Facts about the Ramayana and the Mahabharata

The two great epics of India, the Ramayana and the Mahabharata were composed by Valmiki and Vyasa respectively. The Ramayana consists of seven Kandas namely Balakanda, Ayodhyakanda, Aranyakanda, Kishkindhakanda, Sundarakanda, Yuddhakanda and Uttarakanda. The first and the last Kandas are considered as later additions to the original five kandas which are ascribed to Valmiki. The Ramayana is considered as a kavya (poem), and is confined to the life of Rama and his brothers and their vicissitudes.

The Mahabharata consists of 18 books, each called a parva and an annexe called Harivamsha which deals with the life and history of Sri Krishna. The 18 parvas are Adiparva, Virataparva, Udyogaparva, Bhishmaparva, Aranyaka or Vanaparva, Shantiparva, Anushasanaparva, Sabhaparva, Karnaparva, Dronaparva, Shalyaparva, Sauptikaparva, Striparva, Ashvamedhikaparva, Ashramavasikaparva, Mausalaparva, Mahaprasthanikaparva and Svargarohanaparva. The Mahabharata is considered as a ithihasa (history) and hence has utilized and incorporated a large mass of ballads and bardic verses preserved in many prominent families.

Ramayana and Mahabharata are Bardic literature

According to P.L.Vaidya, the Ramayana, the Mahabharata and the Puranas form a class of literature by themselves and should be styled as bardic literature. The main characteristic of this literature is that originally it consisted of small songs, ballads and even stray verses called Gatha narasamsi and continued to be sung by traditional bards and transmitted by them to succeeding generations by oral traditions. These songs or ballads later developed into Epics, Puranas and early Kavyas. According to R.N.Dandekar, ancient Indian literature was characterized by two distinct literary traditions, called the suta tradition and the mantra tradition. The mantra tradition relating to religious thought and practice, soon came to be consolidated and began to manifest itself in fixed literary forms. The suta tradition, comprising a large number of popular bardic, legendary and historical material, however continued to remain fluid for a petty long period. The historical epic poem which dealt with the Bharata War and was appropriately called Jaya, was the first literary monument belonging to the suta tradition. Jaya gradually became transformed into the epic Bharata by subsequent additions.

Orally transmitted during earlier days

Both Ramayana and the Mahabharata were in the early stages transmitted by oral traditions. Vyasa who composed Mahabharata narrated it to his five pupils who each one of them had a separate samhita of his own. Of these five samhitas of Mahabharata, we possess the full text of Vaishampayana’s samhita, transmitted through Lomaharsana Suta and his disciple Shaunaka.

Similarly Valmiki first taught the poem, Ramayana to his two disciples, Lava and Kusha, who first sung it at the court of Rama. It must have been committed to memory by several bards and sung to people in regions far and wide. In course of this propagation of Ramayana or Ramakatha, the bards must have added and even altered the story in a number of ways in the direction of its wordings or even contents. These recitations of the bards got localized and when they were reduced to writing, they assumed the form of recensions and versions current in that particular locality.

The Mahabharatha

The theme of the epic Mahabharata is the fight between the two lines of princes belonging to the dynasty of Bharata. That is why the book is called Mahabharata. The Mahabharata is the national saga of India and according to German Indologist Hermann Oldenberg - “In the Mahabharata breathe the united soul of India, and the individual souls of her people”. In the words of C.V.Vaidya, “the Mahabharata is the national poem of India and the store house of Indian genealogy, mythology and antiquity”.

Vyasa was a contemporary of Pandavas and Kauravas and he was a witness to many of the events of the Mahabharata. Vyasa composed the Mahabharata over a period of three years after the passing away of Sri Krishna and the Pandavas and the story was propagated by his disciple Vaishampayana at the time of the serpent sacrifice of Janamejaya, the great grandson of Arjuna. As the great Bharata War was a great catastrophe for the nation and its culture, the surviving Vyasa should have deemed it necessary to preserve all the traditional lore, which might have already assumed a literary form. Vyasa had composed only the essence of Mahabharata comprising 8800 shlokas and that work was called Jaya. Vaishampayana added a few verses of his own and brought the number to 24,000 verses and the book was named Bharatasamhita and finally Suta made more additions and inflated the work to 1,00,000 verses and named it Mahabharata.

The Mahabharata text was originally committed to memory and recited freely and differently by different rhapsodists. Hence from generations to generations, from place to place, from bard to bard, the wording, even the contents would vary a little, until the text is committed to writing. According to P.V.Kane, in the present text of Mahabharata there are three elements- 1. The bare story of the Pandavas and the Kauravas, 2. The Upakhyanas, concerning gods, sages, brahmins, kings and others and 3. Didactic matters insisting on doing one’s duties and the role of dharma and philosophy. It is clear that the Mahabharata had become, long before the 7^th century A.D., a work for popular education and was being recited before general audiences of men and women in India.

Critical Edition of the Mahabharata

The need for a critical or correct edition of the Mahabharata was first mooted by Prof. M. Winternitz in 1897. The task of preparing the critical edition was taken by the Bhandarkar Oriental Research Institute, Poona in 1919 and scholars like Utgikar, V.S.Sukthankar, S.K.Belvalkar, R.N.Dandekar, S.K.De and and others worked as editors of various parvas. The manuscripts of Mahabharata selected for preparing the critical editions were written in eight scripts, namely Sharada, Nepali, Maithili, Bengali, Devanagari, Telugu, Grantha and Malayalam scripts. Of the two recensions of Mahabharata, northern and southern, the northern was found to be more authentic while the southern was found to contain later elements. Hence the editors preparing the critical edition of Mahabharata accepted the northern text as the principle and southern as a secondary text.

The Mahabharata was composed earlier than the Ramayana

According to P.V.Kane, the main characters of the Mahabharata were known long before Panini and tales related to Pandava heroes had been embodied in a work or in works in verse long before Patanjali wrote and that the core of the Mahabharata existed before 500 B.C. The same cannot be said about the Ramayana and there is no evidence to show that the principal characters of the Ramayana were known to Panini or even to Patanjali. At the most one can say that the three names, Dasharatha, Rama and Sita were probably known about 250-200 B.C., but not described as endowed with the qualities they bear in the extant Ramayana. In the view of P.V.Kane, the core of the Ramayana story may be only as old as 300 -250 B.C. at the most. According to V.S.Sukthankar, Ramayana was composed in the interval which separated Bharata from the Mahabharata. Ramayana was a well-known work before the Mahabharata reached its ultimate form and it is also possible that when the Ramayana was composed by the poet Valmiki, the heroic poem Bharata, the nucleus of our Mahabharata was already long in existence.

Mahavibhasha, a commentary on the Jnanaprasthana of Katyayaniputra composed perhaps during the reign of king Kanishka, has a short passage which says that in the book called Ramayana, there are 12,000 shlokas and they refer to two topics – the abduction of Sita by Ravana by violence and the rescue of Sita by Rama and their return. This is the earliest record mentioning the word Ramayana and its size. A terracotta from Kausambi dated 2^nd century B.C., (in the Allahabad museum) depicts the abduction of Sita by Ravana. H.D.Sankalia is of the view that even the critical edition of the Ramayana is not only later than Mahabharata but also later than the Puranas like Vayu Purana and Matsya Purana. According to him the Ramayana in its present state cannot be earlier than 5^th century A.D.

The Bharata and the Ramayana may have been indeed more or less independent products, different in origin and treatment. But when the Bhargava redactors set to work and convert the Bharatha into the Mahabharata, they had already the archetype of our Ramayana text before them and they made full use of it, absorbing in their own encyclopaedic work and perhaps also influenced by it in no small degree.

The Ramayana

Of the two epics, the appeal of the Ramayana has been deeper and larger than that of the Mahabharatha, the main reason being that the Ramayana is a homogeneous text, with a simple and straightforward story. The Ramayana is a living tradition not only in India but in several countries world wide. Since ancient times it has been in the limelight and the source of ethical and moral values to Indian society. The immortality of the Ramayana is proclaimed by Brahma - “As long as the hills endure and rivers flow, till that date Ramayana will continue to flourish”.

The original Ramayana composed by Adikavi Valmiki must have been a text quite brief and probably without embellishments. No manuscript of this text is available today. It consisted of only five Kandas and it represented Rama as a human hero, while the Balakanda and the Uttarakanda glorify Rama as an incarnation of Vishnu. According to Ananda Guruge, the development of the Ramayana took place in various stages. First there were the ballads and cycles of ballads centering round Ayodhya, Kishkindha and Lanka. Secondly they were put together by the poet Valmiki into an epic of about 12,000 verses. Thirdly the poem which was originally divided into Adhyayas came to be divided into five Kandas. Fourthly the original text developed into recensions and interpolation took place. Finally the legendary portion of the Balakanda and the Uttarakanda were added probably under Brahmanical influence. The extant Ramayana consists of 24,000 verses.

Later the text must have gone on expanding and through the course of centuries several additions must have been made to the text of the Adikavi and later transmitted to south India. Later more additions were made to the southern recession texts also.

Antecedents of sage Valmiki

The Drona Parva of the Mahabharata mentions a Bhargava Valmiki, a brahmin born in the Bhargava gotra or family. The popular legend connected with Valmiki, identifies Valmiki with a certain robber who later became a poet. The earliest reference to Valmiki as a robber is found in the Skanda Purana which is dated 800 A.D. and according to scholars is not a very reliable source of information about Valmiki. Indian traditions believe Valmiki to be a contemporary of Rama and an eye witness to at least some of the important events of the story. He lived in an ashram on the banks of river Tamasa and his hermitage was visited by both Sita and Shatrughna and Lava and Kusha were born in his hermitage. Alfred Bloch assumes Valmiki to be a court poet of the Ikshvaku dynasty and a contemporary of Rama while Minoru Hara opines that Valmiki was a singer of tales and according to J.L.Brockington Valmiki used and to some extent incorporated older material in his epic. The view that Valmiki incorporated older material in his epic is also echoed by C.Rajagopalachari, one of the foremost interpreters of the Ramayana and Ananda Guruge, the Sri Lankan scholar. According to C.Rajagopalachari, the story of Rama had been in existence long before Valmiki wrote his epic and gave form to a story that has been handed down from generation to generation. Similarly Ananda Guruge opines that ballads centering round Ayodhya, Kishkindha and Lanka were put together by the poet Valmiki into an epic of about 12,000 verses. But according to Kamala Ratnam, nowhere in the Indian literature, Valmiki is called a compiler and the Ramayana itself shows that it is no haphazard collection of cycles of ballads but a unitary poem, mostly the work of a single poet.

Morning Star of Indian Classical Poetry

Hailed as Adikavi, the first poet, and the mentor of all later poets, especially of those of the Rama narrative tradition, Valmiki is described by Prof. M.Hiriyanna as the Morning Star of Indian Classical Poetry, while the great poet Bhavabhuti regards Valmiki as the essence of poetry. According to G.K.Bhat, Valmiki is a Maha Kavi and Bharata Kavi. While other poets could be remembered for their great poetic achievements and read for pleasure and enjoyment of beauty, Valmiki is a national memory, never to be forgotten. Monier Williams opines that in the whole range of worlds literature, there are few, more charming poems than the Ramayana.

Beginning of Sanskrit language

The composition of the Ramayana marks a distinct stage in the development of Sanskrit language and poetry. Actually the denomination ‘Sanskrit’ is used for the first time in the Ramayana. Sanskrit means Samskrita, refined or cultured. The language of the earlier Vedic literature, in fact, had no name. It was called just Vak, speech. Panani used the term Chhandas to refer to the language of the Vedas and Bhasha (Sanskrit) as the language spoken by the people during his times.

Critical edition of the Ramayana

The task of preparing the critical edition of the Ramayana was taken by the Oriental Institute of Baroda in 1954 on the lines of the critical editions of Mahabharata published by the Bhandarkar Oriental Research Institute, Poona. A number of scholars like G.H. Bhatt, P.L.Vaidya, D.R.Mankad and others brought out critical editions of the various Kandas of Ramayana with the help of original manuscripts. In the preparation of the critical editions of Ramayana, two major groups of recessions of Ramayana, the northern and the southern were utilized. Manuscripts of the northern group included those of Sharada (Kashmiri), Nevari (Nepali), Bengali and Devanagari scripts. The southern group had manuscripts in Telugu, Grantha and Malayalam scripts and also in Devanagari. The date of these manuscripts range from 1020 A.D. to 1860 A.D. and no manuscript of the Ramayana older than 1020 A.D. was found. Though inflated, the southern recension of the Ramayana contained a more archaic text and was adopted as the main text by the editors preparing the critical version of the Ramayana.

Reference

1. G.K.Bhat – The Genius of Valmiki, ABORI, vol -67, No 1/4, 1986

2. Kamala Ratnam, R.Rangachari – Valmiki and Vyasa, Publication Division, Government of India, 2012

3. Dinesh Sakalani – Questioning the Questioning of Ramayanas, ABORI, vol – 85, 2004

4. P.V.Kane – The Two Epics, ABORI, vol – XLVII, 1966

5. P.Nagaraja Rao – Sri Rama and the moral ideal (Dharma), Journal of the Ganganatha Jha Research Institute, vol -xvii, May-Aug, 1961

6. Vettam Mani- Puranic Encyclopedia, Motilal Banarsidass, 1975,

7. Guruge Ananda W.P. - The Society of the Ramayana, Abhinava Publications, New Delhi, 1991

8. A.D.Pusalker – Studies in the Epics and Puranas, Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan, Bombay

9. Vaidya P.L. - Edited - The Ayodhya Kanda, 2^nd Book of Valmiki Ramayana, Oriental Institute, Baroda, 1962

10. Vaidya P.L. - Edited - The Yuddha Kanda, 6^th Book of Valmiki Ramayana, Oriental Institute, Baroda, 1971

11. D.R.Mankad – Edited – The Kishkinda Kanda, 4^th Book of Valmiki Ramayana, Oriental Institute, Baroda, 1965

12. P.K.Gode – Edited, V..S.Sukthankar – Critical Studies in the Mahabharata, Vol – I, V.S.Sukthankar Memorial Edition, Karnatak Publishing House, Bombay, 1944

13. H.D.Sankalia – The Ramayana in Historical Perspective, Macmillan India Ltd, 1982

14. C.V.Vaidya – The Mahabharata – A Criticism, 1905

Sri Krishna, the prophet and his message

Sri Krishna and Gautama Buddha were the two great prophets of ancient India whose teachings; the ‘Bhagvad Gita’ and the ‘Four Noble Truths’ are relevant even in the present times. Both belonged to the Kshtriya class and their teachings, influenced by the Upanishads, were inclusive in nature and meant for the whole of humanity. But unlike Buddha who became a monk, Sri Krishna till his end remained active in public life, dethroning tamasik rulers and empowering sathvik rulers. While Buddha’s teaching that ‘life is full of misery’ evokes pessimist outlook in life, Sri Krishna urged people to actively discharge their duties in life but without any attachment for the results.

Ancestry of Sri Krishna

Sri Krishna, belonging to the Lunar race was the son of Vasudeva who was the 93^rd descendant from Vrshni, who was the son of Bhima Satvata, the 66^th descendant of Kroshtu, son of Yadu and grandson of Yayati. Hence Krishna is said to be identified with the Yadavas, Vrshnis and Savatas. As his mother Devaki was the daughter of Ugrasena who was a descendant from Andhaka, son of Bhima Satvata, Krishna is also identified with the Andhaka clan.¹ The Jaina tradition makes Krishna a cousin and contemporary of Neminatha, the Jain Tirthankara before Parshvanatha of the 8^th century B.C.²

Were there two different Krishna’s?

According to some scholars Sri Krishna of the Mahabharata is not the same person as the Sri Krishna of the Puranas because- The story of Krishna’s childhood has no place in the Mahabharata though later on a supplement in the form of Harivamsha was added giving a detailed account of the early life of Sri Krishna. But it is outside the mainstream of the Mahabharata text and is a sort of Purana in itself.³

The character which is ascribed to Sri Krishna in the Puranas is altogether unbecoming of the great sage who, later on, became the teacher of such lofty thoughts as are embodied in Bhagavad Gita, and so according to these scholars the two Krishna’s cannot possibly be the same person.⁴

According to R.G.Bhandarkar the cow-herd Krishna of the Puranas is different from the Vrishni prince Vasudeva of the Mahabharata. Krishna was most probably the god of a nomadic cow-herd tribe known as the Abhiras who lived in the region extending from the vicinity of Mathura in the east to that of Dwaraka in the west. Stories about Krishna’s childhood exploits current among this nomadic tribe might have afterwards been incorporated in the Puranas, after the worship of Sri Krishna was adopted in Hinduism is the view of R.G.Bhandarkar.⁵

But Bahadur Mal feels that in the Mahabharata itself, there are passages in which Vasudeva is described as Krishna of the Yadava and Vrishni tribes of Mathura. Probably Vasudeva the Vrishni prince in his infancy was brought up in a cow-herd settlement at Gokula and then at Brindavan.⁶

Confusion regarding Krishna’s teacher

The earliest mention of Krishna is to be found in the Chandogya Upanishad and all scholars have asserted that Devakiputra Krishna described there was the disciple of Ghora Angirasa.⁷ But Puranic traditions does not recognize Ghora Angirasa and mention Sandipani as the teacher of Krishna.⁸

While H.C.Rayachaudhuri considers Krishna as the disciple of Ghora Angirasa and identifies the Krishna of the Chandogya Upanishad with the epic Krishna by showcasing the identity of the teachings of Gita with those contained in the conversation between Ghora Angirasa and Krishna,⁹ S.N.Tadapatrikar believes that Krishna initiated by Ghora Angirasa was quite different from Krishna of the epic and Puranas and the messenger of Bhagavad Gita.¹⁰

However Bimanbehari Majumdar asserts that the original text of Chandogya Upanishad does not say that Krishna is the disciple of Ghora Angirasa and it was Shankaracharya in his commentary on the above mentioned Upanishad had said that Krishna was the disciple of Ghora Angirasa. According to Bemanbehari Majumdar, Ghora Angirasa addresses Krishna as Achyuta (infallible), Akshita (indestructible and Prana Sanshita (the very essence of life), which shows that Ghora Angirasa regarded Krishna as a divine being. Interestingly in the Bhagavad Gita also we find the term, Achyuta being used by Arjuna to call Krishna.¹¹

Multi facet personality of Sri Krishna

A daring personality who fought with the mighty and powerful, Sri Krishna was an astute statesman, a master strategist, a counselor, a mystic and a religious reformer.

Krishna’s strength and valour, knowledge and wisdom placed him above all others. All the great men of his times bowed down their heads in reverence to him. As he was the greatest of all, he received the agra puja at the Rajasuya sacrifice. According to Bankim Chandra Chatterjee, Sri Krishna will stand out as the resplendent embodiment of all good qualities in all places and all times.¹²

Sri Krishna was a master of various arts like the art of healing, driving chariots; was a good singer and musician. He invented a new weapon, the Sudharshana Chakra.¹³

Under the watchful eyes of Acharya Sandipani, Krishna mastered over ‘64 fine arts’. He was known for breeding and training horses. The names of his four favourite horses; Shaibya, Sugriva, Megha-Pushpa and Balahaka have come down to us and it seems that with the help of these horses, Sri Krishna used to cover the distance between Indraprastha (Delhi) and Dwaraka in a week. He is credited to have reclaimed land from the ocean by a feat of engineering not detailed in the available text and built the great city of Dwaraka. He is also said to have introduced a new flower, Parijata.¹⁴

Sri Krishna’s campaign against autocratic rulers

Sri Krishna was a relentless fighter in the cause of justice and righteousness. He waged throughout his life, incessant war against tyrants and evil doers and destroyed them. Kamsa, Jarasandha, Shishupala and Salva were some of the evil tyrant rulers eliminated by him. In Drona Parva of the Mahabharata, Dhritarashtra refers to the Angas, the Vangas, the Kalingas, the Magadhas, the Kashis, the Kosalas, the Vatsyas, the Gargias, the Karusas, the Paundras, the Avantis and others being vanquished by Sri Krishna. During the Rajasuya yajna, Bhishma while speaking about the great qualities of Sri Krishna, declares that there was hardly a king among those present in the yajna, who had not been defeated by Sri Krishna at one time or another. Allowing for any exaggeration that there might possibly be in this description of the battles waged by Sri Krishna, there is no doubt that he was unequaled, through the length and breadth of the country, in martial valour and skill in arms.¹⁵

Sri Krishna as a religious reformer

According to K.V.Raman, the Bhagavata school centering around the worship of Sri Krishna and the teachings of Bhagavad Gita evolved around 2^nd century B.C. in the Mathura region. The Bhagavata school was a very important reformist movement, a liberal reaction to the protest movements within the Hindu fold which became popular throughout India. Though the Krishna cult was popularized by the shepherd class of the Yadavas, the Bhagavata movement received active support and encouragement from the caste including the higher ones and it became one of the most popular movements in our history spreading to different parts of the country.¹⁶

The gist of Bhagavad Gita

The whole and sole teaching of the Gita, is very pragmatic, very practical and very rational. That teaching is, in brief: “Do your duty, not out of blind faith in any petty, paltry, ritualistic and dictatorial conventions, but after ascertaining it in the light of Atma Vidhya – the all-coordinating, all illuminating science; and then do it without craving for fruit, fearless of consequences, sure that right resolve and right effort can never go in vain, but will always bring right results, soon or late”.¹⁷

Krishna cult, a revolt against the Vedic cult

Even in his boyhood and youth, Sri Krishna was a zealous reformer of religion. He battled bravely as a boy against the prevalent excessive and sensuous Vedic formalism and ritualism; warred upon vested priestly or rather priest-crafty interests and pretensions; successfully abolished the Indra-Makha with its blood sacrifices and libations and potations; and established instead the more rational cult of the cow, so eminently suited to an agricultural civilization. This open condemnation of hypocritical, cunning, selfish and senseless, or perverse and depraved sacerdotal formalism and of the endeavor to hypnotize the people with the mere outer word of the Veda is briefly but strongly repeated by him in his later teachings of the Gita.¹⁸

“ The flowery speech of the foolish men who are always talking of ‘Veda, Veda’, as if there were nothing else, filled with desires, greedy of paradise, ambitious of powers, craving after luxuries- they who allow their minds to be carried away by that deceptive speech, they never attain to the steadiness of the understanding which sees the Self in and by meditation. Rise above the Vedas, Arjuna! Rise beyond the reach of the three gunas, rise beyond the pairs of opposites, rise to the supremacy of the Self. To the man who knows the immensity of the Self, the whole of the Vedas is of no more use than is a small and shallow puddle in the time of widespread flood”.¹⁹

In its real character, Bhagavatism was not very favourably inclined towards the varnashramadharma and the Brahmins, and the Vrishnis among whom Sri Krishna was born were noted for their irrelevant attitude towards Brahmins and casteless foreigners were freely admitted into the Bhagavata religion.²⁰

In Vaishnavism (due to the influence of Krishna’s cult), the rituals consist of fruits, leaves, flowers and water given (offered) with devotion. The god accepts it because of devotion. This form of worship is entirely non-Vedic, it avoids sacrifices and its strong predilection for non-violence precludes offering living creatures.²¹

The Bhagavad Gita which contains the message of Sri Krishna marks a clear departure in its religious and social outlook from the Vedic tradition which had its base on priestly power and knowledge and control of sacrifice. The Bhagavad Gita presented the Bhakti marga as a way of salvation open for the men of the world including women, Jnana marga for those who could attain it and Karma marga for the warrior class.²²

Bhagavata religion co-opted by Vedic followers

The worship of Krishna Vasudeva as a divine chieftain had taken place even before the compilation of the epic Mahabharata. In the earliest literary references, Krishna is already remembered as a leader and the religious preceptor and the God of gods of the Vrsni or Sattvata people of north India of plebeian social status. Later the Sattvatas rose from the low original status to the rank of warriors or Kshatriyas in status. Their faith called Sattvatadharma became the personal religion of many members of the north Indian knightley circles and by the time when the epic had reached the point of mid formation, the cult of Krishna had began to attract members of India’s other and highest aristocracy, that of the Sanskrit speaking Brahmins.²³

One of the reason for the Sattvatadharma to gain adherents from the upper castes was due to the teachings of the Bhagavad Gita to the disaffected householders leaving their civil duties and entering monastic life; that salvation can be gained by doing one’s duty in the society without expectations.²⁴

Also the greatness of Sri Krishna and the excellence of the Bhagavad Gita which came to be regarded as one of the three prasthanas of Vedanta led to the Bhagavata religion, which was once regarded as outside the pale of Vedism to be admitted into the Vedic fold. This also led to the Yadu clan to which Sri Krishna belonged and which is said to have originally been regarded as a shudra one to be recognized as a Kshtriya clan.²⁵

Infused Vedic ideology with Bhagavatism

Though Bhagavatism/Vaishnavism was imbued with non-Brahmanical/Vedic ideas and practices, it seems that among the early worshippers of Vishnu, there was one section of people who, though won over to the worship of Sri Krishna, looked upon the Vedas as authorities, attached great importance to varnasharamadharma and the smrti rules. It was these type of Brahmins who were the authors of present Puranas who on one hand while glorifying Sri Krishna/Vishnu, on the other hand tried to establish the varnashramadharma and the authority of the Vedas.²⁶

Entering the Krsnaite religion in increasing numbers, Brahmins undertook to give Krishna worship the status of an orthodox Vedic religion by identifying Krishna with the Rig Vedic god Vishnu. The Sattvata religion received a more inclusive name as Bhagavatism- the religion devoted to Bhagavan or Sri Krishna and absorbed the sect of the Pancaratrins who honoured Brahmins and the Vedas but who refrained scrupulously from taking life in ritual or in diet.²⁷

Deification of Sri Krishna

According to Bimanbehari Majumdar, the earliest mention of Sri Krishna is to be found in the Chandogya Upanishad, where Ghora Angirasa addressed Krishna as Achyuta (infallible), Akshita (indestructible and Prana Sanshita (the very essence of life). As the date of the composition of Chandogya Upanishad is said to be sometimes before the 6^th century B.C., the godhood of Krishna must have taken place some centuries earlier than the date of the composition of Chandogya Upanishad.²⁸

We find references to Krishna Vasudeva in Panani’s Astadhyayi (400 B.C.), as well as in the commentary of Patanjali on the same.²⁹ Buddhist canon Niddesa of the 4^th century B.C. mentions about the worship of Vasudeva.³⁰ Inscriptions found at Ghosundi (200 B.C.) and at Nanaghat cave (189 B.C.), helps us fix the time when Krishna began to be worshiped as an incarnation of God in India.³¹ Evidence of the worship of Sri Krishna comes from the Greek accounts of an Indian group that migrated to Armenia in the period 149-127 B.C., who worshiped Kishen or Damodara, a derivative and epithet of Krishna respectively.³²

During the Kushana period, Mathura was a stronghold of the Krishna cult. One of the Kushana kings was named Vasudeva. The earliest representation in India of Krishna belongs to that period and comes from Mathura. It is the Mathura Museum relief, No.1344, which represents Vasudeva carrying new born child Krishna to Gokula across the Yamuna.³³

Under the patronage of the Guptas who called themselves, Paramabhagavatas, the Bhagavata religion gained popularity in Uttar Pradesh and other parts of northern India.³⁴ Vidisha or Malwa region in Madhya Pradesh was also an important centre of Bhagavata religion as a bulk of inscription and monuments of that religion comes from this region. The most important being the inscribed Garuda column erected at Besnagar in the 2^nd century B.C. in honour of Vasudeva by Heliodoros, a Greek ambassador to the court of the Sunga king, Kashiputra Bhagabhadra.³⁵

In south India, we find references to Krishna (who was known as Mayon, the deity of the Mullai or forest region) in the Sangam literature.³⁶ Some of the important temples of Krishna in south India includes, the Krishna temple at Udupi consecrated by Madhvacharya (13^th century A.D.), the Krishna temple at Guruvayur in Keralam (which during 16^th century had become very famous) and the Parthasarathi temple in Triplicane in Tamilnadu where along with Krishna and Rukmini, we find the images of Balarama, Pradyumna, Aniruddha and Shatyaki.³⁷

Sri Rama Vis-a-vis Sri Krishna

Sri Rama belonged to the illustrious Ikshavaku dynasty and some of his famous predecessor were Mandhata, considered as an avatara of Vishnu, Harishchandra, the bye-word for truthful promise in Indian literature and culture and Bhagiratha, who by his penance is credited for having brought down river Ganga to India. Sri Rama’s descendants and brothers ruled over many regions of western part of northern India for several generations.³⁸

On the other hand Sri Krishna had no kingdom of his own and his parents and their ascendants were not illustrious. His descendants may be said to have been unimportant and were soon extinct. But still it was Sri Krishna due to his philosophical reputation made his rise to early divinity than Sri Rama, though the latter had lived 28 generations earlier than the former.³⁹

From literary and even mythological sources we know that Sri Krishna came to be accorded the status of a deity and received worship and divine honours at least seven to eight centuries before Sri Rama had them.⁴⁰

Krishna Vasudeva has been receiving worship since before 300 B.C., and shrines dedicated to him existed in 200 B.C.,⁴¹ whereas Sri Rama must have been deified at the beginning of the Christian era and the Rama cult and worship of Sri Rama began to gather strength about the 11^th century A.D. and during the medieval times, the worship of Sri Rama was popularized by Sri Ramananda (1300 A.D.)⁴²

Character assassination of Sri Krishna

According to Bahadur Mal, there is no historical basis for the current stories of love between Sri Krishna and the cow-herd maidens of Brindavan. We do not find any mention of such things in the Mahabharata. These stories are the creation of a later age, when the bhakti cult with reference to Sri Krishna as the incarnation of God had been firmly established. The yearning of a soul for God was given a concrete symbolic expression in the form of love which a woman feels for her lover. Gradually these stories at the hands of various writers assumed a fantastic proportion of the Puranas including the Bhagavata Purana. Even the character of Radha is a creation of the rich imagination of later writers.⁴³

Scholars like Daya Krishna wonder why though the gopis who are depicted as living eternally in the memory of those days they had passed with Sri Krishna, never make the slightest effort to seek him out and meet him once more or even try to find where he is or how he is. Similarly we do not find any reference about Sri Krishna visiting the gopis.⁴⁴ All these show the untrustworthiness of the stories of love between Sri Krishna and the gopis found in the Puranas.

Similarly the stories of deceit and falsehood said to have been practiced by Sri Krishna against his enemies in the Mahabharata war is a pure fabrication introduced into the main story in order to malign him. It is unbelievable that Sri Krishna who in point of valour and righteousness, towered above all the great heroes of Mahabharata should have so openly and crudely violated the universally accepted code of honorable warfare, as is popularly supposed.⁴⁵

Sri Krishna was a monogamist

Sri Krishna had only one wife, Rukmini and after Krishna was identified with the supreme Vishnu, Rukmini was identified with Lakshmi.⁴⁶ According to Asha Goswami, Sri Krishna who had incarnated on the earth (according to popular belief and faith) to lead the people on to the path of righteousness and duty could not have been so fickle and frivolous about his marriage which in fact is a very important social event in human life.⁴⁷ The number of wives of Krishna and their names given in different sources like the Mahabharata and the Puranas differ widely.⁴⁸ The epic Mahabharata hints out Krishna as a monogamist where it enlists Krishna with the known monogamists of the age like Sri Rama, Nala, Satyavan, etc.⁴⁹

Worship of child Krishna

Beginning about 300 A.D., a mutation occurred in Vaishnava mythology in which the ideals of Sri Krishna worshippers were turned upside down. The Harivamsha Purana, which was composed at about that time, related in 32 chapters, the childhood of Sri Krishna that he had spent among the cow-herds. The tales had never been told in Hindu literature before. The old adoration of Sri Krishna as moral preceptor went into a long quiescence. The age of Krishna as a sportive being- as a doer of lilas had begun. This has continued even to this day with the great sects that dominate Vaishnava religious life in north India today worship Sri Krishna as Gopala, the cowherd boy.⁵⁰

The growth of the cult of child Krishna among the bhaktas in the middle ages is attributed to the teaching of Vallabhacharya (1479-1531 A.D.), for whom Krishna inspired the feeling of vatsalyabhava bhakti, the love for God which is like that of a parent for a child. It is said that Krishna appeared to him in a vision and asked him to ‘promulgate his worship in the form of the divine child known as Bala Gopala”.⁵¹

The Vallabhacharya sect devoted to Krishna worship ignores altogether that aspect of the great life, Krishna, the super-hero, the matchless warrior, the unrivalled statesman, the breaker of the militarist oppressors of the people, the experimenter with republicanism, the teacher of the Gita and instead its practice is limited to the dwelling on and enacting of the scenes and doings of Krishna’s childhood and adolescence, of flirtations and dances with the dairy-maids, and the enjoyment of tongue and sex – which elemental appetites somehow manage to become the chief objects of worship, in one disguise or another.⁵²

Hindus emasculated by worshiping baby gods

Instead of worshiping the valorous statesman and a world teacher, Sri Krishna, the Hindus have been worshiping child Krishna and shamelessly enact imaginary acts of child Krishna like breaking of pots filled with curds/butter in a sport called ‘Dahi handi’ and flirt in a dance called ‘Raas leela’ during his birth celebration. Even the recent consecration of Sri Rama done with much fanfare at the temple of Ayodhya was that of a child Rama called ‘Ram Lalla’ instead of the adult Sri Rama who had vanquished the mighty king of Lanka, Ravana. Probably Hindus fear that if they start worshiping adult gods, they may have to emulate their qualities which involves exhibiting manliness when confronting problems or injustice, whereas worshiping child gods would give them license to behave in a childish manner and act frivolously in the name of devotion.

Even when senseless accusation are made against Sri Krishna like he had married 16,000 maidens, let alone ordinary Hindus, even the so called highly educated, scholars and religious heads don’t take trouble to introspect whether it is possible or practical to marry 16,000 maidens; and that these type of accusation is a blot on the character of Sri Krishna; and they have a responsibility to see that the factual accounts of Sri Krishna is presented to the masses; and think of the ways to prevent slanders being hurled on their prophet.

Reference

1. F.E.Pargiter – Ancient Indian Historical Traditions, Oxford University Press, London, 1922, pp:88,105,107,145,148

2. Amarnath Ray – Sri Krishna and the Source of the Bhagavadgita, Indian Historical Quarterly, vol-9, p.188

3. Bahadur Mal – Sri Krishna, His Philosophy and his Spiritual Path, Vishveshvaranand V.R.Insitute, Hoshiarpur, 1960, p.7

4. Ibid, pp: 7,8

5. Ibid, p. 8

6. Ibid, pp: 8,9

7. Bimanbehari Majumdar – Krsna in History and Legend, University of Calcutta, 1969, p. 2

8. Ibid, p.4

9. Ibid, p. 263

10. S.N.Tadapatrikar – The Krishna Problem, ABORI, vol – X, April 1929, pp: 332,333

11. Bimanbehari Majumdar – Op.Cit, pp: 2,3,4,281,282

12. P. Banerjee – The Life of Krishna in Indian Art, National Museum, New Delhi, 1978, pp: 2,3

13. Dhirendra Nath Pal – Sri Krishna – His Life and Teachings, C C Basak, The Research House, Calcutta, 1923, pp:76, 386,48,207,208

14. Bhagavan Das- Krishna – A Study in the Theory of Avataras, Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan, Bombay, 1962 pp:48,49,50

15. Bahadur Mal – Op.Cit, pp: 14,15

16. K.V.Raman – Presidential Address – Cultural Heritage – A Synthesis, Proceedings of the Indian History Congress, vol 46 (1985), pp: 100,101

17. Bhagavan Das- Op.Cit, p.96

18. Ibid, pp: 85,86

19. Ibid, pp: 86,87

20. R.C.Hazra – Pre-Puranic Hindu Society before 200 A.D., The Indian Historical Quarterly, vol-xv, 1939, p. 412

21. Sukumari Bhattacharji – Indian Theogony -Comparative Study of Indian Mythology from Veda to Purana, Firma KLM Private Ltd, Calcutta, 1978, p. 306

22. K.V.Raman – Op.Cit, p.101

23. Norvin Hein – A Revolution in Krsnaism: The cult of Gopala, History of Religions, vol 25, No 4., Religion and change ASSR Anniversary volume, May 1986, p. 297

24. Ibid

25. Amarnath Ray – Op.Cit, pp: 190,191

26. R.C.Hazra – Op.Cit, pp: 417,418

27. Norvin Hein – Op.Cit, p. 298

28. Bimanbehari Majumdar – Op.Cit, pp: 281, 282

29. Bahadur Mal – Op.Cit, p. 6

30. S.N.Tadapatrikar – Op.Cit, p. 272

31. Bahadur Mal – Op.Cit, pp: 6,7

32. Charles S. J . White – Krishna as Divine Child, History of Religions, vol – 10, No.2, November 1970, p. 158

33. P. Banerjee – Op.Cit, p. 68 (The famous Keshavarai temple at Mathura built by Maharaja Virasimha of Orchha during the time of Jahangir was destroyed by Ramjan Shah in 1670 A.D. at the orders of Aurangzeb, P. Banerjee – Op.Cit, p. 75)

34. Ibid, p. 69

35. Ibid, p. 103

36. Ibid, p. 114

37. Ibid, pp: 117,125,128

38. G.S.Ghurye – Gods and Men, Popular Book Depot, Bombay, 1962, p. 182

39. Ibid, pp: 182, 183, 162

40. Ibid, p. 162

41. Ibid

42. Ibid, pp: 189, 190, 193 194

43. Bahadur Mal – Op.Cit, pp: 30,31

44. Edited by Nalini Bhushan, Jay L . Garfield, Daniel Raveh, Contrary Thinking – Selected Essays of Daya Krishna, Oxford University Press, 2011, p. 275

45. Bahadur Mal – Op.Cit, pp: 16,17

46. Asha Goswami – The Monogamist Krishna, Charu Deva Shastri Felicitation Volume, Delhi, 1974, p. 450

47. Ibid, p. 443

48. Ibid, p. 444

49. Ibid, pp: 447,448

50. Norvin Hein – Op.Cit, p. 296

51. Charles S. J . White – Op.Cit, p. 166

52. Bhagavan Das- Op.Cit, pp: 160,161