Cleveland Museum of Art
A Serpent Protects Vasudeva Taking His Infant Son Krishna to Safety
- Date
- c. 1890
- Medium
- Gum tempera, graphite, ink, and tin on paper
- Culture
- Eastern India, Bengal, Kolkata, Kalighat
- Department
- Indian and Southeast Asian Art
- Institution
- Cleveland Museum of Art
In the dead of night, Krishna was born to parents who were imprisoned by his evil uncle, the usurper King Kamsa. While a goddess compelled the guards to sleep, Krishna’s father, Vasudeva, in the middle of a storm, spirited the newborn to safety in a cowherd village, where he exchanged Krishna for another infant. In the morning, Kamsa murdered the infant he thought was the child of Vasudeva, and Krishna lived to be raised by the herders. In the lower right, the name Vasudeva is written in the Bengali dialect as “Bashoodeva.”
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