The beloved Hindu god Krishna was born a prince but a prophecy foretold that his uncle Kamsa, the demon king of Mathura, would be challenged by a nephew. Kamsa then ordered the deaths of all of his sister’s sons, so Krishna was whisked away to grow up incognito in a cow-herding village.

As Krishna neared adulthood, he took on the name of the divine cowherd of Virdavan and became an object of fascination and obsession for many of the young women, known as gopis, who tended to the cows. Among them was Radha, who was madly in love with Krishna and their intense and sometimes fraught relationship is the subject of many paintings. In fact, all the Indian courts commissioned paintings depicting the amorous adventures of Krishna that also became a model for depictions of royal lovers. In some cases, the lovers would be depicted within a village setting as the case of Krishna and the cowherds and at other times they would be depicted within the palace. Such paintings, while sometimes illustrating real romances resonated with the divine example of Krishna and Radha and thereby symbolised a religious aspiration for union with the divine.

One of the most prolific and evocate images of Krishna as the divine cowherd is illustrated by Krishna playing the flute to the enraptured gopis (cowherds). Tending to the cows, the lone Krishna lifts his staff which is also flute and plays in such an enchanting way as to draw the gopis into his divine sphere, symbolising the union of the individual soul (atma) with the supreme being- the great soul.