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This is the fourth of a series of short articles on various deities. As I am not a Hindu myself, I would appreciate any feedback from Hindus.

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Krishna, avatar of Vishnu

Vishnu, an aspect of the Hindu Trimurti, could not intervene directly in the affairs of the world. Instead, he incarnated as a number of avatars. Many Hindus concur in the opinion that there are a total of ten avatars and that Krishna was the eighth. All of the avatars were considered divine in their own right, since they possessed all of the attributes of Vishnu and even identified themselves with him. Some Hindu sects revere only Krishna.

Krishna and the tyranny of Kamsa

Kamsa was the ruler of Mathura, the kingdom into which Krishna was born at the end of the ‘third age’. He was the brother of Devaki, Krishna’s mother. An oracle revealed that a nephew would kill Kamsa, prompting the tyrant to imprison his sister and kill all of her children. Two escaped: Balarama and Krishna, who was substituted for the daughter of Nanda and Yasoda, who was born at the same moment as the god.

However, Krishna’s supreme strength and intelligence could not remain hidden for long and when word came to Kamsa he was suspicious. He ordered all unusual children to be killed so Nanda took the two survivors to Gokula, where they stayed for seven years.

Krishna, a merciless warrior, continued his exploits in his new territory. He killed the monster Baku, who had taken the form of a crane and banished Kaliya, king of the serpents, who had poisoned the river Yamuna. Finally, he killed Kamsa and became master of Mathura, although he left to form the mythical city of Dvaraka. Although he lived a life of luxury with his sixteen thousand wives (including Rukmini-Lakshmi, daughter of the king of the Vidarbha), peace was not to be found there. He fought demons, duelled with King Gisupala, his cousin and fought in the legendary war of the Bharata (the central subject of the Mahabharata).

The war of the Bharata

The Pandavas and Kauravas were engaged in battle and the former had come up against a seemingly invincible captain. Krishna led the Pandavas to victory with a cunning trick. He named a dead elephant Asvatthaman, the name borne by the captain’s son. Without a lie, Krishna revealed the news of the death of Asvatthaman, shattering the captain’s composure.

Krishna was the hero Arjuna’s(or Arjun’s) charioteer, counselor and supporter. When Arjuna’s resolve had wavered, he confronted the enemy himself, motivating Arjuna to fight again. When Asvatthaman released the ultimate weapon, a dart activated by blowing on it and reciting a mantra, Krishna told Arjuna to ‘throw the weapon to disarm weapons’. Two rsi appeared and commanded the two fighters to recall the darts. Only the pure Arjuna obeyed while Asvatthaman turned the weapon against the unborn children. One baby survived but was later killed at birth by the dart. However, Krishna revived the infant, saving the Pandavas and sending the Kauravas into solitude for three thousand years.

The death of Krishna

Krishna’s clan, the Yadavas, quarreled and everyone perished in the ensuing battle, Krishna sustaining a fatal arrow wound to his vulnerable ankle. He withdrew to the forest to die, returning to his divine abode.

The songs of the sheperdesses

Both the shepherds and shepherdesses celebrated Krishna, ‘the black one’, who was often depicted as a shepherd himself, playing a flute and dancing (below left). His flute cast a spell over women, animals and nature and Krishna, who was an amorous deity, took full advantage. On one occasion he hid the clothes of the bathing shepherdesses so that they would have to approach him in their nakedness. He married a thousand of the women but his favourite was Radha (she who pleases). The songs of the shepherdesses are featured in the songs of Gitagovinda, known as the ’song of songs of India’.

Krishna incurred the wrath of Indra when he told the shepherds to offer sacrifice to the forest and mountain deities rather than the king of the gods. Indra unleashed a fearful storm but when Krishna raised mount Govardhana aloft as a defense, Indra recognised the god Vishnu.

This is just a brief introduction to the attributes and stories of Krishna and I may add more detail at a later stage.

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Do you have any personal experience of or interest in Krishna or Hinduism that you would like to share? If so, please leave a comment below.

References/Sources used (please use my bookstore if you want to order the books):

Comte, F. (1991) ‘The Wordsworth Dictionary of Mythology’, Wordsworth, Kent

Image attributions

Krishna statue image licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-Sharealike 3.0 Unported license by Sujit Kumar
Krishna painting image in public domain

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Now on radio!

Finally, I am now on radio, once a month, here in the UK. The radio station is ‘Magic 999′,part of the ‘Rock FM’ group and I take calls for about 40 minutes from 0830 on Jude’s Breakfast Show. The show broadcasts to Lancashire but non-Lancastrians can listen online on www.magic999.co.uk. My next show is likely to be in June 2010.

Coming next: The Hindu Deities: Rudra