Krishna in the Garden of Assam: The History and Context of a Much-Travelled Textile

This beautiful and rare textile; now in the British Museum; was produced in the late seventeenth century in the wake of the remarkable outflow of Krishna veneration resulting from the ministry of the great eastern Indian saint; Sankaradava (died 1568). Nine metres in length; it is made up of twelve strips; all now sown together; and woven with captioned scenes from the life of Krishna as recorded in the tenth-century text; the Bhagavata Purana; and elaborated in the dramas of Sankaradeva. The author looks at the art; technique and iconography of the textile and also place it within its wider religious; cultural and geographical contexts. He traces; too; its fascinating history and its journey from Assam to London