"Krishna and the Gopis (Milk Maids) on the Bank of the Yamuna River," Folio from the "Second" or "Tehri Gahrwal" Gita Govinda (Song of God)

Krishna stands at the center of the composition intertwined with nine adoring gopis (milk
maidens). Six besotted gopis cling to whatever part of Krishna’s youthful body they can touch,
while three others surround a nearby tree trunk, waiting for their moment to enter this turbulent
“feast of love”. The beautifully arranged, syncopated rhythms of the gopis’ linked bodies echo
the dips and twists of the delightful Kangra valley, which this painting portrays.
Maharaja Sansar Chand (r. 1775­1823) was the probable patron of the great Series to
which this painting and eight others in the Kronos Collection once belonged. (See also cat.
nos. 77­80, 82­85.) An ardent Vaishnava (a worshipper of Vishnu and his incarnations,
including Krishna) and lover and patron of painting, Sansar Chand (1765­1823) also
commissioned later in his reign a magnificent series of over 100 paintings illustrating the
exploits of the young Krishna (the so­called “Mody Bhagavata Purana”), a series of about 100
paintings illustrating the Ramayana (see cat. no. 93), a series of about 40 paintings illustrating
verses from the Sat Sai of the poet Bihari (see cat. nos. 86­88), a series illustrating the story of
Nala and Damayanti (see cat. no. 89), a Ragamala series of about 80 paintings, a Baramasa
series illustrating the months of the year, and many other works. (1) In short, the Maharaja
commissioned the classic series the library of any self­respecting Hindu prince must have, as
well as a number of lavish sets illustrating the exploits of his great heros and Vishnu
incarnations, the gods Krishna and Rama.
To accomplish this task, and to enlarge the rather spotty court atelier he must have
inherited, Sansar Chand imported a large collection of talented artists from the neighboring
kingdom of Guler, including a number of Nainsukh’s sons and relations. (For the great artist
81. SK.075 DP 334077. TIF and DP336059.TIF
Nainsukh, see cat. nos. 69­70.) Indeed, during the Sansar Chand period, it is very difficult to
distinguish Kangra and Guler painting. For all intents, in style they might as well be the same
Maharaja Sansar Chand was probably the greatest political and military ruler ever to
have lived in the Punjab Hills. During the height of his power, his Kangra ‘empire’ controlled
most of the region. Sansar Chand’s period of grandeur lasted until about 1806, the year when
invading Gurkhas from Nepal put an end to the Maharaja’s dreams of dominance. He lost most
of his empire to the Gurkhas and Sikhs, yet soldiered on in what remained of his kingdom,
commissioning paintings, until the year of his death in 1823.
W.G. Archer believes the present Series was made in ca. 1780 to celebrate Sansar
Chand’s first wedding in ca. 1781. (2) If so, he would have been sixteen years old at the time of
his first wedding.
(1) See W.G. Archer 1973, Vol. I, pp. 291­297.
(2) W.G. Archer 1973, Vol. I, pp. 292­293

Inscription: Inscribed on the reverse in black ink with four lines of Sanskrit text written in devanagari script (Gita Govinda, part 1, stanza 46; for an English translation, see Miller, ed., 1977,
p. 77); also inscribed in black ink with a three-line summary of the text in the Pahari dialect of Panjabi written in devanagari script

Sotheby's December 1992

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