Lord Krishna and his lilas are the world-famous stories that every child has grown up listening to. This bronze sculpture is a beautiful depiction of one of his lilas, which he performed in his adolescence.
Kaliya or Kalinga was known to be a venomous serpent that had escaped Garuda’s place and resided in the banks of Yamuna near Vrindavan.
Once Krishna and his friends were playing near the river, and mistakenly their ball fell in it, so to get the ball, Krishna jumped into the river, where he had a serious fight with the serpent Kaliya, but after some time, what came out was a shocking moment of happiness for all the people present there. Lord Krishna was mounted over the serpent’s multiple hoods and was dancing while holding it from the tail.
Keeping a note of this lila, the sculptor has very gracefully sculpted this victorious moment in a superfine bronze, keeping the intense features as secondary with the joyous smile visible clear on his face and focusing more on the sculpture as a whole. The multiple layers of the high-raised pedestal, carved in a unique shape give a good view of the height and clarity of the sculpture.
Krishna holds the Kaliya serpent’s tail by his left hand and right blesses to be in courage and confidence; one leg on the serpent’s body and one high in the air is symbolic of Krishna’s gleeful dance. The deity is soberly jewelled with the significant kundals and a short dhoti, depicting his essence of luxury and charm.
The long crown that glorifies his head is carved in a unique cylindrical shape along with decorated chisels of a peacock feather in the centre and other stylized patterns, highlighting the sculptor’s love for creativity. The etched patterns of scales on the serpent’s outer body and striations on its inner side are a realistic depiction of the creator’s keen vision.
This episode of Krishna dancing on serpent Kaliya’s hoods is symbolic of channelling your inner greed and desires in the right direction, just as Kaliya understood to use his venom for his self defence when required.
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