Panel from a jewelry casket: Krishna slays Putana

This panel from an ivory casket combines the form of a medieval European casket with wondrous scenes of purely Indian origin, the story Krishna slaying the demoness Putana. The artist has brilliantly condensed this narrative into three seminal moments, the deception, the abduction and the slaying of the abductor, all enacted below turbulent heavens occupied by the demonic king Kamsa who has orchestrated this act of evil. First, the ogress, in the guise of a beautiful woman, is seen in the act of picking up the infant Krishna. A sheathed sword at her feet references the text’s use of a sword as a metaphor for her concealed and lethal nature. Next, the demoness, now revealed in her true ogress-form, abducts Krishna. In the third and climatic moment, the infant Krishna suckles her poisoned breast and drains all life from her. The evil king Kamsa, usurper of the throne of Mathura, rages in the tumultuous clouds above.