CASIRJ Volume 8 Issue 10 [Year - 2017] ISSN 2319 – 9202 International Research Journal of Commerce Arts and Science http://www.casirj.com Page 75 Iconography of Krishna-Devki-Putra Ikvir Kaur Art Teacher (PGT) British Co-Ed High School , Patiala Research Scholar Desh Bhagat University Mandigobindgarh, Punjab Abstract In this article, I propose to trace the iconography of Krishna chronologically, from the earliest sculptural representation to the 19 th century representation of Krishna in painting. In discussing the icons of Krishna in sculpture, we must be acquainted with the history of the Krishna-cult in great detail. Lord Krishna, an entity or no entity, a name or no name, an occurrence of chronology or just what the human intellect conceived, if a reality, so unimaginably strange, if a myth, too real to be mythical, is now for centuries the most cherished theme of arts in India. The intellect finds it difficult to believe that what this single name is said to have once possessed could ever abound in a human born form, but the believing mind and the creative endeavor feel that whatever has been said of him is too little to know him, to know his dimensions, depths and expanse. The devotees, hence, have been weaving around him ever fresh myths, poet‟s ever new songs and painters his ever quaint and curious versions, discovering him in his frailties as well as strength but always beyond both, or rather beyond everything, which they know or have ever known. Unlike Lord Vishnu, who he incarnates, Krishna is to them an entity beyond time, without end and without beginning. Key words – iconography, Lord Krishna, incarnates , painters , gods , depiction , Bhagavad-Gita , scriptures , Mahabharata, traditional INTRODUCATION Early references to Krishna, sometimes as Krishna Harita, a teacher of 'Yoga' and metaphysics, and sometimes as Devaki Krishna, a great philosopher, occur in Vedic literature itself, but it is in the Mahabharata that he appears with a fully evolved personality as a great warrior, strategist, diplomat and finally in his Vishwa-rupa, manifesting the cosmos in his form. He was seen as incarnating Vishnu, the supreme Lord of all gods and all beings with a