© Richard Randall

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Sundries

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The incarnation

These texts explain the reason for the incarnation. In the words of the Mahabharata (Adi Parva, Adivansavatarana section):

The Asuras...began to be born in kingly lines...repeatedly defeated in war by Devas...and deprived also of sovereignty and heaven, they began to be incarnated on the earth...by their strength they began to oppress...all creatures...Terrifying and killing all creatures, they traversed the earth in bands of hundreds and thousands. Devoid of truth and virtue,proud of their strength, and intoxicated with (the wine of) insolence, they even insulted the great Rishis ... And then the earth, oppressed with weight and afflicted with fear, sought the protection of Brahma...He then commanded all the gods saying - To ease the Earth of her burden, go ye and have your births in her according to your respective parts and seek ye strife (with the Asuras already born there)...And all the gods with Indra, on hearing these words accepted them. And they all having resolved to come down on earth in their respected parts, then went to Narayana(Vishnu), the slayer of all foes, at Vaikunth...,the sovereign of all the gods... Him, Indra the most exalted of persons, addressed, saying - Be incarnate. And Hari(Vishnu) replied - Let it be.

The Puranas give a similar account.

Birth and childhood

Krishna was of the royal family of Mathura, and was the eighth son born to the princess Devaki, and her husband Vasudeva, a noble of the court.

Mathura was the capital of the closely linked clans of Vrishni, Andhaka and Bhoja. They are generally known as Yadavas after their eponymous ancestor Yadu, and sometimes as Surasenas after another famed ancestor.Vasudeva and Devaki belonged to these clans. The king Kamsa, Devaki's brother, had ascended the throne imprisoning his father, the King Ugrasena. Afraid of a prophecy that predicted his death at the hands of Devaki's eighth son, he had the couple cast into prison where he killed all of devaki's children at birth and it is here that Krishna was born.The place of his birth is now known as Krishnajanmabhoomi, where a temple is raised in his honour. As his life was in danger he was smuggled out to be raised by his foster parents Yashoda and Nanda in Gokula. Two of his siblings also survived, Balarama (Devaki's seventh child, in some versions of the tale either born prematurely or transferred to the womb of Rohini, Vasudeva's first wife) and Subhadra (daughter of Vasudeva and Rohini born much later than Balarama and Krishna).

Boyhood and youth

Nanda was the head of a community of cow-herders and moved to Vrindavana. The stories of his childhood and youth here include that of his life with, and his protection of, the local people. Kamsa learnt about the child's escape and kept sending various demons to put an end to him. All of these failed. Some of the most popular exploits of Krishna centre around these adventures and his play with the gopis of the village, including Radha, which later became known as the Rasa lila.

Krishna the prince

Krishna as a young man returned to Mathura, overthrew his uncle Kamsa, and installed Ugrasena, Kamsa's father who had been imprisoned by Kamsa, as the king of the Yadavas. He himself became a leading prince at the court. In this period he became a friend of Arjuna and the other Pandava princes of the Kuru kingdom, who were his cousins, on the other side of the Yamuna. Later, he takes his Yadava subjects to Dwaraka (in modern Gujarat). He married Rukmini, daughter of King Bhishmaka of Vidarbha. He also had seven other wives including Satyabhama and Jambavati.

The Kurukshetra war

Krishna was cousin to both sides in the war between the Pandavas and Kauravas. He asked the sides to choose between his army and himself. The Kauravas picked the army and he sided with the Pandavas. He agreed to be the charioteer for Arjuna in the great battle. The Bhagavad Gita is the advice given to Arjuna by Krishna before the start of the battle.

Later life

Following the war Krishna dwelt at Dwaraka for 36 years. Then at a festival, a fight broke out between the Yadavas who exterminated each other. The clan now mostly destroyed, his elder brother Balarama too gave up his body using Yoga. Krishna retired into the forest and sat under a tree in meditation. A hunter mistook his partly visible foot for a deer and shot an arrow wounding him mortally. The Mahabharata (Mausala Parva) says: (The hunter) ...Regarding himself an offender, and filled with fear, he touched the feet of Keshava. The high-souled one comforted him and then ascended upwards, filling the entire sky with splendour. ...the illustrious Narayana of fierce energy, the Creator and Destroyer of all, that preceptor of Yoga, filling Heaven with his splendour, reached his own inconceivable region.

The worship of Krishna

Early references

The first possible recorded instance of a Krishna who may be identified with the deity can be found in the Chandogya Upanishad (circa 900 BCE). The teacher Ghora Angirasa discusses the nature of soul with Krishna, the son of Devaki. However, this teacher is never mentioned in connection with Krishna in later works nor does any ancient or medieval author quote this instance of Krishna, the deity. The exact words that Ghora speaks are treated by some as praise of Krishna and most others as a praise of the Atman, whose knowledge being imparted to Krishna. The doctrine taught by Ghora matches with the Bhagavad gita and the name of the mother is same as in later Krishna traditions.

Panini, circa 5th century BCE, in his Ashtadhyayi explains the word "Vāsudevaka" as a Bhakta (devotee) of Vāsudeva. This, along with the mention of Arjuna in the same context, indicates that the Vāsudeva here is Krishna.

In the 4th century BCE, Megasthenes the Greek ambassador to the court of Chandragupta Maurya says that the Sourasenoi (Surasenas), who lived in the region of Mathura worshipped Herakles. This Herakles is usually identified with Krishna due to the regions mentioned by Megasthenes as well as similarities between some of the herioc acts of the two. Megasthenes also mentions that his daughter Pandaia to have ruled in south India. The south indeed had the kingdom of the Pandyas with the capital at Madhura (Madurai), the name similar to if not same as Krishna's Mathura.

In 180-165 BC, the Greek ruler Agathocles issued coins with images of Vasudeva holding a chakra.

At Ghosundi near Udaipur, engraved about 150 B. C, is an inscription of a certain Bhagavata named Gajayana, son of Para-sari, stating that he erected in the Narayana-vata, or park of Narayana, a stone chapel for the worship of the Sankarshana and Vasudeva.

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