This painting illustrates the Bhagavata Purana, an ancient text dedicated to the Hindu god Krishna, who lived on earth as a prince. Before Krishna’s birth, his evil uncle Kamsa received an omen that he would be killed by a nephew, and had all his sister’s children killed. To avoid having their new baby meet the same fate, Krishna’s parents sent him away and presented Kamsa with a decoy infant who was actually a goddess in disguise. This painting shows Krishna’s mother sleeping with the decoy infant at the right, and Kamsa killing the infant by smashing it against a rock at the center. As soon as Kamsa kills the child, the goddess rises up from its body (seen here), and Kamsa knows that his nephew is still alive. The painting is from Mewar, the region surrounding the city of Udaipur, where a large workshop of artists made elaborate manuscript paintings that are flat and graphic but highly legible.