Krishna's Earthly Ties, Page from a Dispersed Bivamangalastava

Krishna's Earthly Ties, Page from a Dispersed Bivamangalastava

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

This work presents the devotional vision of Amar Singh II, who sits in the upper left. An inscription along the top, drawn from the devotional text of the Bivamangalastava, states: On earth there are in all probability only three hitching posts for the elephant called Murari [a name for Krishna]: the wooden mortar, the mind of the ascetics, and the budlike breasts of milkmaids. The central elements of this passage appear in the image: the blue figure of Krishna, dragging a mortar, approaches his foster mother, Yashoda, while below, an ascetic sits on the riverbank near the elephant Murari.

Asian Art

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Krishna's Earthly Ties, Page from a Dispersed BivamangalastavaKrishna's Earthly Ties, Page from a Dispersed BivamangalastavaKrishna's Earthly Ties, Page from a Dispersed BivamangalastavaKrishna's Earthly Ties, Page from a Dispersed BivamangalastavaKrishna's Earthly Ties, Page from a Dispersed Bivamangalastava

The Met's collection of Asian art—more than 35,000 objects, ranging in date from the third millennium B.C. to the twenty-first century—is one of the largest and most comprehensive in the world. Each of the many civilizations of Asia is represented by outstanding works, providing an unrivaled experience of the artistic traditions of nearly half the world.