"Krishna Frolics with the Gopis (Milkmaids)", Folio from the "Second" or "Tehri Garhwal" Gita Govinda (Song of God)

The comely gopis (milk maidens ) are absolutely mad for Krishna. In his text Jayadeva, the
late twelfth century author of the Gita Govinda, describes their erotic games and Krishna’s
ardent response in unabashed, yet poetic songs and couplets. “He hugs one, he kisses another,
he caresses another dark beauty./ He stares at one’s suggestive smiles, he mimics a willful girl.”
(1) As later commentators and bhakti devotees were shocked by the frank physicality that
Jayadeva seemed to endorse, they preferred to understand Krishna’s lovesport, as portrayed
here, as a metaphor describing the soul’s longing for union with the divine. (See also cat. no.
83.)
In this characteristic rendition, Krishna is involved with four separate gopis (among many
others ) in a forest clearing on the banks of the Yamuna River. It is understood that the
narrative depicted here is sequential. (For sequential narrative and another painting using this
same technique, see cat. no. 15.) These four separate and very athletic incidents did not
happen all at the same time.
For eight other paintings from the same great Series, see cat. nos. 77­79, 81­85.
(l) Miller, trans. and ed. l977, pg. 77

Inscription: Inscribed on the reverse in black ink with seven lines of Sanskrit text written in devanagari script (Gita Govinda, part 1, stanza 44; for an English translation, see Miller, ed., 1977,
p. 77); also inscribed in black ink with a two-line summary of the text in the Pahari dialect of Panjabi written in devanagari script; also inscribed on a label in black ink in Hindi, “Part
One . . .” and the Arabic number “33”

New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Indian Court Painting: 16th–19th Century," March 25–July 6, 1997.

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

Archer, W. G. Indian Paintings from the Punjab Hills: A Survey and History of Pahari Miniature Painting. Vol. vols. 1 and 2, New York and London: Sotheby Parke Bernet, 1973, cat. no. 33.