Krishna Lifts Mount Govardhan

The Mughal miniature painting of Krishna Lifting Mount Govardhan is one of the significant episodes in Hindu mythology. This composition is to represent Krishna lifting Mount Govardhan to protect the people of Braj from the rain. It is a story from Harivamsa, a Sanskrit work that narrates the life of Krishna and is related to the Mahabharata. The story tells of Krishna convincing the citizens of Braj to abandon their practice of making offerings to Indra, lord of rain and storms, and to instead worship Mount Govardhan and the Nature that provided for them. Angered at this, Indra unleashed a storm no less than devastating. In response, Krishna lifted the mountain, saving the villagers, their families and their animals from the storm, until it was over. The episode reflects the divinity, compassion and devotion of Krishna towards his devotees. The mountain is the central feature, dominating the scene and providing a sense of protection for the figures below. People and animals come together under its gaze, bringing all of these elements together in a single pictorial space. The various figures at the periphery of the scene represent the size of the community that gathered around Krishna for his protection, with the figure of Krishna at the center symbolizing his role as their protector. The great size of the mountain and the concentration of peoples also helps to visually grasp the miraculous. The style of the painting is from the Mughal period, during the reign of Emperor Akbar when royal studios began to produce illustrations for the important Hindu scriptures translated into Persian. These projects allowed artists to create artworks based on new scores accompanied by new texts to tell unfamiliar religious stories. Mughal painters fused influences from Persian manuscript painting with careful observation of human figures, animals and the natural world. This blending of decorative detail and naturalistic observation is reflected in the depiction of the mountain, plants, animals and people. The work is significant for its effects on the development of Mughal court painting, and its relationship with the Hindu religious literature. But under Akbar's patronage artists and scholars entered into a common cultural space, so that narratives from various traditions could be carried forth in the visual language of the imperial atelier. The painting is therefore of interest not only as a representation of Krishna's mythology, but also as a reflection of the artistic and intellectual interaction which formed Mughal painting during the late sixteenth century.