwing down tiny white flowers in homage to Krishna and his circle of
dancers, who are depicted on the ground below them. Their flowers, executed in small
drops of impasto paint, decorate both the heavenly and earthly portions of this picture.
As is often the case in early Pahari painting, the composition spills into the wide, burnished
borders to the right and left, as if the rectangular orientation of the page could not
accommodate the thrusting, circular imperative of the composition. The great circle of dancers
at the center of the picture is repeated by the stunted circle of trees at the top center of the
picture and by the open lotus flowers and rounded buds and leaves in the lower extremity of
water. One can almost hear the insistent drumbeat of the musicians and the pulsing rhythm of
the dancers.
Another version of this subject, yet depicted in horizontal format and catalogued as
Mankot, circa 1750­60, was published in W.G. Archer 1973, Vol. I, pg. 380, no.42.

Lambagraon Darbar Collection by 1958; Swiss Collection 1983

New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Divine Pleasures: Painting from India's Rajput Courts—The Kronos Collections," June 13–September 11, 2016.

New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Seeing the Divine: Pahari Painting of North India," December 22, 2018–July 28, 2019.