Krishna Battles the Armies of the Demon Naraka
from a Bhagavata Purana, c.1520-40, India.

Krishna Battles the Armies of the Demon Naraka: Page from a Bhagavata Purana Manuscript
Date: ca. 1540
Culture: Northern India, Delhi or Agra region
Medium: Opaque watercolor and ink on paper
Dimensions: Page: 8 x 9 1/16 in. (20.3 x 23 cm) Image: 5 7/8 x 8 7/8 in. (14.9 x 22.5 cm)
Classification: Paintings
Credit Line: Purchase, Lita Annenberg Hazen Charitable Trust Gift, 1985
Accession Number: 1985.34
The Bhagavata Purana describes Vishnu’s avatars with particular attention to his form as Krishna. In this painted folio, the demon Naraka and his consort are seen in the palace interior of their fortified city of Pragyotisha, overseeing a fierce battle scene. Krishna and his consort Satyabhama enter the fray, carried by Vishnu’s birdman mount, Garuda. The figure-types and soldier’s attire directly borrow from Muslim Sultanate-period painting conventions of the fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries.
The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York


Krishna Battles The Armies Of The Demon Naraka
Probably Delhi-Agra area, ca. 1520-30
Page from a dispersed Bhagavata Purana (Ancient stories of Lord Vishnu)
Ink and opaque watercolor on paper
7 x 9⅛ in. (17.8 x 23.2 cm)
Chaurapanchasika style
The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
Purchase, Lita Annenberg Hazen Charitable Trust Gift, 1985 (1985.34)
Source: p.29, Indian Court Painting, 16th-19th Century by Steven Kossak
via Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York