Painting, in opaque watercolour on paper, depicting the episode in Hindu myth in which the god Vishnu has come to earth in his second incarnation (avatar) as a tortoise (kurma) in order to help recover the precious objects which were lost during one of the periodic destructions of the world. One of these objects was amrita, the cream of the milky ocean, and this scene shows gods and demons working together to churn the milky ocean in order to produce amrita, using Mount Mandara as a churning stick. Vishnu/Kurma has offered his back as the pivot on which to rest it. The four-armed Vishnu sits on a lotus throne on top of the mountain, and the mounts of the other gods are visible in the upper part of the painting.