"Krishna Swallows the Forest Fire," Illustrated folio from the dispersed "Upright" Bhagavata Purana (The Ancient Story of God)

When Krishna was a baby, and later a child, he grew up in the house of Nanda, the
headman of Gokul. During this time, even though he was young, Krishna killed the many evil
demons who were sent to destroy him. These rousing incidents from Krishna’s childhood are
among the chief glories of the many Indian series illustrating the Bhagavata Purana. (For other
paintings illustrating incidents from the Bhagavata Purana, see also cat. nos. 1, 3, 10, 11, 24,
36, 66, 67 and 92. )
During his childhood Krishna was not just occupied with evil demons. He was also alert to
other dangers, as one can see from the incident depicted in this superb picture. One day the
young Krishna was grazing his cows in the forest with his brother Balarama and the other gopas
(cow herders). Earlier the fire god Agni had become angry with Krishna, because Agni, a more
ancient god, was no longer receiving the respect he thought he deserved. Therefore, he sent
an enormous fire to consume Krishna and his gopa playmates as they cavorted on an appointed
day in the forest. As the fire closed in, Krishna asked the gopas to close their eyes. After they
had shut their eyes, Krishna with the “twinkling of an eye” drank up the fire, and Agni was
bested. The danger to Krishna and his friends had passed.

This starkly dramatic upright depiction of Krishna swallowing the forest fire is based upon a
horizontal composition of the same subject in a now largely lost Series illustrating the
Bhagavata Purana that is thought to have been painted in Mankot in circa 1700. Only 26
illustrated folios from this somewhat earlier Series, all now in the Chandigarh Museum, have
survived. They are probably the greatest achievement of the Master at the Court of Mankot,
and define his style. His later upright compositions, the greatest of which like the present work,
are painted with “flamboyance and self­assurance”, made some compositional adjustments
necessitated by the different, vertical format. (1) But otherwise they are much the same. For
another painting by the Master at the Court of Mankot in the Kronos Collection, see cat. no. 95.
For a riveting Basohli painting of the same subject, formerly in the collection of Karl
Khandalavala, see Karl Khandalavala 1958, pl. M.
(1) M.C. Beach, Eberhard Fischer, and B.N. Goswamy, eds. 2011, pg. 506. For discussion
of the Master at the Court of Mankot, see ibid, pp. 501­14. For three illustrated folios
from the same upright Series, see ibid, figs. 3­5.

Inscription: Inscribed on the front along the top border in Panjabi written in takri script: “Controlling by inhaling the shaft of forest fire”

Collection of Raja Dhruv Chand of Lambagraon, Kangra Valley India by 1959; Swiss Collection 1983

New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Divine Pleasures: Painting from India's Rajput Courts—The Kronos Collections," June 13–September 11, 2016.