Raja Ravi Varma’s Yashoda and Krishna (ca. 1890s) sold for ₹1.67 billion rupees ($17.9 million) at the Saffronart auction in Delhi on April 1st, becoming the most expensive painting to sell at auction by an Indian artist. It was sold to pharmaceutical billionaire Cyrus Poonawalla, founder of the Serum Institute of India. (All figures include fees.)
Yashoda and Krishna portrays a tender scene in which the Hindu deity Krishna hugs his foster mother, Yashoda, as she milks a cow. The young Krishna stands in waiting with a small golden cup, with a playful yet impatient look on his face.
Varma, born in 1848, is considered one of the pioneers of modern Indian painting. He is perhaps best known for his realistic depictions of scenes from the Mahabharata and Ramayana, two of Hinduism’s most famous epic poems. Varma achieved international stature during his lifetime, notably securing an award at the 1873 Vienna Exhibition and later winning two gold medals at the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago.
“Varma’s genius lies in this very balance: the sacred rendered through the familiar,” The Ravi Varma Heritage Foundation wrote of Yashoda and Krishna on its Instagram. “The textures of silk, the gleam of jewelry, the softness of skin, and the gentle stillness of the cow together create a scene that is both devotional and intimate.”
Varma’s previous auction record was set in 2023, when another painting of the same Yashoda and Krishna scene, Yashoda Krishna (n.d.) sold for $4.5 million at Pundole’s auction house in Mumbai.
Varma is one of just nine artists designated “national art treasures” by the official government Indian Art and Antiquities Act of 1972, meaning that works by these artists cannot travel overseas. Other artists include Rabindranath Tagore, Abanindranath Tagore, Gaganendranath Tagore, Amrita Sher-Gil, Jamini Roy, Nandalal Bose, Nicholas Roerich, and Sailoz Mookherjea.
Before this sale, the most expensive Indian painting at auction was M.F. Husain’s Untitled (Gram Yatra) (1954), which sold for $13.75 million at Christie’s New York in March 2025. Before that, the record was held by Hungarian Indian painter Amrita Sher-Gil’s The Story Teller (1937), which sold for $7.4 million at Saffronart in Mumbai in September 2023.
