Kṛṣṇa

Kṛṣṇa is also called Vāsudeva, Govinda, Keśava, Hari and Dāmodara. The Varāha Purāṇa counts him as the eighth of the Daśāvatāra, the ten avatāras (descents) of Bhagavān Viṣṇu. He was born in Dvāpara Yuga as the eighth child of Devakī and Vasudeva, and he lived on earth for 125 years, according to the Brahma Vaivarta Purāṇa. The Mahābhārata, the Hari Vamśa and several Purāṇas tell of his birth, his childhood among the cowherds, his life in Dvārakā, his part in the Kurukṣetra war and his return to his own abode.

The texts also describe Kṛṣṇa as the Parabrahman, the one supreme reality. The Brahma Vaivarta Purāṇa says that all the other devas and all of creation come from him, and that he lives in Goloka. The sections below follow the texts one by one.

Kṛṣṇa as Parabrahman in the Brahma Vaivarta Purāṇa

The Brahma Khaṇḍa of the Brahma Vaivarta Purāṇa gives the highest view of Kṛṣṇa. He is the Parabrahman, the one supreme reality from whom all other devas and all creation come. This is not the Kṛṣṇa of one avatāra (a descent into the human world). It is the eternal Kṛṣṇa who lives in Goloka and is the source of all being.

Kṛṣṇa’s form in Goloka

The Brahma Vaivarta Mahā Purāṇa, Brahma Khaṇḍa, describes his eternal form like this:

• Blue like a new rain-cloud (nūtana-megha-śyāma)
• Eyes like red lotuses
• Face like the full moon of autumn (śarat-pūrṇimā)
• The beauty of ten million Manmathas (koṭi-manmatha-saundarya)
• A flute (muralī) in one hand
• A gentle smile
• Yellow garments (pītāmbara)
• A peacock feather on the head
• The Śrīvatsa mark and the Kaustubha jewel on the chest
• Sandal paste (śrīcandana) over the whole body
• In the kiśora stage of life (youth)
• Seated on a jewelled throne (ratna-siṃhāsana) in the Rāsamaṇḍala of eternal Vṛndāvana

Creation from Kṛṣṇa’s body

At the beginning of creation (sṛṣṭi), all the chief devas came out of parts of Kṛṣṇa’s divine body:

• Nārāyaṇa from his right side
• Mahādeva from his left side
• Brahmā from his navel-lotus
• Dharma from his chest
• Sarasvatī from his mouth
• Mahālakṣmī from his mind (manas)
• Durgā, who is Prakṛti, from his buddhi (intellect)

Each of them sang a stotra (hymn of praise) to Kṛṣṇa and took a seat at his command. So Kṛṣṇa is the one source of all divine beings.

Stotras to Kṛṣṇa

In the Brahma Khaṇḍa the greatest beings praise Kṛṣṇa at the dawn of creation. Each stotra shows a different side of him:

• Nārāyaṇa called him kāraṇānāṃ kāraṇam (the cause of all causes).
• Śiva called him aparājita (the unconquered).
• Brahmā called him rāseśvara (master of the Rāsa).
• Dharma praised him with twenty-four sacred names.

Goloka and the order of the worlds

Kṛṣṇa’s abode Goloka is three crore yojanas wide. It lies above all other worlds, including Vaikuṇṭha and Śivaloka. Even the best of yogis see Goloka only in their dreams, through the eye of jñāna (knowledge). But devotees of Bhagavān Viṣṇu who worship him with no other aim, and reach him through pure devotion, see it clearly.

Kṛṣṇa’s cosmic scope

Nārāyaṇa Muni’s teaching in Chapter 30 says that each hair-pore of Kṛṣṇa holds whole universes. The primordial tortoise Ādikūrma is only a tiny part (aṃśa) of Kṛṣṇa. Prakṛti is Kṛṣṇa’s own śakti (power), as heat is to fire. Rādhā is his most beloved (priyatamā) Prakṛti.

Kṛṣṇa in the Varāha Purāṇa

Kṛṣṇa and his brother Balarāma appear in the Varāha Purāṇa mainly in connection with the Āṣāḍha Dvādaśī vrata (a vow kept on the twelfth day of the bright fortnight of Āṣāḍha). The Purāṇa presents Kṛṣṇa’s birth as arising directly from the keeping of this vrata by Vasudeva and Devakī.

The purpose of the Kṛṣṇa avatāra (Chapter 46)

Nārada told Vasudeva what had happened. Bhūdevī (the Earth) came before the assembly of the devas and said:

“I cannot bear this burden. Śaumbha, Kaṃsa, Jarāsandha, Naraka, the Kurus, the Pāñcālas, the Bhojas, and other powerful dānavas all together are tormenting me. Destroy them.”

The devas meditated on Nārāyaṇa. He appeared at once and said:

“I will go to the mortal world like a man and accomplish this task myself.”

“A mortal woman who keeps the fast with her husband on Āṣāḍha Śukla Dvādaśī: in her womb I will be born.”

Nārada told this to Vasudeva. He taught Vasudeva and Devakī the Vāsudeva Dvādaśī vrata.

The Vāsudeva Dvādaśī in the month of Āṣāḍha (Chapter 46)

The archanā (worship) uses these mantras, each said for a part of the body, and the text speaks of four vyūhas:

Vāsudevāya namaḥ

For the feet.

Saṃkarṣaṇāya namaḥ

For the waist.

Pradyumnāya namaḥ

For the belly.

Aniruddhāya namaḥ

For the chest.

Cakrapāṇaye namaḥ

For the arms.

Bhūpataye namaḥ

For the throat.

Puruṣāya namaḥ

For the head.

The image used is a gold image of Vāsudeva in his four vyūha forms. It is placed in a kumbha (water pot) and given as a gift to a worthy brāhmaṇa.

Vasudeva and Devakī had no children. They kept this vrata on Nārada’s instruction. Their son Kṛṣṇa was born, and this is the origin of the Kṛṣṇa avatāra.

The fruit (phala) of the vrata is:

• Wealth, and sons with grandchildren
• Supreme knowledge
• After death, the highest path (parama-gati)

Kṛṣṇa in the Daśāvatāra Stotra (Chapter 15)

Gauramukha praises Bhagavān Viṣṇu:

“He gave freedom from fear (abhaya) to the devas who were frightened of Cāṇūra and Kaṃsa. In each yuga he became Vāsudeva. He takes wondrous forms in each kalpa. May he protect us!”

The Kṛtayuga king Prajāpāla (Chapter 36)

King Prajāpāla, the king of Kṛtayuga and a reborn gem-warrior, finally worshipped Govinda, a name of Kṛṣṇa, at Vṛndāvana and merged into him.

The dying king’s stotra to Govinda:

“Salutation to the Deva who is the form of all worlds and goes beyond them, to the Gopendra, to the Aprameya, who crosses the ocean of saṃsāra.”

“The devas fear the asuras and take refuge in you. O Mahātman! O Janārdana! You are ready to fight their diseases and afflictions. O Gopendra, salutation to the one who is all in all.”

“Among those who know all, you are the greatest. O Deva-deva, this universe is filled with you. O Gopendra, who bears the cakra, protect me, who am falling into saṃsāra.”

“You are the highest Puruṣa, the greatest among devas. You are a moon-like Puruṣa. Agni is your mouth. You are Acyuta. You are of auspicious nature. O Gopendra, protect me, who am tossed in saṃsāra.”

Worship for sons (Chapter 48)

“For the wise who seek sons: worship Balarāma and Kṛṣṇa.”

The cause of the descent and the birth in the Brahma Vaivarta Purāṇa

The Śrī Kṛṣṇa Janana Khaṇḍa of the Brahma Vaivarta Purāṇa tells of the plan for Kṛṣṇa’s descent and the events of his childhood in great detail. It shows each event as the working of Bhagavān Kṛṣṇa’s supreme will and kindness.

The cause of the descent (Chapter 4)

Bhūdevī could not bear the weight of wicked kings and their armies. She came before the assembled devas and appealed to Brahmā. Brahmā led all the devas to Bhagavān Viṣṇu, who resolved to descend to earth and lift the burden. The text teaches that this descent was not forced by karma. It was an act of pure will. The Parabrahman who fills all things chose to appear in the form of Devakī’s son in the age of Dvāpara.

The birth in prison (Chapter 7)

At midnight on Śrāvaṇa Kṛṣṇa Aṣṭamī, in the prison of Mathurā, Bhagavān Kṛṣṇa was born. Kaṃsa had shut Devakī and Vasudeva in this prison. Kṛṣṇa came in his four-armed divine form. He held the śaṅkha (conch), cakra (discus), gadā (mace) and padma (lotus). He wore the Śrīvatsa mark and the Kaustubha jewel, and he shone like a million suns. Devakī and Vasudeva saw him and praised him with devotion.

At Kṛṣṇa’s word, Vasudeva took the infant and carried him through the rainy night toward Gokula. The prison doors opened by themselves. The guards fell into deep sleep. Ādiśeṣa spread his thousand hoods over the infant like an umbrella. The Yamunā was in monsoon flood, but it parted at the touch of Kṛṣṇa’s feet and made a way.

Vasudeva reached Nanda’s house in Gokula. Yaśodā had just given birth to a daughter, Yogamāyā. Vasudeva laid the infant beside Yaśodā and went back to the prison with the girl. When Kaṃsa seized the girl to dash her against the stone, she rose into the sky in her divine form and said: “O Kaṃsa! He who will destroy you has already been born.”

Childhood in Gokula and Vṛndāvana (Chapters 10–21)

Kṛṣṇa’s early childhood in Gokula and Vṛndāvana was marked by the liberation of many asuras whom Kaṃsa sent:

• Pūtanā, the poison-nurse
• Tṛṇāvarta, the whirlwind asura
• Śakaṭāsura, the cart asura
• Nalakūbara and Maṇigrīva, sons of Kubera whom Nārada had cursed. They were freed when the two arjuna trees fell.

Each liberation followed the same pattern. The asura attacked with ill will. Kṛṣṇa answered with a touch or a glance. The karma that had gathered in the asura was dissolved, and the freed ātmā rose to Goloka. Even Pūtanā, who came to kill, was freed as a foster-mother, because Kṛṣṇa took her milk.

After Gokula, the whole community moved to Vṛndāvana. Viśvakarma built this city overnight at Kṛṣṇa’s will. There Kṛṣṇa’s childhood went on with the subduing of Kāliya (Kāliya damana), the bewildering of Brahmā (Brahmā mohana) and the lifting of Govardhana (Govardhana dhāraṇa).

The marriage of Rādhā and Kṛṣṇa (Chapter 15)

This Khaṇḍa teaches one special thing. Brahmā himself performed the vivāha (wedding) of Rādhā and Kṛṣṇa in the divine Vṛndāvana. This set up the eternal bond between the two as the basic relationship of all creation.

The whole life of Kṛṣṇa: Śrī Kṛṣṇa Janana Khaṇḍa, Chapter 54

Chapter 54 of the Śrī Kṛṣṇa Janana Khaṇḍa gives a full summary of Kṛṣṇa’s 125 years on earth. Nārāyaṇa Muni tells it in answer to Nārada’s question about what happened after the Rāsa Līlā in Vṛndāvana.

Leaving Gokula, and the events in Mathurā

Kaṃsa arranged a Dhanuryajña (a bow-yajña festival) as a pretext to draw Kṛṣṇa into the city. He sent Akrūra, a great devotee who was very dear to Kṛṣṇa, to bring Kṛṣṇa and Balarāma from Nanda’s village (Repalle or Gokula) to Mathurā.

In Mathurā, Kṛṣṇa did these things one after another:

• He killed the champion wrestlers Cāṇūra and Muṣṭika.
• He killed the great war-elephant Kuvalayāpīḍa at the gate of the arena.
• He killed King Kaṃsa himself.
• He freed his parents Devakī and Vasudeva from their long imprisonment.
• He put Ugrasena back on his rightful throne.
• He freed Kubja, the hunchbacked woman who had offered him fragrances. Through her he took away her deformity and gave her Goloka.
• He gave mokṣa (liberation) to the mālakāra (flower-garland maker), who had always offered him garlands.

Consoling the gopīs: Uddhava’s mission

Kṛṣṇa sent his dear companion Uddhava to Repalle, Nanda’s home. The gopīs (cowherd women) were in unbearable pain at being parted from Kṛṣṇa. Uddhava carried Kṛṣṇa’s message. He gave the gopīs a jñāna-upadeśa (teaching of knowledge) on Kṛṣṇa’s presence everywhere: the one they loved was never truly absent.

Education and early victories

Kṛṣṇa had his upanayana (sacred thread ceremony) under Garga Muni. Then he travelled to the city of Avantī. There he learned all branches of knowledge and the arts under the great teacher Sāndīpani Muni, at his āśrama (hermitage).

After his schooling he did these things:

• He defeated Jarāsandha, the powerful king of Magadha, who was the father-in-law of Kaṃsa’s wives.
• He killed Kālayavana, a foreign king who besieged Mathurā.
• He crowned Ugrasena as the rightful king of Mathurā with proper rites.

Dvārakā, the city in the ocean

Kṛṣṇa went to the western sea coast. He had Viśvakarma build the great city of Dvārakā. It was an island fortress in the western ocean, built on reclaimed land. It became the new capital of the Yādava people.

The principal queens and further marriages

Kṛṣṇa defeated the kings who guarded Rukmiṇī and carried her away from Vidarbha. She herself had sent word that she wanted no other husband. She became his chief queen.

Afterwards he married seven more queens: Kālindī, Lakṣaṇā, Śaibyā (Bhadradevī), Satyabhāmā, Jāmbavatī, Mitravindā and Nāgnajiti. These seven together with Rukmiṇī were the eight principal queens (aṣṭa-mahiṣī).

Kṛṣṇa killed Narakāsura, the asura king of Prāgjyotiṣapura, who had imprisoned sixteen thousand women. Kṛṣṇa freed all sixteen thousand captive princesses and married them according to dharma. He took on himself the duty of protecting them.

Defeating Indra: the Pārijāta tree

Satyabhāmā asked for the Pārijāta tree. Kṛṣṇa flew to svarga, Indra’s realm, and defeated Indra in battle without effort. He brought back the divine Pārijāta tree and planted it in the garden of Satyabhāmā’s palace.

Defeating Śaṅkara: the thousand arms of Bāṇāsura

Śaṅkara was protecting Bāṇāsura as his devotee. To protect his own devotee, Kṛṣṇa fought even Śaṅkara and defeated him. He cut off the one thousand arms of Bāṇāsura, leaving him two. He freed his grandson Aniruddha, the son of Pradyumna, whom Bāṇa had imprisoned. Then he returned to Dvārakā with Aniruddha and Uṣā.

Reunion with Rādhā

Kṛṣṇa went on a pilgrimage while Vasudeva was in yogic meditation. On it he had the darśana (sight) of Rādhādevī, his prāṇādhiṣṭhāna-devatā, the devī who presides over his very life-force. One hundred full years had passed on earth, and the time set by Sudāmā’s śāpa on Rādhā was over. Kṛṣṇa came and took Rādhā back to dear Vṛndāvana for their reunion.

The last Rāsa Līlā. Kṛṣṇa and Rādhā spent fourteen more years in Vṛndāvana. They performed the Rāsa Līlā again and again in the sacred Rāsa Maṇḍala.

Return to Nanda’s home. After Vṛndāvana, Kṛṣṇa went back to Nanda’s home and spent eleven more years there.

How long the avatāra lasted

• In Mathurā and Dvārakā: 100 full years
• The last Rāsa Līlā in Vṛndāvana: 14 years
• At Nanda’s home: 11 years
• Total: 125 years on earth. He looked eternally ancient and eternally young.

Liberation of his earthly parents and return to Goloka

Before he left, Kṛṣṇa gave sāmīpya-mokṣa to four people. This is the liberation of eternal closeness, living near Kṛṣṇa in Goloka. They were:

• Yaśodā and Nanda, his dear foster parents
• Vṛṣabhānu and Kālavatī, Rādhā’s parents

He had taken the burden (bhāra) of adharma off the earth through the Mahābhārata war and his many divine acts. Then Kṛṣṇa returned to Goloka.

The eternal descent

Nārāyaṇa ends with a supreme teaching. Rādhādevī and Kṛṣṇa come down in every yuga, together. They come to set up again the dharma-setu (the bridge of dharma that the Vedas describe) and to guard all living beings (jīva-koṭi) from the fall into adharma. This is not one event of one Kali Yuga. It is the eternal pattern of the divine couple’s love for all creation.

“From Brahmā down to a blade of grass, everything in this creation is perishable. Therefore worship the Paramānanda-dāta, Ānandamaya, Ānandanandana, the divine couple Rādhā-Kṛṣṇa. That Parabrahman takes forms by his own will (svecchā). He is the Antarātmā (inner Self) of all beings. He is the master of all. He is beyond Prakṛti. He is avyaya (unchanging). He is eternal (nitya), independent (svatantra), all-powerful (sarveśvara). He is above the three guṇas. Worship that Ānanda-svarūpa, Śrī Kṛṣṇa!”

Kṛṣṇa in the Bhāgavata Mahā Purāṇa, Tenth Skanda

The Tenth Skanda of the Bhāgavata Mahā Purāṇa (Chapters 1–24) tells of the childhood of Bhagavān Kṛṣṇa, from before his birth to the start of the Govardhana Pūjā. The Bhāgavata draws out the meaning of each episode. Each is a divine deed, and each also shows the nature of the Parabrahman in relation to māyā, how bhakti (devotion) works, and how ātmās are freed by Bhagavān Kṛṣṇa’s touch.

Birth and the history of three births (Chapters 2–3)

Before Kṛṣṇa’s birth the devas entered Devakī’s womb and offered the Garbha Stotra. This hymn says that Bhagavān Kṛṣṇa is untouched by the three states of waking, dream and deep sleep. It says he is beyond the saṃsāra-vṛkṣa (the tree of worldly life) and all the bonds of karma. The stotra was offered to the unborn child.

At birth Bhagavān Kṛṣṇa appeared in his four-armed Viṣṇu form and told the story of his earlier births himself:

• In the first age he was born from Pṛśni’s womb as Pṛśnigarbha. His parents then were the ṛṣi couple Sutapas and Pṛśni, who did tapas (austerity) for twelve thousand years.
• In the second age he was born from Aditi’s womb as Vāmana. Kaśyapa and Aditi were the second birth of the same couple.
• Now, in Dvāpara, he is born from Devakī’s womb as Kṛṣṇa.

Childhood in Gokula and Vṛndāvana (Chapters 1–24)

The Bhāgavata tells these main events of Kṛṣṇa’s childhood in its first 24 chapters:

• Pūtanā Vadha (Chapter 6). The asurī is killed and given liberation as a mother. The gopīs perform protection rites (rakṣā). The text reflects that Pūtanā’s liberation shows Bhagavān Kṛṣṇa’s grace more than any formal devotion.
• Śakaṭāsura and Tṛṇāvarta (Chapter 7). The cart asura is killed, and then the whirlwind asura. A whole universe appears in the infant’s open mouth. Yaśodā sees all fourteen worlds in Kṛṣṇa’s yawn.
• Garga’s Nāmakaraṇa (Chapter 8). Garga Muni holds a secret naming ceremony at night in the cow-shed (gośālā). The names Saṃkarṣaṇa, Rāma and Bala are given to Balarāma, and the name Kṛṣṇa to Devakī’s son. Garga keeps Kṛṣṇa’s full divine identity hidden on purpose. A second universe appears in his mouth. The fruit-seller episode also happens here.
• Dāmodara Līlā (Chapter 9). Yaśodā churns butter. Kṛṣṇa steals it, is chased and caught. Yaśodā tries to bind the infinite Bhagavān Kṛṣṇa to a heavy mortar with a rope, and the rope is short again and again by two finger-widths. The meaning given is that Bhagavān Kṛṣṇa cannot be bound by jñāna, yoga or tapas. He is bound only by love (bhakti).
• Liberation of Nalakūbara and Maṇigrīva (Chapter 10). The mortar uproots the twin arjuna trees. The two sons of Kubera appear in their divine forms.
• Move to Vṛndāvana (Chapter 11). Upānanda gives his advice. Vatsāsura is killed. Bakāsura is killed. The fruit-seller appears.
• Aghāsura Vadha (Chapter 12). The giant serpent asura. Kṛṣṇa grows inside the serpent and kills him. The asura is freed.
• Brahmā Vimohana Līlā (Chapters 13–14). Brahmā steals the gopāla boys and calves. Kṛṣṇa becomes all of them. Brahmā sees every boy as a four-armed Viṣṇu. Brahmā then sings a great stotra praising the gopāla-bāla form: the child with a dark body, yellow garments, peacock feather, flute, lunch-basket and stick. Brahmā calls him the Parabrahman, who cannot be described in the language of the Veda and is reached only by pure devotion.
• Dhenukāsura Vadha (Chapter 15). Balarāma kills the donkey asura in the tāla forest.
• Kāliya Mardana (Chapter 16). The serpent king lives in the Yamunā pool. Kṛṣṇa dances on his hoods. The wives of the nāga sing a stotra. Kāliya is sent to Ramaṇaka Dvīpa. The Yamunā is made pure.
• Two forest fires (Chapters 17 and 19). Kṛṣṇa swallows both and protects the gopas.
• Pralambāsura Vadha (Chapter 18). The asura hides among the gopāla boys. Balarāma kills him.
• Seasons and the Veṇu Gīta (Chapters 20–21). The beauty of the monsoon and autumn is the setting for Kṛṣṇa’s play. The gopikās describe the music of his flute as an event never seen before in the cosmos.
• Gopikā Vastrāpaharaṇa (Chapter 22). The gopikās keep the Kātyāyanī Vrata. Kṛṣṇa takes their garments and makes them come to him with folded hands. He promises them the autumn nights (śāradīya rātri).
• Yajñapatnī Uddhāra (Chapter 23). The brāhmaṇas refuse food. Their wives bring it. One wife is liberated. The brāhmaṇas repent.
• Govardhana Pūjā (Chapter 24). Kṛṣṇa argues about karma and svabhāva (nature) against the worship of Indra. He sets up the Govardhana Pūjā. He takes the form of Govardhana.

Main themes of the Tenth Skanda

The Dāmodara Līlā teaches that Bhagavān Kṛṣṇa, who is paravaikuṇṭha and untouched by all of prakṛti, can be bound only by love. The Brahmā Vimohana Līlā shows that the same gopāla-bāla of Gokula is the Parāt-para Brahman who fills everything. Brahmā’s stotra says that the greatest fortune in all creation is to be born in Gokula, even greater than Brahmaloka, because the Supreme lives there. The liberation of Pūtanā, Aghāsura, Nalakūbara and Maṇigrīva, and the stotra of the nāga wives, all point the same way. Nearness to Kṛṣṇa, even as an enemy, brings liberation, because he is the Sarvātman, the final goal of all ātmās.

Kṛṣṇa in the Hari Vamśa Purāṇa

The Hari Vamśa Purāṇa is added to the Mahābhārata as its supplement. Its Viṣṇu Parva is given wholly to Bhagavān Kṛṣṇa’s descent, his childhood in Vṛndāvana and his arrival in Mathurā. Vaiśampāyana tells it to King Janamejaya. The text is very close and personal, and it sets the cosmic descent in the village world of the gopas and gopīs.

The cosmic background and lineage (Viṣṇu Parva, Chapters 1–2)

The Hari Vamśa Purāṇa puts Kṛṣṇa’s birth in a carefully built frame of cosmic family history. Brahmā explains to Bhagavān Nārāyaṇa how the ṛṣi Kaśyapa, in an earlier age, took away the cows of Varuṇa and did not return them. Varuṇa went to Brahmā. Brahmā pronounced a śāpa on Kaśyapa: he would be born in the mortal world as a cowherd (gopāla). Kaśyapa’s two wives, Aditi and Sūrabhī, were to go with him.

In Dvāpara, Kaśyapa was born again as Vasudeva, who guarded the cows of Gokula and paid tribute to Kaṃsa. Aditi was born as Devakī, and Sūrabhī as Rohiṇī. Bhagavān Nārāyaṇa then decided to descend into this household himself, as the eighth child of Devakī. He would destroy Kaṃsa and lift the burden of the earth. In this way the text shows Kṛṣṇa as a direct avatāra of Bhagavān Viṣṇu. Viṣṇu comes into the Yādava line through Devakī and Vasudeva, who are themselves the new births of Aditi and Kaśyapa.

The line of descent in the Hari Vamśa Purāṇa runs like this. From Yadu came the Yādava line. In that line the Vṛṣṇi branch produced Śūra. From Śūra came Vasudeva. From Vasudeva and Devakī was born Kṛṣṇa, Bhagavān Viṣṇu himself in human form.

The birth of Kṛṣṇa (Chapters 4–5)

Bhagavān Viṣṇu told Yoganidrā (Yogamāyā) to enter Yaśodā’s womb as the ninth child. He himself would be born as the eighth child of Devakī. Kaṃsa had killed Devakī’s seven earlier sons one after another. The seventh child was drawn by Yogamāyā out of Devakī’s womb and moved into the womb of Rohiṇī. He was born as Saṃkarṣaṇa (Balarāma). The name comes from this transfer.

On the night of Kṛṣṇa’s birth, good signs appeared everywhere. Sacrificial fires burned calmly without smoke. Pleasant breezes blew. The stars shone with great brightness. Kṛṣṇa was born at midnight, under the Abhijit nakṣatra, in the Vijaya-muhūrta. The text says he bore the Śrīvatsa mark and all the divine signs.

Vasudeva saw the divine child, was seized by fear of Kaṃsa, and at once took the infant and carried him through the night toward Gokula. Yaśodā had just given birth to a daughter, Yogamāyā. Vasudeva laid Kṛṣṇa beside Yaśodā and went back to the prison with the girl. Kaṃsa seized her and dashed her against a stone. She flew up into the sky, showed her divine form, and said: “O Kaṃsa! He who will destroy you has already been born!” Then she vanished into the sky. The Hari Vamśa Purāṇa adds that Kaṃsa, shaken, went privately to Devakī and begged her pardon with what seemed like regret. But his fear of Kṛṣṇa did not lessen.

Vasudeva asked Nanda, who had come to Mathurā to pay tribute, to take both infants, Rohiṇī’s son and Yaśodā’s son, to Gokula at once. He asked Nanda to name them Saṃkarṣaṇa and Kṛṣṇa, and to bring them up with care.

The chapters are named in Telugu as Śrī Kṛṣṇa Jananamu (Chapter 4) and Śrī Kṛṣṇuḍu Vrēpalleku Velluṭa (Chapter 5).

Childhood in Gokula and Vṛndāvana

Śakaṭāsura-vadha (Chapter 6)

Kṛṣṇa was still an infant. Yaśodā put him under a cart and went to the river. The infant Kṛṣṇa cried for milk and kicked. He struck the cart with one foot and turned it right over. The wheels and axle flew off. Yaśodā came back and found the cart wrecked but her son unhurt. She and Nanda were bewildered. The children who had seen it told Nanda: “This child kicked it with his foot.” Nanda was just as astonished and could not understand how it happened. The cart was mended.

Pūtanā-vadha (Chapter 7)

Some time later an asurī named Pūtanā, a servant of Kaṃsa, came at midnight in the form of a bird. She hid in the wheel of the cart. When all were asleep she gave her poisoned breast to the infant Kṛṣṇa. Kṛṣṇa suckled her breast and at the same moment drew out her prāṇas (life breaths). Pūtanā fell dead to the ground with a crash that woke everyone. Nanda and Yaśodā saw Pūtanā lying senseless on the ground and could not explain it. The gopas who had gathered went away in wonder.

Yamalārjuna-bhaṅjana (Chapter 8)

Kṛṣṇa grew into a young child. Once Yaśodā, out of patience, tied a rope around his belly and fastened it to a mortar. This is how he got the name Dāmodara. Then she went to her work. Kṛṣṇa crawled between two arjuna trees (yamala-arjuna), pulling the mortar behind him. The trees were torn up at the roots with a huge crash. The gopikās on the road by the Yamunā saw it and ran to Yaśodā in alarm. Yaśodā found her son standing between the fallen trees with the rope still round his belly. Nanda hurried up and freed Kṛṣṇa from the mortar. The Hari Vamśa Purāṇa says that the name Dāmodara came from exactly this episode of the rope around the belly.

The move to Vṛndāvana (Chapters 9–10)

When Kṛṣṇa and Balarāma were seven years old, Kṛṣṇa told Balarāma that their forest had run short of grass, trees and shade. He pointed to Vṛndāvana on the banks of the Yamunā, near Govardhana mountain, as a better place to live. Wolves appeared in a mysterious way, and the text hints that Kṛṣṇa himself had made them. They began to terrify the settlement. Nanda saw the distress and ordered the whole community to move to Vṛndāvana. A great procession of carts, cows, gopas and gopīs went to Vṛndāvana. The text says it was like Kubera’s pleasure garden, with sweet-fruited trees, green meadows and flowing rivers, and the Khaṇḍīra banyan tree in the middle.

Kāliya-mardana (Chapter 13)

The serpent king Kāliya lived in a pool (hrada) of the Yamunā, four krośas across. His venom fouled the river, so that no fish, bird or creature could live there. Kṛṣṇa saw the pool and thought that the gopas and cows needed pure water. He climbed the Khaṇḍīra kadamba tree on the bank and jumped into the pool with a great splash. The noise disturbed the serpent’s home.

Kāliya had five heads, a body the colour of fire, and angry red eyes. He came up from the depths with his wives, sons and serpent followers. They wound around Kṛṣṇa and bit him. Kṛṣṇa stayed still as a mountain. Balarāma called from the bank and reminded Kṛṣṇa who he truly was: “You are Ananta! Remember Nārāyaṇa!” Kṛṣṇa then threw off the coils of the serpents with his arms, climbed on Kāliya’s head and danced on it, pressing it down. Kāliya was worn out and bleeding from his mouths. He gave in and said: “O Kṛṣṇa! I acted in ignorance. I am under your power now.”

Kṛṣṇa, free of anger, told Kāliya to go to the ocean with his family. He said that Garuḍa would not harm him, because the marks of Kṛṣṇa’s feet would be seen on his hoods. Kāliya left the pool with his followers for the ocean, and the waters of the Yamunā became pure again. The gopas had wept on the banks, fearing Kṛṣṇa was dead. Now they celebrated with great joy.

Dhenukāsura-vadha (Chapter 14) and Pralambāsura-vadha (Chapter 15)

After the Kāliya episode, Kṛṣṇa and Balarāma went to the tāla (palm) forest north of Govardhana mountain, on the banks of the Yamunā. Balarāma shook the tāla trees and the fruits fell with a great noise. This woke Dhenukāsura, an asura in the form of a donkey. He charged at Balarāma with his herd of donkey asuras, biting and kicking. Balarāma caught the asura by the legs and threw him to the top of a tāla tree, and he died. The other asuras with him were dealt with in the same way. After that the tāla forest was open to all, and the cows grazed there in peace.

Some time later an asura named Pralamba came, dressed as a gopa, with garlands and forest flowers. He joined the gopa boys as they played in the Khaṇḍīra forest. He joined a game in which the losing side had to carry the winners on their backs. Kṛṣṇa’s side won. Pralamba took Balarāma on his back as his forfeit. Then he suddenly showed his huge true form and ran off fast. He meant to kill Balarāma and so strike at Kṛṣṇa. Balarāma cried out in alarm. Kṛṣṇa smiled and reminded Balarāma of his divine nature: “You are Śeṣa! Remember Nārāyaṇa! Strike the asura with your fist.” Balarāma, now awake to who he was, struck Pralamba on the head with his fist and knees and killed him. Kṛṣṇa and the gopas praised Balarāma’s strength.

Govardhana-pūjā (Chapters 16–18)

The Hari Vamśa Purāṇa tells in detail how Kṛṣṇa turned the yearly worship of the community from Indra to Govardhana mountain. The gopas were busy preparing the Indra-mahotsava (festival of Indra). Kṛṣṇa went to the eldest gopa and asked what the festival was for. The elder said that Indra rules the rain-clouds and so rules the wealth of crops and cows.

Kṛṣṇa answered with an argument. Forest-dwellers (vanajīvin) who live by cows should worship what supports their own way of life: the cows, the forests, and above all the mountain, which is the boundary and refuge of the forest. He said: “For brāhmaṇas, the mantra is their yajña. For farmers, the plough is their yajña. For gopas, the giri (mountain) is our yajña.” He proposed the Giri-yajña, the worship of Govardhana mountain, in place of the Indra-mahotsava.

The gopas loved Kṛṣṇa, and his reasoning convinced them. They agreed. They prepared huge quantities of food, mountains of rice and meat and rivers of milk, and they performed the Giri-yajña. At the height of the celebration, Bhagavān Kṛṣṇa took the form of Govardhana mountain itself by his māyā. In that mountain form he took the offerings himself and ate the food. He said to the gopas: “I am the deva of this mountain. Worship me. I shall give you all the fruit of your wishes.” In his gopāla form he also stood among the gopas and bowed to the mountain-deva, so he bowed to himself. The gopas were amazed. They walked around the mountain with decorated cows.

The three chapters are called Goparddhuṇi Indrotsava Prastāvana, Govardhanotsvamu and Govardhana Pūja.

Govardhana-dhāraṇa, the lifting of the mountain (Chapter 19)

Indra was angry that his yearly worship had been stopped and that Nanda and the gopas had insulted his festival. He called the great clouds, Sāṃvartaka and others, and sent them to wreck Gokula. For seven days and nights, heavy rain and fierce winds beat on the settlement. The cows grew thin. The calves and children looked at Kṛṣṇa’s face, pleading. The gopas thought they faced a flood at the end of the world (prālayika).

Kṛṣṇa saw the suffering of the cows and the community. He decided to use the mountain itself as shelter. He pulled the whole Govardhana mountain out of the ground with his two arms and held it up on one arm like an umbrella over the whole settlement: cows, calves, carts, men, women and children. He held it for seven days and seven nights. The mountain in his hand looked like a bird about to take wing. The Vidyādharas and Gandharvas watching from above thought the mountain had grown wings. After seven nights Indra saw that all his efforts had failed. He drew back the clouds and went to svarga, beaten. Kṛṣṇa then set Govardhana mountain back in its place, and the community returned to its normal life.

Govinda-abhiṣeka (Chapter 20)

After Indra’s defeat the Hari Vamśa Purāṇa tells one of its most special episodes. Indra himself came down to earth to meet Kṛṣṇa. He rode his white elephant Airāvata to the Govardhana rock, where Kṛṣṇa sat alone in the autumn sun. Indra saw him as Viṣṇu in the form of a gopa boy, with the Śrīvatsa mark. He was struck with wonder and also with regret.

Indra bowed down before Kṛṣṇa. He admitted that his seven-day attack had been of no use against this child, who had sheltered a whole community under a mountain. He confessed that he had sent the clouds out of hurt pride because his festival was stopped. He praised Kṛṣṇa as greater even than Brahmā, as the supreme being of Goloka, and as the deva whom the cows themselves accepted as their Indra, their ruler. Then he said: “From this day you shall be known in the world as Govinda, the Indra of cows.”

The divine cows from the celestial realm were there. They bathed Kṛṣṇa with streams of milk from their udders. Indra poured holy water from a golden vessel in a formal abhiṣeka (anointing). The clouds above rained water as a second abhiṣeka. Flowers fell from the sky. Drums (dundubhi) sounded in the sky above. The ṛṣis chanted stotras. The earth looked like Devaloka in its joy. Indra also gave Kṛṣṇa the title Upendra, “the Indra above the devas”, in the celestial realm.

At the end of the abhiṣeka, Indra also told Kṛṣṇa why Arjuna was born. He asked Kṛṣṇa to befriend and protect his son in the coming Mahābhārata war. Kṛṣṇa agreed without any condition.

The chapter is called Śrī Kṛṣṇunaku Govindunigā Abhiṣēkamu.

Rāsa-līlā (Chapter 21)

The Hari Vamśa Purāṇa describes the Rāsa-līlā with special beauty. After Indra left, Kṛṣṇa went back to the settlement and entered the lanes of the gopa village. He looked at the full moon of the autumn season and decided to enjoy the lovely autumn night in play. He arranged contests between bulls and between the strongest gopas, and he looked after the cows himself. Then he looked at the youth of the gopa girls (gopa-kanyā), called them in the night, and played with them.

The gopikās gazed at his face, bright as the moon come down to earth, and were charmed. Kṛṣṇa wore yellow garments and was dressed in a vanamālā (garland of forest flowers). The gopa women went out in the night to look for Kṛṣṇa, even when their husbands, brothers and mothers tried to stop them. They danced in a circle (maṇḍala) with Kṛṣṇa in the middle. They copied his dance, his song, his laughter and his glance. The Hari Vamśa Purāṇa says that Kṛṣṇa enjoyed the autumn nights (śarat-kāla-rātri) in this way among the gopa women in a circle. This is the Rāsa.

The chapter is called Śrī Kṛṣṇuni Rāsalīla.

Arrival in Mathurā (Chapters 28 and 30–33)

Kaṃsa heard of all Kṛṣṇa’s deeds: the killing of Pūtanā, the defeat of Kāliya, the deaths of Dhenuka and Pralamba, the lifting of Govardhana, the humbling of Indra and the death of Ariṣṭāsura. He became sure that this gopāla boy was Viṣṇu or Indra in disguise, come to kill him. He called Akrūra, a generous Yādava of great honesty. He told him to go to Vṛndāvana and bring Kṛṣṇa and Balarāma to Mathurā, on the pretext of the Dhanuryajña, a bow-yajña festival Kaṃsa was arranging. Kaṃsa also ordered his champion wrestlers Cāṇūra and Muṣṭika in secret to kill the two brothers in the arena. He told the elephant-driver to station the war-elephant Kuvalayāpīḍa at the gate to trample them. Akrūra, a devotee of Kṛṣṇa at heart, went with joy and brought the brothers to Mathurā in his chariot.

On entering Mathurā, Kṛṣṇa and Balarāma first went to Kaṃsa’s bow-hall (dhanuḥśāla). Kaṃsa’s great ritual bow was kept there, one that not even Indra and the devas could bend. Kṛṣṇa picked it up and strung it with ease. As he drew it tight it snapped in two, with a sound that shook the women’s quarters (antaḥpura). The guards ran in alarm and told Kaṃsa that two young men, one dark and one fair, had come in and broken the bow without effort. This is Chapter 28, called Śrī Kṛṣṇuḍu Kaṃsuni Dhanuvu Virucut.

The deaths of Kuvalayāpīḍa and Kaṃsa (Chapters 30–33)

On the day of the tournament the whole city of Mathurā had gathered in the great assembly hall (sabhā-bhavana). Kaṃsa came in white ceremonial dress and took his throne. Kṛṣṇa and Balarāma came to the gate in their fine dress, with sandal paste on their bodies and flower garlands around their necks. The elephant Kuvalayāpīḍa stood at the gate on Kaṃsa’s orders. It was driven at them to crush them. Kṛṣṇa said, laughing, that Kaṃsa, who would use an elephant to frighten him, was already running toward the realm of Yama.

When the elephant charged, Kṛṣṇa leapt and seized its trunk. He kept away from the tusks. He slipped under its legs to confuse it. Then he climbed onto its face and pulled out one tusk with both hands. With that tusk he struck the elephant-driver dead in one blow. Balarāma caught the elephant’s tail. The great beast, beaten and terrified, fouled itself and died. Kṛṣṇa went into the arena with the tusk as his weapon. The crowd of Vṛṣṇi, Andhaka and Bhoja Yādavas watched in stunned wonder.

In the arena Kaṃsa ordered Cāṇūra to fight Kṛṣṇa and Muṣṭika to fight Balarāma. Kṛṣṇa and Cāṇūra wrestled for a long time, with acrobatic skill. At last Kṛṣṇa seized Cāṇūra, bent him, struck him on the head with his fist and drove his knee into Cāṇūra’s chest. Cāṇūra fell dead, and his body covered the whole floor of the arena. Balarāma killed Muṣṭika with a blow to the head. Kṛṣṇa then dealt with Śalaka and the other wrestlers just as quickly.

Kaṃsa watched with growing fear. He ordered the gopas thrown out and threatened Vasudeva. At that moment Kṛṣṇa saw his father insulted and Devakī fainting with grief. He leapt like a lion from the middle of the arena to Kaṃsa’s throne. The onlookers saw only that in one moment Kṛṣṇa was in the arena and in the next he was beside Kaṃsa. Kṛṣṇa seized Kaṃsa by the hair, and Kaṃsa’s golden crown fell off. He dragged him from the throne, threw him to the arena floor and killed him. At the same time Balarāma killed Kaṃsa’s brother Sunāma with his own hands. After Kaṃsa’s death, Kṛṣṇa bowed at the feet of Vasudeva and Devakī. Devakī wept for joy.

After the fight, Kṛṣṇa went to Ugrasena, whom his own son had imprisoned. Kṛṣṇa performed his formal abhiṣeka as king of Mathurā and put him back on the throne. Kṛṣṇa said to Ugrasena: “I have no wish for a kingdom. I killed Kaṃsa only for the good of the world and for dharma. I am happy to roam the forests with the gopas and their cows. You are the rightful king. Rule for a long time.” Under Kṛṣṇa’s authority all the Yādavas honoured Ugrasena as their king. The chapters are called Kuvalayāpīḍa Vadha, Śrī Kṛṣṇuḍu Kaṃsuni Campuṭa and Ugrasēnunaku Paṭṭābhiṣēkamu.

Education under Sāndīpani (Chapter 34)

After Ugrasena was restored and Mathurā settled, Kṛṣṇa and Balarāma were in the full bloom of youth and ruled with the Yādavas. They travelled to Avantīpura to study under the teacher Sāndīpani. He was born in Kāśī but lived in Avantī. The chapter is called Śrī Kṛṣṇa Balarāmula Vidyābhyāsamu.

At Gomanta Parvata: the death of Śṛgāla and the Karavīra campaign (Chapters 40–46)

After the wars with Jarāsandha, Paraśurāma advised Kṛṣṇa and Balarāma at the Veṇā river. He urged them to leave Mathurā, which had become a battlefield, and build a new city. The brothers went to Gomanta Parvata in the Sahya range. Jarāsandha besieged them there with fire. Kṛṣṇa put out Jarāsandha’s fire, and the divine weapons of the Yādavas appeared at Gomanta. Kṛṣṇa received the Sudarśana cakra and the Kaumodakī gadā. Balarāma received the Saṃvartaka nāgali (plough) and the Senanda musala (pestle).

They went back to Mathurā. Then Kṛṣṇa and Balarāma went to Karavīra-pura on the Veṇā river, a city founded by Padmavarṇa, son of Yadu. The king there was Śṛgāla, a devotee of Śiva and a fierce warrior. He challenged Kṛṣṇa to single combat. The Sudarśana cakra killed him. Kṛṣṇa then crowned Śṛgāla’s son Śakradeva king of Karavīra and left.

The Ṣaṭpura-vadha (Chapters 84–87)

This comes after the Pārijāta-haraṇa (the carrying off of the Pārijāta tree). Bhagavān Śiva was pleased with Kṛṣṇa’s stotra at Pāriyātra mountain. He told Kṛṣṇa that under the Pāriyātra and Sahya range lay the Ṣaṭpura, six underground cities of six lakh asuras. These were survivors of the Tripurā war, and Brahmā’s vara protected them. They had broken up the Aśvamedha yajña of the brāhmaṇa Brahmadhatta at the Āvarta river by carrying off his horses. Their leader Nikuṃbha could not be killed by the devas. Only Viṣṇu in human form could kill him.

Pradyumna was sent first. He used māyā to capture the allied kings who had joined the asuras, Jarāsandha, Śiśupāla, Rukmī and the Kauravas, and shut them in a cave of māyā. Kṛṣṇa then came to Bilvodeakeśvara, the Śiva temple near the Āvarta river. He had darśana of Śiva and received his guidance. He then let loose the Sudarśana and killed Nikuṃbha. The Ṣaṭpura was made peaceful and was given to Brahmadhatta.

The Vajranābha campaign and the division of Vajrapura (Chapters 93–99)

The asura Vajranābha had built the jewelled city Vajrapura near Meru, which no one could break into, through the varas of Brahmā. He terrified Indra. No deva could enter the city by force. So Kṛṣṇa made a plan. Pradyumna, Sāmba and Gada went in disguise as nāṭaka (play) performers. They won the trust of Vajranābha’s household and made gāndharva vivāhas (marriages by mutual choice) with his daughters and relatives.

When Vajranābha attacked, Kṛṣṇa came in a chariot of māyā with Ādiśeṣa as charioteer. The Sudarśana cakra killed Vajranābha. The city was divided: three parts to the Yādavas and one to Indra. The heroes went back to Dvārakā after six months.

Kṛṣṇa’s children: the eight principal queens and their sons (Chapter 105)

The Hari Vamśa Purāṇa, Chapter 105, lists the children born to Kṛṣṇa’s eight principal queens:

The total number of children, counting all the queens, was 1,80,000 sons and daughters. All were brave warriors, skilled in battle.

Nārada’s declaration: Kṛṣṇa is Viṣṇu, Nārāyaṇa, Parabrahma (Chapters 103–104)

This comes after the Naraka-vadha and the Vajranābha campaign. The great wealth had been shared out in the royal assembly at Dvārakā. Nārada arrived at Indra’s urging. In front of all the Yādavas he gave a long praise of Kṛṣṇa, telling all his main deeds from Śakaṭāsura in infancy to Nikuṃbha. Nārada ended with this declaration: “This Kṛṣṇa will set up dharma among humans, perform great yajñas, and return to his own loka. Then Dvārakā will sink into the ocean. None among the devas or asuras is as able as he. He is Viṣṇu. He is Nārāyaṇa. He is Sūrya-svarūpa. He has come to do good to the world and will return to his own loka. He is Parabrahma-svarūpa.”

Kṛṣṇa in the Agni Purāṇa (Harivaṃśa narrative), Chapter 12

The twelfth chapter of the Agni Purāṇa gives the Harivaṃśa narrative. It tells of Bhagavān Kṛṣṇa’s birth, his childhood deeds, his victory over Kaṃsa and the events of his rule in Dvārakā. It presents this as a sacred account that shows the glory of Bhagavān Viṣṇu’s Kṛṣṇa avatāra.

The Yadu line

The text traces the Yādava line from its divine source. Brahmā came from the navel-lotus (nābhi-kamala) of Bhagavān Viṣṇu. From Brahmā came Atri. From Atri came Soma (Candra). From Candra came Purūravas. From Purūravas came Āyus. From Āyus came Nahuṣa. From Nahuṣa came Yayāti.

Yayāti had sons Yadu and Turvasu by Devayānī. By Śarmiṣṭhā, the daughter of Vṛṣaparva, he had Druhyu, Anu and Pūru. From Yadu came the Yādava line. In that line Vasudeva was the most eminent.

Birth and infancy in Mathurā

Bhagavān Viṣṇu wished to lift the burden of the earth. By the power of Yogamāyā he caused the six sons of Hiraṇyakaśipu to be born as children of Devakī through Vasudeva. Balarāma entered Devakī’s womb as the seventh child and was then moved to Rohiṇī’s womb. He became known as Rohiṇeya.

Then, on Śrāvaṇa Kṛṣṇa Ṣaṣṭhī (the sixth day of the dark fortnight of Śrāvaṇa), at midnight, the four-armed Bhagavān Hari came down in the prison at Mathurā. Vasudeva and Devakī saw the divine child and praised him with great devotion. The child took the form of a two-armed infant.

Vasudeva feared Kaṃsa. He carried the infant across the flooded Yamunā, and the river parted before him. He came to the house of Nanda in Gokula, where Yaśodā had just given birth to a daughter. He exchanged the infants. He laid Kṛṣṇa beside Yaśodā and took Yaśodā’s newborn daughter, Yogamāyā, back to the prison.

Kaṃsa heard the infant’s cry and seized the girl to dash her against the stone. She flew up into the sky and said: “O Kaṃsa, what is the use of throwing me? The one who will destroy you has already been born.” She then told who she was: the slayer of Śumbha and other asuras. Kaṃsa was warned but could not prevent his fate. He sent asuras one after another to kill the infant Kṛṣṇa.

Exploits in Vṛndāvana

The infant Kṛṣṇa and the child Rāma-Balarāma grew up in Gokula among the cows and gopas. Yogamāyā’s divine protection and Viṣṇu’s power were their birthright.

• Pūtanā, the asurī whom Kaṃsa sent, came in the form of a beautiful woman. Kṛṣṇa suckled her poisoned breast and drained her life.
• He kicked over the cart asura Śakaṭāsura.
• The serpent Kāliya had fouled the Yamunā with his venom. Kṛṣṇa dived into the river, overcame the great nāga and drove him from the Yamunā to the ocean. The river’s waters became wholesome again.
• Balarāma killed Dhenukāsura, the donkey asura. The Tālavana forest was freed.
• Kṛṣṇa killed the bull asura Ariṣṭāsura and the horse asura Keśī.

When it was time for the worship of Indra, Kṛṣṇa persuaded the gopas to worship Govardhana mountain instead. Indra was enraged and sent torrential rain against them for seven days. Kṛṣṇa lifted the great Govardhana mountain on one finger. He held it as an umbrella over all the cows, gopas and gopīs for the whole time. Indra, humbled, came down from svarga, bowed before Kṛṣṇa and gave him the name Govinda.

Mathurā: the death of Kaṃsa

Akrūra came to Gokula with Kaṃsa’s invitation and took Kṛṣṇa and Balarāma to Mathurā in his chariot. As Kṛṣṇa left, the gopīs who had played with him and loved him stood still, gazing after him.

At the gates of Mathurā, Kṛṣṇa killed the drunk elephant Kuvalayāpīḍa at the elephant gate. In the wrestling arena, before the eyes of Kaṃsa and the people, Kṛṣṇa fought the champion wrestler Cāṇūra while Balarāma fought Muṣṭika. The two brothers killed their opponents and then finished off the other wrestlers.

Kṛṣṇa then leapt onto the royal platform, seized Kaṃsa by the hair and killed him. Kaṃsa’s father Ugrasena, whom his own son had deposed and imprisoned, was put back on the throne of Mathurā.

Jarāsandha and Dvārakā

Kaṃsa’s wives Asti and Prāpti were daughters of Jarāsandha, king of Magadha. Their grief stirred Jarāsandha, and he besieged Mathurā again and again with his huge forces. The Yādavas fought with arrows but found the city could not be defended against his constant attacks. Kṛṣṇa and Balarāma withdrew to Gomanta and defeated Jarāsandha in battle. They also overcame Pauṇḍraka Vāsudeva.

Kṛṣṇa then decided to build a city that no one could break. At his request, Viśvakarma built Dvārakā, a great fortress in the ocean, on an island in the western sea, on land taken back from the deep. All the Yādava people moved there, and Kṛṣṇa ruled from its golden walls.

From Vidarbha he carried off Rukmiṇī, the daughter of the Vidarbha king. She herself had sent word to Kṛṣṇa that she wished for no other husband. He took her as his chief queen.

Exploits in Dvārakā

In Dvārakā, Bhagavān Kṛṣṇa went on acting for the good of the worlds. He killed Narakāsura (Bhauma), son of Bhūmi, who had imprisoned sixteen thousand women. All those women were freed and Kṛṣṇa married them. In this way he took on the dharmic duty of protecting them. With Rukmiṇī and six other principal queens, he was now the husband of sixteen thousand and eight women.

Kṛṣṇa rode on Garuḍa, with Satyabhāmā beside him. He flew to svarga and defeated Indra. He brought back the divine Pārijāta tree, which Satyabhāmā had wanted, and planted it in the garden of her palace. He also took back a precious necklace (maṇitama) and two divine gems from svarga.

Pradyumna and Aniruddha

Rukmiṇī bore Kṛṣṇa a son named Pradyumna. When the child was only six days old, the asura Śambara carried him off and threw him into the ocean. A fish swallowed him. A fisherman caught the fish and gave it to Śambara. Śambara handed it to Māyāvatī, the chief cook of his household. When she cut the fish open she found the infant inside.

Māyāvatī was in truth Rati, the eternal wife of Kāmadeva. She knew her husband born again, for Pradyumna was Kāmadeva reborn after Śiva had burned his body. She brought up Pradyumna with love and taught him the arts of magic. When Pradyumna was grown, she told him who he was and urged him to kill Śambara. Pradyumna killed the asura. He went back to Dvārakā with Māyāvatī, where Kṛṣṇa and Rukmiṇī welcomed them with joy.

Pradyumna’s son Aniruddha, generous by nature, was devoted to Uṣā and was the hero of the next episode. Uṣā, the daughter of Bāṇāsura (son of Bali), fell in love with him through a dream-vision. With the help of her friend Citralekhā, daughter of Bāṇa’s minister Kumbhāṇḍa, she brought Aniruddha from Dvārakā to Śoṇitapura by her yogic art.

Bāṇa’s warriors found the intruder, and a fierce battle broke out between Aniruddha and Bāṇa. Nārada told Kṛṣṇa, and Kṛṣṇa came to rescue his grandson. He fought Śiva, who was protecting Bāṇa. With the Jṛmbhaṇāstra he made Śiva himself yawn and fall into a stupor. Kṛṣṇa cut off Bāṇa’s thousand arms. At Śiva’s request he spared Bāṇa’s life and left him two arms, to live by Śiva’s grace. Kṛṣṇa said: “There is no difference between you (Śiva) and me. He who sees a difference between us falls into naraka.” He returned to Dvārakā with Aniruddha and Uṣā and lived happily with the Yādavas.

Kṛṣṇa in the Bhīṣma Parva: charioteer at Kurukṣetra and the Durgā stotra (Chapter 23)

In the Bhīṣma Parva, Kṛṣṇa is Arjuna’s charioteer on the first day of the Kurukṣetra war. He stands in the middle of the Pāṇḍava Vajra Vyūha (diamond formation), as the guardian of Śikhaṇḍī, through whom Bhīṣma was to fall. Before the battle began, when the two armies stood face to face, Kṛṣṇa told Arjuna to get down from the chariot, purify himself and sing a stotra to Durgā, to win her blessing for victory. The war’s success was understood to rest not only on skill in arms but on the grace of the Śakti who stands behind all victory.

Arjuna composed and sang thirteen Sanskrit verses to Durgā. He called her Kṛṣṇa’s sister, born of Yaśodā, and the daughter of Nandagopa. He called her Kālī, Mahākālī, Bhadrakālī, Kapardinī and Kārālarūpā, and the destroyer of Mahiṣāsura, Śumbha and Niśumbha. Durgā heard Arjuna’s stotra and appeared before Kṛṣṇa himself, not before Arjuna. She gave Arjuna and the Pāṇḍavas the blessing of complete victory.

Kṛṣṇa in the Sauptika Parva (Chapters 12–17)

The Sauptika Parva of the Mahābhārata, Chapters 12–17, tells several important episodes in which Kṛṣṇa is the central authority. He warns the Pāṇḍavas, protects the lineage, pronounces a śāpa and tells the origin of Mahādeva’s power.

The exchange at Dvārakā: Aśvatthāmā and the Sudarśana Cakra (Chapter 12)

During the years of exile, Aśvatthāmā came to Dvārakā and proposed an exchange. He would give Kṛṣṇa the Brahmāśiras astra (weapon), which he had received through his line from Droṇa, who had received it from Agastya through tapas. In return he asked for the Sudarśana Cakra.

Kṛṣṇa answered with easy generosity. He invited Aśvatthāmā to take whichever of his weapons he could lift. Aśvatthāmā reached for the Cakra with his left hand. It did not move. He tried with both hands, at full strength. It stayed fixed. He admitted defeat.

Kṛṣṇa told him gently that even Arjuna, the dearest to Kṛṣṇa of all beings, had never asked for the Cakra. Aśvatthāmā had asked, and Kṛṣṇa had honoured his courage. But the weight of the Sudarśana is the weight of the cosmos. Kṛṣṇa sent him away with honour, with horses, wealth and gems, but without the Cakra.

Warning the Pāṇḍavas (Chapters 13–14)

Aśvatthāmā was driven to despair on the bank of the Bhāgīrathī. He took up a blade of grass and charged it with the Brahmāśiras mantra. He let it go with the words:

“Apa-Pāṇḍavam bhavatu”

These words mean “Let there be no more Pāṇḍavas.” The blade became a bolt of primordial fire that threatened the three worlds.

Kṛṣṇa saw this at once through his all-knowing sight, and he warned Arjuna: “The divine astra taught by Droṇa is needed now. Fire it. Do not delay. It is time to protect your brothers.” At Kṛṣṇa’s direction, Arjuna called up his counter-astra.

Kṛṣṇa’s prophecy and śāpa (Chapter 16)

Vyāsa and Nārada appeared. Arjuna withdrew his astra, but Aśvatthāmā could not withdraw his. Vyāsa told Aśvatthāmā to turn the Brahmāśiras toward the wombs (garbha) of the Pāṇḍava women. Aśvatthāmā agreed and turned it toward Uttarā’s womb. Kṛṣṇa then spoke:

“Earlier, a brāhmaṇa in Upaplavya told Uttarā, daughter of Virāṭa and daughter-in-law of Gāṇḍīvī (Arjuna): when the Kuru race is destroyed, you will have a son. For this reason he will be called Parīkṣit from the womb. That brāhmaṇa’s words will come true. A son who continues this line will be born: Parīkṣit.”

Aśvatthāmā disputed this. He said his astra would not spare even Uttarā’s womb. Kṛṣṇa answered:

“Your astra’s blow cannot fail. But he will die and be born again with a long life. All wise people will know you as utterly vile, one who has done many wrongs and destroyed the lives of children. You will bear the result of this pāpa (sin): three thousand years wandering the earth, friendless and silent, with empty lands for your home, covered in festering blood-stench, carrying all diseases. But Parīkṣit, born dead in Uttarā’s womb, will at the proper age take up the Veda-vrata, become a warrior through Kṛpa’s grace, receive all astras, and rule this earth righteously for sixty years as dharmarāja. You caused him to be named Parīkṣit. I will protect him from the fire of your astra through my tapovīrya (strength of tapas) and satyavīrya (strength of truth).”

Vyāsa agreed with these words: “This son of Devakī’s speech will be exactly so.” Aśvatthāmā gave in, gave up his maṇi (jewel) and went away to the forests. Kṛṣṇa went with the Pāṇḍavas when they brought the maṇi to Draupadī.

The creation of Mahādeva’s power (Chapter 17)

Yudhiṣṭhira asked Kṛṣṇa how Aśvatthāmā alone had managed to kill so many veterans of war. Kṛṣṇa answered: “He took refuge in Parameśvara, Devadeva, Īśvara of all īśvaras, Avyaya. By his mahimā (greatness) alone, that son of Droṇa was able to kill so many. Mahādeva, when pleased, can give even immortality. He can give the power to kill Indra.”

Kṛṣṇa then told the ancient account of creation. Brahmā first asked Parameśvara to create beings. Parameśvara went into the primordial waters to do tapas. After long waiting, Brahmā made another being from his own mind. This being became the maker of Dakṣa and the Prajāpatis. When Parameśvara finally rose out of the waters, he found creation already done. He was seized by terrible anger. He threw his liṅga down to the earth, which set up the first liṅga-pratiṣṭhā. He declared that his tapas would feed all beings through the oṣadhis (plants) he had made. Then he left for Muñjavanta to do tapas.

Through this account Kṛṣṇa explains why Mahādeva is supreme. He is primordial. His tapas lies under the very food of all life. His varas are beyond the reach of any other deva.

The Strī Parva: the iron statue and Gāndhārī’s śāpa (Chapters 1–25)

In the Strī Parva of the Mahābhārata, Kṛṣṇa goes with the grieving Kuru elders and the Pāṇḍavas to the Kurukṣetra battlefield through Chapters 1–15, the Jala Pradāna Parva. His nīti (wise conduct) and his presence make the whole sequence possible.

The iron statue (Chapter 12)

Dhṛtarāṣṭra was about to embrace Bhīma, the man who had killed his beloved Duryodhana. Kṛṣṇa quietly moved Bhīma away from the king and put an iron statue of Bhīma’s form into his arms. Dhṛtarāṣṭra put all his grief and fury as a father into the embrace and crushed the iron statue to pieces. He found his arms empty. He believed he had killed Bhīma and wept. Kṛṣṇa then told the truth: the statue was iron, and Bhīma was alive.

Kṛṣṇa did this so quietly that no one else noticed. It saved Bhīma’s life. It let Dhṛtarāṣṭra spend the full force of his grief without harm. Then a true reconciliation became possible, in which Dhṛtarāṣṭra embraced each Pāṇḍava with warmth.

Gāndhārī’s śāpa on Kṛṣṇa (Chapters 16–25)

In Chapters 16–25, the Strī Vilāpa Parva, Kṛṣṇa walks beside Gāndhārī across the battlefield as she speaks with him. She looked over the fallen warriors with the divine sight that Vyāsa had given her. Kṛṣṇa was there as a witness. When she had finished looking, she turned on him.

In Chapter 25 Gāndhārī turned to Kṛṣṇa and accused him directly. He could have prevented the war and did not. When his peace embassy failed (the account names Upaplava), her sons were as good as dead. He must bear the weight of this, in a form she would now pronounce.

She pronounced a śāpa on Kṛṣṇa with all the tapas she had gathered in her lifetime of chosen blindness. Within thirty-six years he would see the Yādavas destroy one another. He would wander alone and without honour through the forest and die by the arrow of an ordinary hunter. The Yādava women would weep over their dead as the Kuru women wept now.

Kṛṣṇa heard the śāpa with what the text calls an īṣad-smita, a slight smile. He did not argue against Gāndhārī’s reasoning. He accepted the full force of her charge and agreed that every part of the śāpa would come true. He said: “There is no one but myself who could bring about the destruction of the Yādavas. I myself shall do it.” In Kṛṣṇa’s own acceptance, the śāpa is not a limit put on him from outside. It is a tool that his own will would carry out. In this account Bhagavān Kṛṣṇa, who willed the war, also wills its results upon himself. The Mausala Parva tells how it came true.

The Anuśāsana Parva

The Śrī–Rukmiṇī Saṃvāda (Chapter 11)

Bhīṣma tells Yudhiṣṭhira of a time at Dvārakā when Rukmiṇī, in Kṛṣṇa’s presence, questioned Lakṣmī on the beings and places in which she lives. Lakṣmī sat in Nārāyaṇa’s lap. Kṛṣṇa is present throughout as the silent witness presiding over the talk, before whom the devī speaks.

Tapas at Upamanyu’s āśrama and the varas of Śiva and Pārvatī (Chapters 14–15)

Just before the recitation of the Śiva Sahasranāma, Bhīṣma says that only Kṛṣṇa can explain Śiva’s full greatness (māhātmya). Kṛṣṇa is not different from Śiva. He had also reached the closest bond with Śiva by a thousand years of tapas at Badarikāśrama.

Kṛṣṇa then tells how he went to the āśrama of Upamanyu in the Himālaya. His queen Jāmbavatī had asked him for a son equal to himself. Kṛṣṇa learned from Upamanyu’s own account of his childhood tapas and how Śiva appeared to him. Śiva had first tested Upamanyu by coming disguised as Indra on Airāvata. Kṛṣṇa was initiated into a mantra. After six months of his own tapas it led to his direct darśana of Śiva and Pārvatī together, with eleven hundred Rudra-gaṇas and the devas assembled.

Kṛṣṇa offered a hymn that names Śiva as the Mahat and the Ātman, under fourteen names of the same meaning: Mahān, Ātmā, Mahat, Brahma, Viśva, Śambhu, Svayambhū, Buddhi, Prajñā, Upalabdhi, Saṃvit, Khyāti, Dhṛti and Smṛti.

From Śiva, Kṛṣṇa received eight varas. These include steadiness in dharma (dharma-dṛḍhatā), victory in battle, the best fame (uttama-yaśas), supreme strength (parama-bala), being dear to all (priyatva) joined with yoga, Śiva’s nearness (sānnidhya), and ten thousand sons.

From Pārvatī he received eight more. These include a hundred sons, sixteen thousand wives who would always love one another, beauty that would never fade, and seven thousand guests daily at his house.

This episode is called the Meghavāhana Parva. It takes its name from the cloud-borne form that Śiva took in it, in the form of Indra. It leads directly into Upamanyu’s teaching of the Śiva Sahasranāma to Kṛṣṇa.

Vāsudeva’s testimony in the Śiva Sahasranāma Mahimā (Chapter 18)

This chapter ends the Meghavāhana Parva Ākhyāna with the testimony of devotees. Vāsudeva speaks again. This time he recalls a separate, earlier time of tapas. He tells Dharmarāja Yudhiṣṭhira that in a pūrva-avatāra (an earlier descent) he pleased the golden-eyed (hiraṇyākṣa) Mahādeva by tapas that went on for lakhs upon lakhs of years at Maṇimantha-śaila.

Pleased, Śaṅkara appeared and offered him any vara. Kṛṣṇa asked only that his bhakti toward Śiva stay always firm (sthira). Śiva granted this. In Bhīṣma’s continuing account, Śiva said further that by his grace Kṛṣṇa would become dearer than artha (wealth) itself. Artha is the dearest thing to beings, as the source of dharma-phala and the root of kāma. Kṛṣṇa would also be unbeatable in battle and would blaze with a tejas (radiance) like Agni.

This testimony is a different occasion from the longer tapas at Upamanyu’s āśrama in Chapters 14–15. That one took place at Badarikāśrama in the present avatāra, at Jāmbavatī’s request for sons. This shorter testimony is about the tapas of an earlier avatāra at Maṇimantha-śaila, done for the sake of devotion to Śiva alone. Bhīṣma tells them as two separate episodes of the same Meghavāhana Parva Ākhyāna. It is also different from the account of Upamanyu’s tapas in the Kūrma Purāṇa.

The Vaiṣṇava tejas at the twelve-year vrata (Chapter 139)

Yudhiṣṭhira asked for a wondrous account. Bhīṣma tells that Kṛṣṇa once kept a twelve-year vrata, seeking a son equal to himself in vīrya (strength). Nārada, Parvata, Vyāsa, Dhaumya, Devala, Kaśyapa and Hastikaśyapa came to see him at his dīkṣā (consecration for the vrata). Kṛṣṇa received them with the hospitality due to devas.

As his tejas rose from the fuel of his vrata-practice (vrata-caryā), a fierce Nārāyaṇa or Vaiṣṇava tejas burst out as fire from his cakra. It burned an entire mountain, with its trees, creatures and serpents, to ash. The fire then went to Viṣṇu and touched his feet in praṇāma (a bow of respect), like a disciple before his guru. Viṣṇu looked on it kindly and restored the mountain fully to its former state.

The astonished ṛṣis asked Kṛṣṇa to explain. He told them that the fire was his own ātma-śakti, let loose because he sought a son of equal valour. It went to “the grandfather of all worlds” (Śiva). Śiva decreed that a son would come from half of Kṛṣṇa’s own tejas. Then the fire went back in peace to serve at his feet.

Kṛṣṇa then asked the ṛṣis in turn for any wonder they had seen themselves. The assembly named Nārada to tell what he had seen on Himavat. This is the Umā-Maheśvara Saṃvāda, which follows right away from Chapter 140 on. It is later called “the Kṛṣṇa-tejas gathering” in the closing frame of Chapter 148.

The Puruṣa-Māhātmya: Śiva’s declaration on Himavat (Chapters 147–148)

Within the Umā-Maheśvara Saṃvāda, Śiva has taught Umā the whole of dharma. The ṛṣis who are watching then ask Śiva, here called Īśvara, to declare the greatness (māhātmya) of Vāsudeva.

Śiva’s answer declares Kṛṣṇa, or Hari, greater than Brahmā himself. Brahmā was born from his womb. Śiva himself was born from his head. The planets (graha) arose from his hair. The devas and rākṣasas arose from the hair of his body. The ṛṣis and the eternal lokas also arose from his body.

Śiva describes Kṛṣṇa’s cosmic form: the Śārṅga bow, the cakra, the Nandaka sword and Garuḍa as his banner (dhvaja). He traces Kṛṣṇa’s family line from Manu down through Aṅga, Pururavā, Āyu, Nahuṣa, Yayāti, Yadu and a line of Śūras to Vasudeva (Ānakadundubhi) and Kṛṣṇa. He notes that Vasudeva’s son Kṛṣṇa defeated Jarāsandha of Magadha at Girivraja and freed the kings Jarāsandha had imprisoned. After that Kṛṣṇa ruled from Dvārakā in the Śūrasena country.

Śiva then makes the declaration that joins this chapter to the teaching that Hari and Hara are not different:

“yo hi māṃ draṣṭu micchet”

Whoever wishes to see Śiva or Brahmā need only see and worship Vāsudeva, for the worship of Kṛṣṇa is the same as the worship of both together.

Śiva also names Balarāma, or Saṅkarṣaṇa, as the cosmic serpent Śeṣa or Ananta. Even Garuḍa, Kaśyapa’s son, could not see the whole of his length, though he asked the assembled devas to show it.

The closing frame (Chapter 148). Nārada ends his account to the ṛṣis at the Kṛṣṇa-tejas gathering. He says the vision on Himavat faded away in thunder and rain. The ṛṣis who had seen it then went to Kṛṣṇa at Dvārakā to tell him everything Śiva had shown. Kṛṣṇa received them with honour. They blessed him with the promise of a son “equal to you, or greater.” This came true ten months later, when Rukmiṇī bore a son who is understood to be Kāma, that is Pradyumna, born again.

The frame then returns fully to Bhīṣma. He uses the whole Umā-Maheśvara Saṃvāda to comfort Yudhiṣṭhira after the war. He names Kṛṣṇa directly as Kāla (Time, Death) itself. He urges Yudhiṣṭhira not to grieve for kinsmen “slain by Kāla” and not by his own hand. He recalls the ten-thousand-year tapas of Nara-Nārāyaṇa at Badarikāśrama and Kṛṣṇa’s victory over Kaṃsa in childhood. He places the blame for the war’s ruin on Duryodhana, Karṇa, Śakuni and Duḥśāsana. Bhīṣma ends by saying that hearing, remembering and teaching this whole account gives śreyas (the highest good) and svarga. That promise opens Yudhiṣṭhira’s next question, which leads to the Viṣṇu Sahasranāma of Chapter 149.

Bhīṣma’s Viśvarūpa-Stotra of Kṛṣṇa: the Mahāpuruṣa Māhātmya (Chapter 158)

Bhīṣma was near the end of his teaching and felt his death coming close. He told Yudhiṣṭhira that he had now taught the dharmas of the four varṇas as found in the purāṇa-śāstra. For whatever remained, Yudhiṣṭhira should learn from Kṛṣṇa directly: “I know this Keśava in his very tattva (true nature). I know who he is and how ancient and great his strength truly is.”

Bhīṣma then spoke, in his own voice, a long Viśvarūpa-stotra naming Kṛṣṇa as the whole of creation.

Kṛṣṇa made the earth, the sky and svarga. The earth itself came from his body. He is the fearful, all-conquering strength of the primordial Varāha, maker of mountains and directions. Below him lie the antarikṣa (the region of light), svarga, and the four directions with their corners. All of creation follows him and depends on him. He alone made this ancient universe (purāṇa-viśva). From his navel a lotus rose, and from that lotus Brahmā was born, self-powered and glorious. He tore through the most terrible primal darkness. The fathomless ocean rests within him.

In Kṛta Yuga Kṛṣṇa was dharma itself, whole and undivided. In Tretā he took jñāna as his refuge. In Dvāpara he himself became bala (strength). In Kali, adharma comes to live on the earth. He is the ancient pūrvadeva, the emperor (samrāṭ). In an earlier age he was himself the dānava emperor Bali, having been pūrvadeva first. He is mindful of all beings of the past and the future, and is the protector of this whole world. Whenever the dharma of the devas suffers grave harm, Kṛṣṇa is born among mortals. His buddhi is always refined by saṃskāra (training), and he stays firm in dharma, protecting both the higher and lower lokas (para and apara). When the destruction of asuras is needed, he sets aside kārya, akārya and even kāraṇa itself, and does only what must be done. Know him thus as Rāhu, as Soma and as Śakra, all at once.

He is Viśvakarma, Viśvarūpa, the enjoyer of the universe (viśva), its maker and its conqueror. He bears the śūla (trident) and a form stained with blood and flesh. He is karāla-mūrti, of fearsome look, a form the wise praise only by understanding his deeds. Hundreds of gandharvas, apsarasas and devas attend him. Only rākṣasas fight against him. He increases wealth, always wants victory, and is One. Stotra-reciters praise him at the yajña. Singers of the sāman praise him with the Rathantara. Brāhmaṇas praise him with the ṛk verses. The adhvaryus prepare his havis (offering).

He entered the most ancient brahma-guhā (cave of Brahman). In an age before this one he saw the earth sink under the waters. He greatly shook the daityas, nāgas and dānavas, and raised the earth up again by his own supreme act. This recalls Varāha lifting the earth from the primal waters, and Kṛṣṇa’s own lifting of Govardhana in the cowherds’ time of rain. He alone is the Īśa of all paśus (all creatures). His ways of nourishment are many. In war he himself is known as the vāhana (mount) that carries victory.

Antarikṣa, pṛthivī and dyū (sky, earth and the world above) all stand for ever under his rule. He put a divine retas (seed) in a kalaśa (pot), and from that alone the great ṛṣi Vasiṣṭha was born. He is Vāyudeva, vibhu, aśvavāji and the primordial bright Sūrya. By him all the asuras were once beaten. By the mere stride of his feet the three lokas were filled. This is his Trivikrama nature, recalled even in a stotra to Kṛṣṇa and not directly to Vāmana. He is the ātman of devas, of humans and of pitṛs. He is called the vitāna (the canopy of the yajña) of those who know yajña. He divides kāla (time) and rises new each day. Both āyanas, the northern and the southern, belong to him. His rays (raśmi) move up, down and in every direction, lighting the earth. Brāhmaṇas who know the Veda serve him alone, and Āditya (the sun) shines only with light borrowed from him. He performs an adhvara (yajña) every month. Those who know the Veda recite him at yajña as the Veda itself. He bears the threefold cosmic cakra of the year, with three hubs and seven horses. He is Haṃsa, reached by all, a lion (siṃha) to all. He alone holds up every loka. Know him as the sun that drives away all darkness, the eternal doer of all that must be done.

Once, at Khāṇḍava, he became Agni himself among the grass and thicket, satisfied and all-pervading. He beat the rākṣasas and nāgas and burned them all in that fire, for he is Hṛṣīkeśa. He gave Arjuna his own white horses and made all his horses ready for him. He himself is the kūrpara (joiner) of the ratha (chariot) of saṃsāra, and he himself is that ratha. It is a chariot with three wheels (the three guṇas), three curved crests (the three gati), four horses (kāla, adṛṣṭa and īśvara-icchā-saṅkalpa: time, unseen fate and Īśvara’s own will) and four hubs (nābhi). With five hubs he made ākāśa. He made pṛthivī, dyūloka and the nakṣatra-loka, the forests and the mountains. His tejas blazes beyond all reckoning.

He crossed the rivers to destroy the wicked. He turned back Indra’s raised vajra itself, for he himself is Mahendra, praised in a great yajña by thousands of the most ancient ṛks recited by vipras. He is Durvāsa. No one else in all the worlds has the power to keep such a being in his own house. He is an ancient maharṣi, the maker of the universe and of his own ātma-bhāvas. It is Kṛṣṇa, of supreme ātma-bala (strength of self), who alone kept him at home and worshipped him. This is Bhīṣma’s own look ahead, within his stotra, to the episode that Kṛṣṇa himself tells fully in Chapter 159 below. He is the sarvādhika deva (the deva above all), teacher of the Vedas to all the lokas, upholder of the purāṇas, the agnihotra and all rules (vidhi). He also has whatever fruit belongs to the worldly Veda of kāma. He is Viṣvaksena.

All the bright lights in every loka, the three lokas, the three lokapālas, the three agnis, the three vyāhṛtis (bhūḥ, bhuvaḥ, svaḥ): every deva without exception is Devakīputra alone. Year (vatsara), season (ṛtu), fortnight (pakṣa), day and night (ahorātra), kalā, kāṣṭhā, mātrā, muhūrta, lava and kṣaṇa: every division of time is this same Viṣṇu in the form of Viṣvaksena. Candra, Sūrya, the planets, the nakṣatras, the stars, the new-moon and full-moon days, the nakṣatra-yogas and the seasons themselves are all born from Viṣvaksena Kṛṣṇa alone. The Rudras, Ādityas, Vasus, Aśvins, Sādhyas, Viśvedevas, Marudgaṇas, Prajāpati, Aditi the mother of the devas, and the Seven Great Ṛṣis were all formed from Kṛṣṇa alone. He becomes Vāyudeva and scatters the whole universe. He becomes Agni in his universal form and burns it up. He becomes water and drowns it. He becomes Brahmā and makes its assemblies of worlds anew.

He brings both the knowledge taught by the Veda and the knowledge of the thing to be known (jñeya). He alone is the maker of rule (vidhi) and of what the rule governs (vidheya). Dharma, Veda and strength in their whole are Kṛṣṇa. Whatever moves (cara) or does not move (acara) is Kṛṣṇa. Know this. He first shone forth as a great light (mahā-jyotiḥ-svarūpa). He is Viśvarūpa, and by him alone all things are filled with light. He is the ātman and the source (yoni) of every being. He first made the waters and then the whole universe. Seasons, omens (utpāta), wonders of every kind, clouds, lightning, and the śaktis born of the waters, and all things that stand still or move, came from Kṛṣṇa alone. Know him as Viṣṇu, Viśvātmā, who fills the whole universe and is untouched by the stain of the guṇas. The wise speak of him as Vāsudeva, Saṅkarṣaṇa and Jīvabhūta; then as Pradyumna; and as the fourth tattva, Aniruddha, who commands all things. He is ātmayoni, self-caused.

Wishing to make the whole universe, he set the pañcajanas (the five orders of beings) moving in five ways. After that he made pṛthivī, vāyu, gagana, agni and jala, the fourfold world of things that move and things that do not, and the earth with its five seeds, filling it and the sky richly with water. By Kṛṣṇa alone this whole universe was made. He alone holds it up, being self-caused. Devas, asuras, humans, lokas, ṛṣis, pitṛs and all creatures were made by him entire, and he is always the master (pati) of every being. Good and bad, moving and still: all this is Viṣvaksena alone. The present, past and future are all Keśava alone. Know this. Even death (mṛtyu), which comes at the end of time to every being, is Kṛṣṇa himself. He is eternal, the bearer of dharma who carries it ever forward. Whatever remains unknown to us is also Viṣvaksena alone. Whatever in the lokas is worth speaking of, whether puṇya, good or bad, all of it is the unimaginable Bhagavān Kṛṣṇa. Anything held to be other than this is viparīta, a wrong path. So is Keśava: also Nārāyaṇa, supreme (parama), unchanging (avyaya), with beginning, middle and end, of the nature of both going and staying, the source of rise and of unchanging being for all beings who wish to live.

Durvāsa’s vara at Dvārakā: the pāyasam episode (Chapter 159)

Kṛṣṇa himself told Yudhiṣṭhira the following. His own son Pradyumna, once angry at brāhmaṇas, questioned the worth of worshipping brāhmaṇas. Kṛṣṇa answered by telling how the fearsome ṛṣi Durvāsa had lived for a long time in his own house at Dvārakā.

Durvāsa tested Kṛṣṇa. First he demanded hot pāyasam (sweet milk-rice). Then he ordered Kṛṣṇa to smear the leftover pāyasam on his own body and on Rukmiṇī’s. Then he yoked Rukmiṇī to his chariot like a horse and drove her down the royal road, while the Dāśārhas were wild with rage. Kṛṣṇa met all of it without the slightest trace of anger. He ran after the fleeing ṛṣi, still smeared with pāyasam, and begged his forgiveness.

Durvāsa was delighted by this complete lack of krodha (anger). He gave Kṛṣṇa a vara of safety from harm in every place the pāyasam had touched him. But it did not cover the soles of his feet, which Kṛṣṇa had forgotten to smear. Durvāsa said, “That was not pleasing to me.”

By this detail the episode in the Anuśāsana Parva looks ahead to Kṛṣṇa’s own death. He was struck in the sole of the foot by the arrow of the hunter Jarā, which made Gāndhārī’s śāpa come true, as told above in the Strī Parva section. Durvāsa also gave Rukmiṇī the first place among Kṛṣṇa’s sixteen thousand wives. Afterwards Kṛṣṇa privately took an upāṃśu-vrata (a vow kept quietly): for the rest of his life he would obey, without question, the slightest word of any brāhmaṇa.

Praise of Śiva and the Tripura-dahana (Chapters 160–161)

Kṛṣṇa went on teaching Yudhiṣṭhira. He recited the Śatarudrīya in praise of Śiva. He told how Tripura was burned. He also told of Durvāsa’s own divine origin: he was the five-tufted boy seated on Rudra’s thigh during that same event. In this way Chapters 159 and 160 join the two halves of the Durvāsa story that Kṛṣṇa tells Yudhiṣṭhira one after the other.

The Vāsudeva–Pṛthivī Saṃvāda (Chapter 97)

Bhīṣma also tells Yudhiṣṭhira of an older saṃvāda (talk). In it Vāsudeva himself asked Pṛthivī (Bhūdevī) what a householder (gṛhastha) must do to reach true prosperity. Pṛthivī taught him the whole bali-vidhi (rule of offerings):

• the daily yajña to the devas (nitya-yajña)
• hospitality to guests (ātithya)
• vaiśvadeva before meals
• śrāddha to the pitṛs
• the placing of bali offerings in the right directions to Yama, Varuṇa, Candra, Prajāpati, Dhanvantari, Indra and the other devatās

She also taught the right order of the household rite: bali-karma first, then vaiśvadeva, then feeding brāhmaṇas, then guests, then the poor. The Mahābhārata records that Vāsudeva kept this discipline faithfully for the rest of his life.

Granting Bhīṣma leave to depart: Bhīṣma Svargārohaṇa Parva (Chapters 167–168)

Yudhiṣṭhira came back to Kurukṣetra fifty-eight nights after Bhīṣma fell, at the arrival of Uttarāyaṇa. Bhīṣma spoke to Kṛṣṇa at length. He called him Vāsudeva, the Hiraṇmaya Puruṣa, the Virāṭ-svarūpa and the sanātana Paramātman. He put the Pāṇḍavas in his eternal care. He recalled that he had told Duryodhana in vain: “Where Kṛṣṇa is, dharma is. Where dharma is, victory is.” He declared that he knew Kṛṣṇa to be the ancient ṛṣi Nārāyaṇa of Badarikāśrama, on the word of Nārada and Vyāsa.

Bhīṣma then formally asked Kṛṣṇa’s permission to give up his body. Kṛṣṇa granted it at once:

“Rāja, take up what you have earned. In this world there is not the smallest pāpa (sin) in you. You have shown supreme devotion to your father. You are another Mārkaṇḍeya. Mṛtyu itself, therefore, stands bowed before you, waiting like a servant at your command.”

The Mahābhārata here confirms Bhīṣma’s icchā-mṛtyu vara, the power to choose the hour of his death. Even with this power over his own death, Bhīṣma chose to ask Kṛṣṇa’s leave before using it. It was the last act of dharma in a lifetime of respect.

Kṛṣṇa then saw, together with Vyāsa, Nārada and Asita Devala, how Bhīṣma drew his prāṇa (life breath) in by yoga through the cakras of the body. It rose out of the crown of the skull as a great light.

Afterwards, at the Gaṅgā, Gaṅgā Devī rose weeping to mourn her son. She grieved that he had died at the hands of Śikhaṇḍī. Kṛṣṇa made the key correction: it was in truth Arjuna (Dhanañjaya) whose arrows had struck the fatal blows. Śikhaṇḍī’s presence had only made Bhīṣma lower his bow.

Āśramavāsika Parva: shown as Nārāyaṇa (Chapter 31)

At the Gaṅgā, Vyāsa showed Gāndhārī and the assembled Kuru household that Śrī Kṛṣṇa was Nārāyaṇa himself. Kṛṣṇa rose from the holy waters among the host of the fallen warriors. He met the Pāṇḍavas again for one joyful night before the company went away to their lokas.

The Aśvamedhika Parva

First counsel to the fallen Yudhiṣṭhira (Chapters 1–2)

At the very start of the Aśvamedhika Parva, Yudhiṣṭhira fell down in grief on the bank of the Gaṅgā after the udaka-kriyā (water offering) for his sons. Kṛṣṇa, called here “parabala-nuromāḍi”, the crusher of enemy hosts, prompted Bhīma to catch the sinking king. Kṛṣṇa spoke to him first: “You must not be like this.”

Dhṛtarāṣṭra then advised Yudhiṣṭhira to rise and rule. Kṛṣṇa spoke further. He urged Yudhiṣṭhira to perform great yajñas with rich dakṣiṇās (gifts). He told him to please the devas with soma and the pitṛs with svadhā, and to take up the rājya (kingdom) in the way handed down in his vaṃśa (family line). He reminded him that not one kṣatriya who stood firm in the battle had truly been beaten, and that grief could not undo what had happened.

Only after Kṛṣṇa fell silent did Yudhiṣṭhira, still not comforted, ask leave to go to the forest to do tapas (tapovana). This brought Vyāsa’s sharper rebuke and the Saṃvarta-Maruttīya ākhyāna that follows.

Consoling Yudhiṣṭhira: the Indra-Vṛtra Ākhyāna, Ātmayuddha and Kāmagīta (Chapters 11–13)

Vyāsa had already spoken to Yudhiṣṭhira. Kṛṣṇa then took up his comforting directly. He found the king diminished, “like the sun seized by Rāhu, like Agni smothered in smoke.”

Kṛṣṇa taught that grief (śoka) is destroyed by brahma-jñāna alone. Then, “following dharma and the Veda,” he told an inner, allegorical reading of the fight between Indra and Vṛtra. In it Indra stands for the ātma-tattva in the form of knowledge, and Vṛtra for the knot of kāma and ahaṃkāra that this ātman must overcome. Vasiṣṭha woke Indra with the Rathantara sāman, and this is read here as the mahāvākya:

“Aham Brahmāsmi.”

This means “I am Brahman.”

He then taught the Ātmayuddha, the battle that must now be fought with the mind alone, since the war of weapons was over. Last he recited the Kāmagīta, the ancient song of Kāma. Kāma declares that he cannot be killed by any single outer means. He can only be tamed through nirmamatva (freedom from “mine”) and yogābhyāsa (practice of yoga), set within a yajña that follows dharma and is free of desire (niṣkāma).

Kṛṣṇa ended by turning Yudhiṣṭhira toward the great Aśvamedha and away from repeated grief over the dead.

Farewell to Arjuna in the Maya-Sabhā (Chapter 15)

Yudhiṣṭhira was comforted, his kingdom secure, and the funeral rites for the Kuru dead complete. Kṛṣṇa and Arjuna spent a season of joy together in the Maya-sabhā at Indraprastha. They recalled the wonders and hardships of the war and spoke of the lines of ṛṣis and devas.

When their talk was over, Kṛṣṇa told Arjuna that his purpose in Bhārata was now fulfilled. Duryodhana and his armies were destroyed and the earth was safe in Yudhiṣṭhira’s hands. He wished to return to Dvārakā to see his father Vasudeva, Baladeva and the Vṛṣṇis after a long absence. He asked Arjuna to give this news to Yudhiṣṭhira. He said: “I have always given over this body of mine, and all the wealth of my house, to Yudhiṣṭhira. He is dear to me and worthy of honour. I have no other reason to stay here but you.” Arjuna agreed, with great difficulty.

This farewell ends the Aśvamedhika Parva proper. The Anugītā Parva begins right after it.

The Anugītā Parva: the essence of the Gītā through the Brāhmaṇa-Kāśyapa Itihāsa (Chapters 16–19)

Still in the Maya-sabhā, Arjuna told Kṛṣṇa that the teaching given to him at Kurukṣetra had slipped from his memory. He asked Kṛṣṇa to say it again. Kṛṣṇa answered that the Bhagavad Gītā cannot be spoken again exactly as it was. He had spoken it then while established in yoga, and he could not now recall it word for word. But he would give its very essence through an ancient itihāsa.

He recalled that a brāhmaṇa of great śakti, from Svargaloka or Brahmaloka, had once visited Kṛṣṇa and Arjuna. They asked him about mokṣadharma (the dharma of liberation). He told how the ṛṣi Kāśyapa once went to a wandering siddha and questioned him on death, rebirth, karma-phala (the fruit of karma), garbha (the womb and birth), sadācāra (right conduct) and the marks of the liberated ātmā. This teaching ends with the yogic technique of khecarī-mudrā, and it quotes Dattātreya as an authority.

At its end Kṛṣṇa asked Arjuna directly: “Was this not exactly what you heard that day on the battlefield, seated in your ratha?” He said plainly that this itihāsa, the Anugītā, carries the same essence as the Bhagavad Gītā. He warned that only a person with a purified antaḥkaraṇa (inner mind), taught by a guru, can truly grasp it.

The end of the Anugītā, the journey to Dvārakā and the Uttaṅkopākhyāna (Chapters 51–55 and 59)

Before the war-summary and the Parīkṣit episodes told below, the Aśvamedhika Parva records the end of the long Anugītā teaching that Kṛṣṇa had been giving Arjuna. It is framed as a recollection, after the war, of teaching that continues the Bhagavad Gītā.

At the very end of this Guru-Śiṣya-Saṃvāda, Arjuna asked Kṛṣṇa directly who the guru and the śiṣya (student) of the teaching he had just told were. Kṛṣṇa’s answer is one of the Mahābhārata’s most striking self-disclosures:

“O Mahābāhu! I myself am that guru. Know my own manas to be the śiṣya.”

He said clearly that this teaching was ekavākyatā (of one voice) with the Bhagavad Gītā he had given Arjuna during the war itself. He urged Arjuna never to forget it again (Chapter 51).

Kṛṣṇa then told Arjuna that he wished to visit his father Vasudeva and Ugrasena at Dvārakā, whom he had not seen for a long time. On the journey, after taking leave at Hastināpura, Arjuna offered him a long stuti praising him as Viśvakarma and Viśvātmā. Kṛṣṇa then passed through desert country and met the ṛṣi Uttaṅka (Chapter 52).

Uttaṅka learned that Kṛṣṇa had not prevented the destruction of the Kauravas. He was so angry that he threatened to pronounce a śāpa on him. Kṛṣṇa calmed him with a teaching on his own tattva. He said that tamas, rajas and sattva, all beings, all dharmas, and Viṣṇu, Brahmā and Indra themselves are all his own svarūpa. He gave Uttaṅka a darśana of his Viśvarūpa (Chapters 53–55).

Asked for a vara, Uttaṅka asked only for water in the desert whenever he needed it. This led to the episode of Indra disguised as a caṇḍāla offering him amṛta, and Uttaṅka refusing it through ignorance. Kṛṣṇa then granted the “Uttaṅka clouds”, which still water the desert.

This meeting also brings a long flashback (Chapters 56–58). It explains Uttaṅka’s tapas through his service to his guru Gautama and his quest for the divine kuṇḍalas (earrings) of Madayantī.

Kṛṣṇa then went on to Dvārakā. He came during the great Raivataka festival of the Vṛṣṇi and Andhaka clans. The assembled Bhoja, Vṛṣṇi and Andhaka kinsmen received him “as devas come forth to receive Devendra.” He made the formal abhivādana (greeting) and embraced his parents Vasudeva and Devakī after his long absence. This reunion leads directly to the war-narration to Vasudeva recorded in Chapter 60 below (Chapter 59).

War-summary, Parīkṣit’s revival and the sanction for the yajña (Chapters 60–71)

After the war, at Dvārakā, Vāsudeva (Kṛṣṇa’s father Vasudeva) asked Kṛṣṇa to tell the whole course of the Kurukṣetra war. Kṛṣṇa gave his father a short account of its eighteen days. He told of the successive commands of Bhīṣma, Droṇa, Karṇa and Śalya, the deaths of Śakuni and Duryodhana, and Aśvatthāmā’s night massacre.

In the telling Kṛṣṇa left out the death of Abhimanyu on purpose, to spare his father grief. But Subhadrā, and then Vasudeva himself, fainted when they learned the truth. Kṛṣṇa then told his father plainly that Abhimanyu had died unscarred and without turning back. He had been betrayed only by the combined treachery of Droṇa and Karṇa. He had certainly reached svarga (Chapters 60–61).

The most weighty of Kṛṣṇa’s acts in this parva came when Uttarā’s child, Abhimanyu’s son born after his death, was born lifeless. He had been struck by Aśvatthāmā’s brahmāstra even in the womb. Before the whole household gathered at Hastināpura, Kṛṣṇa heard the laments of Kuntī, Subhadrā and Uttarā in turn. He touched water and drew back the brahmāstra. He then spoke a satya-kriyā, a chain of oaths of truth. In it he named his own unbroken keeping of satya and dharma, and his rightful killing of Kaṃsa and Keśī. By this the dead infant was brought back to life.

Kṛṣṇa himself then named the child Parīkṣit, for he was born at the hour of the family’s parikṣaya (near-destruction) (Chapters 66–70).

Later, Yudhiṣṭhira wished to perform the Aśvamedha with the treasure recovered from the ancient yajña of Marutta. He first asked Kṛṣṇa’s own permission. He called him parama-guru and said that all the prosperity of the Pāṇḍavas flowed from his pratāpa (might) and buddhi. Kṛṣṇa agreed formally: “I have agreed. Perform the yajña. I give you my true word: I shall do everything you ask. As you, the king, are the yajamāna (the patron of the yajña), so too shall Bhīmasena, Arjuna, Nakula and Sahadeva be reckoned as having performed the yajña” (Chapter 71).

The Mausala Parva: acceptance of the śāpa and return to his supreme abode (Chapters 1–4)

In the thirty-sixth year of Yudhiṣṭhira’s reign, the hour that both Gāndhārī and the ṛṣi Durvāsa had foretold came at Dvārakā.

The śāpa of the ṛṣis (Chapters 1–2)

The Vṛṣṇi youths, led by Sāraṇa, dressed Sāmba as a pregnant woman. They mockingly asked the ṛṣis Viśvāmitra, Kaṇva and Nārada to foretell “her” child. The angry ṛṣis declared that Sāmba would give birth to an iron musala (pestle) that would destroy the Vṛṣṇis and Andhakas. They said that Balarāma would leave his body in the sea, and that Kṛṣṇa himself would be struck down by the hunter Jarā.

Kṛṣṇa heard the whole account. He knew the end of all things, and he did not try to change what Kāla had ordained. He told his kinsmen that this was destined to be so, and that he did not wish to make Yama act otherwise. He took this brāhmaṇa śāpa not as a hurt put on him from outside but as the working out of his own all-knowing will.

The destruction of the Yādavas (Chapter 3)

At the tīrtha of Prabhāsa, a drunken quarrel among the Vṛṣṇis broke out into mutual slaughter, the destruction of the Yādavas. Kṛṣṇa saw Sātyaki and his own son Pradyumna fall. He took a handful of eraka grass, which became in his hand the very musala of the śāpa. He struck down many with it. In every hand the grass turned into an iron pestle, and the clan destroyed itself.

Sāmba, Cārudeṣṇa, Pradyumna, Aniruddha and Gada had all died. Kṛṣṇa then finished the destruction of what was left of the line. He knew the power of Kāla, and he stood as witness to the plan he had himself accepted.

Return to his supreme abode (Chapter 4)

Kṛṣṇa sent Dāruka to tell the Kurus and Arjuna, and Babhru to guard the women. He went into Dvārakā, asked his father Vasudeva to protect the Yādava women until Arjuna came, and touched his father’s feet in farewell.

Returning to the forest, he found Balarāma seated in yoga under a tree. He saw a great white serpent, Ananta, come out of his brother’s mouth and enter the ocean. The Ocean, the divine serpents and Varuṇa welcomed him.

Then Kṛṣṇa remembered the words of Gāndhārī and of Durvāsa. He held back all the workings of his senses, speech and mind, entered mahāyoga (great yoga), and lay down on the earth. The hunter Jarā took his foot for a deer and pierced it with an arrow. He came near and saw the four-armed Puruṣa dressed in yellow silk. He fell in terror at Kṛṣṇa’s feet and begged forgiveness.

Bhagavān Kṛṣṇa, full of kindness, comforted the trembling hunter. He filled the space between earth and sky with his tejas and went up to his supreme and unthinkable abode (svalokagamana). There Indra, the Aśvins, the Rudras, the Ādityas, the Vasus, the Viśvedevas, the ṛṣis, siddhas, gandharvas and apsarasas came forward to receive Nārāyaṇa, the cause of all causes, the imperishable Master of yoga, home again at his own eternal station.

The Svargārohaṇa Parva: seen enthroned in svarga and return to his own svarūpa (Chapters 4–5)

Yudhiṣṭhira cast off his human body in the divine Ākāśagaṅgā. He came at last among the divine assembly. The first being he saw was Govinda. Kṛṣṇa shone in his own tejas, worshipped by Brahmā, radiant in a form both divine and terrible. Beside him stood the cakra in personal form, with his other āyudhas (weapons) in embodied shape. Arjuna, of great tejas, served him and worshipped him as of old. The two dear friends, Nara and Nārāyaṇa, joined again in their divine place, received Yudhiṣṭhira with love and honoured him as the devas honour their own. So the Pāṇḍava’s grief was answered. The charioteer (sārathi) who had steered him through the war of dharma stood shown in his supreme glory, worshipped by the devas themselves.

At the close of all things, Janamejaya asked about the final destination (gati) of the heroes. The truth about Kṛṣṇa’s own nature was declared. Vāsudeva is the aṃśa of Nārāyaṇa, the deva-deva, the sanātana Paramātmā. When his work on earth was done, he did not merge into any other deva, as the lesser aṃśas did. He withdrew back into his own eternal svarūpa, from which all descents come.

His sixteen thousand consorts, in the fullness of time, entered the waters of the Sarasvatī and gave up their bodies. They went up to svarga, became apsarases, and were taken back into Vāsudeva himself. They returned to the source from which they had come, as portions of Vāsudeva’s own śakti.

Sources

• Varāha Mahā Purāṇa, Chapters 15, 36, 46 and 48
• Brahma Vaivarta Mahā Purāṇa, Brahma Khaṇḍa, Chapters 1–30
• Brahma Vaivarta Purāṇa, Śrī Kṛṣṇa Janana Khaṇḍa, Chapters 4, 7, 10–21 (including Chapter 15) and 54
• Bhāgavata Mahā Purāṇa, Tenth Skanda, Chapters 1–24 (including Chapters 2–3)
• Hari Vamśa Purāṇa, Viṣṇu Parva, Chapters 1–34, 40–46, 84–87, 93–99 and 103–105
• Agni Purāṇa, Chapter 12
• Kūrma Purāṇa, the account of Upamanyu’s tapas (named in Anuśāsana Parva, Chapter 18 as a different account)
• Mahābhārata, Bhīṣma Parva, Chapter 23
• Mahābhārata, Sauptika Parva, Chapters 12–17
• Mahābhārata, Strī Parva, Chapters 1–26
• Mahābhārata, Anuśāsana Parva, Chapters 11, 14–15, 18, 97, 139, 147–148 and 158–161
• Mahābhārata, Anuśāsana Parva, Bhīṣma Svargārohaṇa Parva, Chapters 167–168
• Mahābhārata, Āśramavāsika Parva, Chapter 31
• Mahābhārata, Aśvamedhika Parva (including the Anugītā Parva), Chapters 1–2, 11–19, 51–55, 59, 60–61 and 66–71
• Mahābhārata, Mausala Parva, Chapters 1–4
• Mahābhārata, Svargārohaṇa Parva, Chapters 4–5