Cleveland Museum of Art

Upper stele with hand for Krishna Lifting Mount Govardhan

Date

c. 600

Medium

Sandstone

Culture

Southern Cambodia, Takeo Province, Phnom Da

Department

Indian and Southeast Asian Art

Institution

Cleveland Museum of Art

This masterwork of early Cambodian sculpture shows the Hindu god Krishna effortlessly holding aloft a mountain to protect his fellow villagers and herds from torrential storms sent by a jealous old god. It is one of eight monumental monolithic figures recovered from a two-peaked mountain in the floodplains of the Mekong River delta, on the outskirts of the ancient urban center of Angkor Borei. Gold earrings were once fastened to the sculpture using holes in the figure's earlobes.

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