Minneapolis Institute of Art

The Cosmic Form of Krishna

India (Chambra)

Date

c. 1750–75

Medium

Opaque watercolor heightened with gold on paper

Department

Asian Art

Institution

Minneapolis Institute of Art

The striking imagery of this painting was inspired by the Bhagavata Gita (200 BCE to 300 CE), a foundational text in Hinduism. The artist illustrates a pivotal conversation between the epic hero, Arjuna (identified by inscription in the bottom left), and Krishna, who gives Arjuna special vision in order to reveal the majesty of his cosmic form, Vishvarupa or Vishnu (“having all shapes”). Depicted with fifty-six multi-colored heads and fifty-six brandishing arms, the Cosmic Form of Krishna towers upright, his all-encompassing aura swelling to the borders of the page. Brahma, Shiva, the sun, and the moon are among the gods who peek through the long locks of his beard. His dress (dhoti) is imagined as a mountain—representing the earth—and beneath is a radiating splay of assured feet. The image articulates the boundless benevolence of Krishna (or Vishnu), with the cosmic body underscoring notions of yogic insight and transformation—the experiencing of the Self and the Absolute as the same, constituting ultimate reality. India, Asia

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