Krishna steals the clothes of the gopis, folio from a <em>Bhagavata Purana</em>
date: label: Date
content: ca. 1690-1700
notes: label: School/Tradition
content: Bikaner school
label: Inscriptions
content: Recto: 31
label: Inscriptions
content: Verso in nagari script: gopiyan keva satra hara kadam parchad. In a smaller, neater hand: dasam rai adhyaya ba 22 pano…2. Purple stamp and Khet Singh signature stamped out with purple ink. Various other inventory numbers.
label: Inscriptions
content: Verso in nagari script: gopiyan keva satra hara kadam parchad. In a smaller, neater hand: dasam rai adhyaya ba 22 pano…2. Purple stamp and Khet Singh signature stamped out with purple ink. Various other inventory numbers.
label: Label
content: This oversize folio depicts a magical landscape that glimmers from a gold-flecked wash over its surface. It is dawn, and the sky and distant hills are bathed in fog and tinged with streaks of gold. Seated in a kadamba tree draped with garments, Krishna watches the gopis emerge from the river after a swim. The mischievous Krishna has stolen the gopis' clothes and placed them them on the tree's branches. Realizing they have been tricked, the gopis hide their naked bodies in the river or behind trees as they beg for Krishna to return their clothing. The episode is one of the most important in the sacred text; it is commonly interpreted as a metaphor for the need for devotees to relinquish their egos in order to truly connect with god.
label: Label
content: The large-size Bikaner Bhagavata Purana manuscript was produced during the reign of Maharaja Anup Singh of Bikaner (r. 1674-98) who, while in the service of Aurangzeb in the Deccan, set up a court in Hyderabad. The style of the folio speaks to Bikaner's connections with both Mughal and Deccani court culture, revealing how brilliantly its artist drew upon and synthesized multiple visual traditions. The leaves of the trees and the figures are rendered parallel to the picture plane in the manner that is traditional to western Indian and Rajput painting. The landscape' spatial recession and its rounded hills swathed in mist and dotted with small trees are reminiscent of distant landscapes in Shah Jahan period painting. And the mauve and pink palette recalls the orchid-like pastels favored in the Deccan.
label: Provenance
content: From 1690 to possibly ca. 1960s
label: Provenance
content: Bikaner royal family, (modern-day Rajasthan, India) [1]
label: Provenance
content: To 1978
label: Provenance
content: Toby Falk (1942-1997), London [2]
label: Provenance
content: From 1978 to 2001
label: Provenance
content: Ralph Benkaim (1914-2001), Beverly Hills, California, purchased from Toby Falk, London in April 1978 [3]
label: Provenance
content: From 2001 to 2018
label: Provenance
content: Catherine Glynn Benkaim, Beverly Hills, California, ownership was transferred after the death of her husband, Ralph Benkaim in 2001 [3]
label: Provenance
content: From 2018
label: Provenance
content: Arthur M. Sackler Gallery, partial gift and purchase from Catherine Glynn Benkaim [4]
label: Provenance
content: Notes:
label: Provenance
content: [1] According to information given by Catherine Glynn Benkaim on June 14, 2016, the Raja of Bikaner began selling off his collection in the 1960s.
label: Provenance
content: [2] According to information from Ralph Benkaim’s record, communicated through Catherine Glynn Benkaim.
label: Provenance
content: [3] See note 2.
label: Provenance
content: [4] See Acquisition Justification Form, object file, Collections Management Office.
label: Provenance
content: [5] See note 4
label: Collection
content: National Museum of Asian Art Collection
label: Exhibition History
content: Delighting Krishna: Paintings of the Child-God (March 15 to August 24, 2025)
label: Exhibition History
content: Vishnu: Hindu's Blue-skinned Saviour (February to October, 2011)
label: Previous custodian or owner
content: Maharaja of Bikaner (1924-1988, reigned 1950-1977)
label: Previous custodian or owner
content: Toby Falk (1942-1997)
label: Previous custodian or owner
content: Ralph and Catherine Benkaim
label: Previous custodian or owner
content: Catherine Glynn Benkaim (born 1946)
place: label: Origin
content: Bikaner, Rajasthan state, India
topic: label: Topic
content: landscape
label: Topic
content: Krishna
label: Topic
content: river
label: Topic
content: Gopi
label: Topic
content: Bhagavata Purana
label: Topic
content: India
label: Topic
content: South Asian and Himalayan Art
label: Topic
content: Catherine and Ralph Benkaim Collection
setName: label: See more items in
content: Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery Collection
creditLine: label: Credit Line
content: Purchase and partial gift from the Catherine and Ralph Benkaim Collection — funds provided by the Friends of the National Museum of Asian Art
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery
identifier: label: Accession Number
content: S2018.1.46
objectType: label: Type
content: Painting
objectRights: label: Restrictions & Rights
content: CC0
physicalDescription: label: Medium
content: Opaque watercolor and gold on paper
label: Dimensions
content: H x W (painting): 17.2 × 12.4 cm (6 3/4 × 4 7/8 in)
label: Dimensions
content: H x W (overall): 21.3 × 15 cm (8 3/8 × 5 15/16 in)