Krishna

KRISHNA. - Before being identified with the god Vishnu and raised to the honors of worship, K. was a valiant prince of the lineage of the Vishnis, who, having taken from Kamsa, tyrant of Mathura, both kingdom and life, became the leader and national hero of the Yadavas. On his father's side, he was a cousin of the Pandavas, with whom he is found allied in the great battle described in the Mahabharata, which ends with the defeat of the Kauravas.

But K. does not always cut a fine figure in the epic poem. A hero in the hour of battle, he is not overly scrupulous in his choice of means when it comes to achieving success. It is he who induces Arjuna to signal to Bhima to break Duryodhana's thighs with the mace-blow forbidden to duellists by the rules of chivalry, and his conduct is not always worthy of the god made man, who in the Bhagavadgita (v.) imparts such lofty teachings to Arjuna. For the complex figure of the god, derived from the fusion of various deities, v. HINDUISM. Here mention is made only of the constituent elements of the legend of K., in the form in which it was handed down by the Harivamsha or "Genealogy of Hari (Vishnu)," an appendix to the Mahabharata, no older than the 3rd century A.D.

The prophet Narada had foretold to Kamsa, king of Mathura, that he would be killed by the eighth son of his cousin Devaki, wife of Vasudeva. The cruel tyrant had therefore had the first six sons of Devaki put to death, and only by a miracle had the seventh escaped death. Vasudeva then decided to save the eighth by a ruse, and when he was born, he substituted for him the daughter of the herdsman Nanda, who had been born on the same day. K., incarnation (avatara) of the god Vishnu, was raised among the herdsmen as the son of Nanda, and gave proof of miraculous strength while still an infant, overturning with a kick a large cart under which he had been put to sleep. At the age of seven, he sustained a victorious struggle with the king of the serpents, and killed a feared demon. His youth passed amid games and dances, not without love affairs with the shepherdesses (gopi) of Vrindavana, until, having returned to Mathura at Kamsa's invitation, he killed the hated tyrant with his own hand.

The pastoral life of K. is absolutely ignored by the Mahabharata and therefore belongs to a later legendary biography. Bhandarkar connects it with the appearance of the Abhiras, nomadic herdsmen who, in the first centuries of the common era, occupied Rajputana, carrying with them "probably" the cult of the child god, of Christian derivation. But this hypothesis is not supported by proofs, and such cannot be considered external resemblances like the infancy in humble station, the putative father and the slaughter of the innocent sons of Devaki. The infantile exploits of K.-Vishnu are moreover more fitting to a child Hercules than to the child Jesus; the legend of the Harivamsha must therefore be considered indigenous. On the other hand, the Christian derivations in Book V of the Vishnupurana are evident, although it is not possible to fix their date because of the uncertainty regarding the age and formation of the Purana (v.). It is not known when Mathura began to be considered the Indian Bethlehem, but the feast of the nativity of K. (Krishnajanmashtami), on the 8th day of the dark fortnight of the month of Bhadrapada, dates at least from the 13th century, and is a probable imitation of the Christian Christmas.

Ferdinando Belloni Filippi