Krishna Sporting with the Cowherds (painting, recto; text, verso), folio from a Bhagavata Purana series

This folio depicts young Krishna and Balarama engaging in playful activities in Vrindavan. The blue-skinned Hindu god Krishna, his elder half-brother Balarama, and the cowherds accompanying them dance whirling in circles, sing songs, and play music on flutes and cymbals. The artist shows Krishna in various leisure moments in two registers, featuring him five times across the folio. This painting belongs to the 'Dispersed' Bhagavata Purana series, produced in the early 16th century, possibly in Mathura. The series, possibly consisting of 360 such folios, is based on the tenth book of the Bhagavata Purana, which describes the story of Krishna, particularly his childhood and youth. This series was one of South Asia's earliest illustrated Bhagavata Purana manuscripts. Each illustration is also accompanied by the text corresponding to the image on the reverse, written in Sanskrit. Other folios from the same Bhagavata Purana series in the Harvard Art Museum’s collection are objects 1963.145, 1974.124, 1974.126, 1974.127, 1992.283, 1995.66, 1995.67, 1995.68. Caurapancasika-group style. Text on Verso: Bhagavata Purana, Book Ten, Chapter 18, verse 10 - verse 14 (first half). This folio is followed by 1974.127, which bears the second half of verse 14.