Krishna's Butter Ball, Mahabalipuram
c. 1900s
Medium
Gelatin silver print, toned, on collodion printing-out paper
Dimensions
image: 15.3 × 10.8 cm · paper: 15.3 × 10.8 cm
Classification
Photograph
Department
Photography
Museum
Cleveland Museum of Art
Credit
Gift of Barbara Tannenbaum and Mark Soppeland
Accession Number
2019.68
Rights
Public Domain
Tags
About this artwork
Mahabalipuram is a site on India’s southeastern coast where numerous rock-cut temples and sculptures were carved during the early 600s. The site includes a remarkable, naturally occurring boulder that became known popularly as Krishna’s Butter Ball, thereby merging a geological phenomenon with sacred narrative. If baby Krishna could crawl while holding this monolith as effortlessly in his hand as a ball of butter, he must be a magnificently powerful god. Colonial-era tourists enjoy their excursi...