A Serpent Protects Vasudeva Taking His Infant Son Krishna to Safety

c. 1890

A Serpent Protects Vasudeva Taking His Infant Son Krishna to Safety, c. 1890. Eastern India, Bengal, Kolkata, Kalighat. Gum tempera, graphite, ink, and tin on paper; painting only: 45 x 27.7 cm (17 11/16 x 10 7/8 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Gift of William E. Ward in memory of his wife, Evelyn Svec Ward 2003.153 In the dead of night, Krishna was born to parents who were imprisoned by his evil uncle, the usurper King Kamsa. While a goddess compelled the guards to sleep, Krishna’s father Vasudeva, in the middle of a storm, spirited the newborn to safety in a cowherd village, where he exchanged Krishna for another infant. In the morning, Kamsa murdered the infant he thought was the child of Vasudeva, and Krishna lived to be raised by the herders. In the lower right, the name Vasudeva is written in the Bengali dialect as “Bashoodeva.”