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I am happy to say that this is the first book written on the subject of Vatapatrashayi. The interlude between the Dissolution and the Recreation of the Universe is a silent moment when the whole cosmos is at rest. It is the moment before the 'big bang' or the start of 'time'. Lord Vishnu sleeps like a spider that has drawn the thread back into itself. In the form of a child, he rests on a leaf floating in the ocean after completing the miraculous act of swallowing the Universe for its safe keeping. Only sage Markandeya, who has the boon of immortality, lives roaming endlessly in the universe inside the body of Vishnu. There have been some articles written on this theme of the Divine Child reclining on the banyan leaf. An important article on the myth was written by Adalbert J Gail, "Krsna on the banyan leaf (vatapatra-sayana)" in 2014, in Pandanus 14, Nature in Literature, Art, Myth and Ritual, Vol. 8.i. I have published three articles on the subject: (1) "The Lord on the Leaf", in the Felictation Volume to Prof. B. N. Goswamy, in 2014; (2) "Vatapatrasayi: Lord of the Banyan Leaf in Temple Sculpture" in Prasadanidhi, Papers Presented to Professor M.A. Dhaky, in 2016; and (3) "Sage Markandeya and the Divine Child in the 17th century Illustrated Manuscripts" in the Research Journal of the Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Vastu Sangrahalaya (CSMVS), No. 2, 2017. The leitmotif of this book of Bala-Mukunda or Krishna as a child, lying on a banyan leaf, leads me to happy memories. Even as a child I used to be guided by my parents to recite the well known stuti: kararavindena padaravindam mukharavinde.. .. .. .. .., for my morning prayers. In the thirties, my uncle Dharamdas Kothari commissioned at Nathdvara a painting of the child Krishna reclining on a banyan leaf and the sage Markandeya praying to the divinity (Fig. IV.18). The painting used to hang on the wall of our Worli house in Mumbai. My sister Malti liked it and later took it to her room. I used to admire this painting. After Malti's death in 1985, I brought it to my home and since then seeing it daily. It has inspired me to work on this subject of Vatapatrashayi. I have collected material on it since some years. Now it has taken the form of this monograph. It is befitting that I dedicate this monograph with deep affection to the memory of my uncle, Dharamdas Kothari, and of my sister, Malti Kothari.