Krishna on Kaliya
1974
paint
From the collection of Victoria and Albert Museum
1974
paint
From the collection of Victoria and Albert Museum
Dominant colour
Krishna on Kaliya is a 1974 paint by Unknown, held at Victoria and Albert Museum.
This painting shows a busy scene with lots of swirling lines and figures. In the middle, a man with blue skin is standing on a giant snake. Around him, other people float in the air, looking on. The edges are packed with tiny patterns—dots, leaves, and shapes that fill every inch. The snake’s head is raised, and the man’s feet are planted right on its back. The whole thing feels like a wild, tangled story. The colors are mostly black, white, and gray, but the snake’s scales and the man’s skin pop a little. If you like this style, check out the Victoria and Albert Museum for more.
The artwork is a black ink drawing on paper depicting the infant Krishna standing on the serpent Kaliya, accompanied by two of Kaliya’s wives. It belongs to the Madhubani painting tradition, which originated in the Mithila region of Northern Bihar, where Hindu women from Brahmin and Kshatriya castes historically created such works on interior walls for rituals and weddings. The style gained wider recognition after a 1934 earthquake drew attention to the tradition, later documented by W.G. Archer in 1949. By the 1960s, Madhubani paintings began to be produced on paper for commercial sale,…
Read the full account in the museum source.
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