Krishna Exacts a Toll from the Milkmaids: Dana-Lila, from a Bhagavata Purana

c. 1600

Krishna Exacts a Toll from the Milkmaids: Dana-Lila, from a Bhagavata Purana, c. 1600. Northwestern India, Rajasthan, Rajput Kingdom of Bikaner. Gum tempera and gold on paper; page: 21.6 x 29.2 cm (8 1/2 x 11 1/2 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Purchase and partial gift from the Catherine and Ralph Benkaim Collection; Severance and Greta Millikin Purchase Fund 2018.186 Krishna can be seen here teasing the girls who bring pots of milk and yogurt to the Brahmin priests. Thinking it a waste of time to feed the Brahmins, Krishna waylays them, pretending to be the owner of the land where they are walking. He threatens to topple their pots if they don’t pay him a toll. An exasperated cow herder follows. A red quadrangle offsets the blue-skinned god Krishna.