Krishna playing the flute and dancing with the milkmaids

Though Krishna is often seen playing his flute and does so alluringly when the cowherd women are first drawn to him in the nighttime forest, he is usually not depicted playing it when he dances in the center of the rasamandala. Here, though, he is—or was, because his flute, which was presumably of silver or gold, is missing. However, he is not the usual Krishna of the rasamandala but a crowned, multiarmed Krishna as supreme deity.

Behind Krishna is a star hexagram, an ancient Indian mystical diagram associated with Krishna and with the unification of seeming opposites such as the divine and the earthly.

The arrangement of the dancers in the circle would at first glance seem to be radial, with all feet oriented inward, but the artist has reversed the dancers in the lower half to keep them upright. Thus, the pairs of dancers at the transition points find themselves dancing with partners who are upside down.