Manuscript, painting, book-illustration (BM 1958,1011,0.4 1)

Page from a manuscript of the Bhāgavata Purāṇa. On the verso, painting in opaque watercolour, in two registers, showing: below: three cowherds bring their cows to the river Yamunā to drink and crouch down to slake their own thirst; they then ask Kṛṣṇa how to find food. Above, Kṛṣṇa tells a group of cowherds, all standing in a line to go and ask the brahmin ladies who were then offering Vedic sacrifices. The episode is from Canto 10, end of chapter 22 and beginning of chapter 23, just after the episode of stealing the cowgirls' clothes. On the recto, 17 lines of Sanskrit text in black ink from end of Chapter 22 of Canto 10 of the Bhāgavata Purāṇa and beginning of Chapter 23, with colophon details in red, between two red margins. On paper.