_The Road to Brindaban_
Illustration to the _Bhagavata Purana_
Kangra, Punjab Hills, c. 1790
National Museum, New Delhi
With Plates 3 and 5, part of the series attributed to Purkhu.
Led by Nanda, the majestic figure in the front bullock-cart, the cowherds
are moving a day's march across the River Jumna to enjoy the larger
freedom of Brindaban. Their possessions--bundles of clothes,
spinning-wheels, baskets of grain and pitchers--are being taken with them
and mounted with Yasoda on a second cart go the children, Balarama and
Krishna. With its great variety of stances, simple naturalism and air of
innocent calm, the picture exactly expresses the terms of tender
familiarity on which the cowherds lived with Krishna.
[Illustration]