Benne Krishna (Butter Krishna)

Early Indian classical texts conceive three basic iconographic forms or the rupas of Krishna. They are his Aradhya-rupa, that is, his votive image, his Vishwa-rupa, or his cosmic vision, and his Soumya-rupa or Lalita-rupa, the form that drags one with its moon-like placid beauty.

Krishna as a child (Balakrishna) is elucidated aesthetically in sculptures and paintinga. Krishna alone, among the avataras of Vishnu, is worshipped as a child, youth etc., forms that fit for exhibiting the various kinds of bhakti, for instance that of a mother to her child, that of a wife for husband and that of a friend for a friend. As a baby, Krishna is represented as crawling, sometimes with a ball of butter in his hand.