Krishna-cult in Indian Art

Book excerpt: The place of Krishna in Indian Art has remained obscured for many years until a parallelism was made by J. Kennedy in the years 1913-17 in the Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society, in which the similarly of Krishna and Christ was suggested. However, this book explodes that theory and expounds the myth of the legendary Krishna and establishes the origin and development of the most important God of the Hindu Pantheon. Thus the iconography and stylistic development of Krishna explodes all the prevalent theories and categorically proves the importance of Krishna in Indian art. The subject of the book is explicity the representation of Krishna in Indian sculpture and painting. However, such an art-historical study has necessitated a good deal of discussion of the legend itself for the sake of understanding the iconography.