Krishna
Krishna is a major deity in Hinduism. He is worshipped as the eighth avatar of Vishnu and also as the Supreme God in his own right. He is the god of protection, compassion, tenderness, and love; and is widely revered among Hindu divinities. Krishna's birthday is celebrated every year by Hindus on Krishna Janmashtami according to the lunisolar Hindu calendar, which falls in late August or early September of the Gregorian calendar.
The anecdotes and narratives of Krishna's life are generally titled as Krishna Līlā. He is a central figure in the Mahabharata, the Bhagavata Purana, the Brahma Vaivarta Purana, and the Bhagavad Gita, and is mentioned in many Hindu philosophical, theological, and mythological texts. They portray him in various perspectives: as a god-child, a prankster, a model lover, a divine hero, and the universal supreme being. His iconography reflects these legends and shows him in different stages of his life, such as an infant eating butter, a young boy playing a flute, a handsome youth with Radha or surrounded by female devotees, or a friendly charioteer giving counsel to Arjuna.
The name and synonyms of Krishna have been traced to 1stmillenniumBCE literature and cults. In some sub-traditions, like Krishnaism, Krishna is worshipped as the Supreme God and Svayam Bhagavan. These sub-traditions arose in the context of the medieval era Bhakti movement. Krishna-related literature has inspired numerous performance arts such as Bharatanatyam, Kathakali, Kuchipudi, Odissi, and Manipuri dance. He is a pan-Hindu god, but is particularly revered in some locations, such as Vrindavan in Uttar Pradesh, Dwarka and Junagadh in Gujarat; the Jagannatha aspect in Odisha, Mayapur in West Bengal; in the form of Vithoba in Pandharpur, Maharashtra, Shrinathji at Nathdwara in Rajasthan, Udupi Krishna in Karnataka, Parthasarathy in Tamil Nadu, Aranmula and Guruvayoorappan in Kerala.
Since the 1960s, the worship of Krishna has also spread to the Western world, largely due to the work of the International Society for Krishna Consciousness.
Names and epithets
The name "Krishna" originates from the Sanskrit word , which means "black", "dark" or "dark blue". The waning moon is called Krishna Paksha, relating to the adjective meaning "darkening". Some Vaishnavas also translate the word as "All-Attractive", though it lacks that meaning in Sanskrit.As a name of Vishnu, Krishna is listed as the 57th name in the Vishnu Sahasranama. Based on his name, Krishna is often depicted in idols as black- or blue-skinned. Krishna is also known by various other names, epithets, and titles that reflect his many associations and attributes. Among the most common names are Mohan "enchanter"; Govinda "chief herdsman", Keev "prankster", and Gopala "Protector of the 'Go'", which means "soul" or "the cows". Some names for Krishna hold regional importance; Jagannatha, found in the Puri Hindu temple, is a popular incarnation in Odisha state and nearby regions of eastern India.
Historical and literary sources
The tradition of Krishna appears to be an amalgamation of several independent deities of ancient India, the earliest of whom to be attested being Vāsudeva. Vāsudeva was a hero-god of the tribe of the Vrishnis, belonging to the Vrishni heroes, whose worship is attested from the 5th–6th century BCE in the writings of Pāṇini, and from the 2nd century BCE in epigraphy with the Heliodorus pillar. At one point in time, it is thought that the tribe of the Vrishnis fused with the tribe of the Yadavas, whose own hero-god was named Krishna. Vāsudeva and Krishna fused to become a single deity, which appears in the Mahabharata, and they started to be identified with Vishnu in the Mahabharata and the Bhagavad Gita. Around the 4th century CE, another tradition, the cult of Gopala-Krishna of the Ābhīras, the protector of cattle, was also absorbed into the Krishna tradition.Early epigraphic sources
Depiction in coinage (2nd century BCE)
Around 180 BCE, the Indo-Greek king Agathocles issued some coinage bearing images of deities that are now interpreted as being related to Vaisnava imagery in India. The deities displayed on the coins appear to be Saṃkarṣaṇa-Balarama with attributes consisting of the gada mace and the plow, and Vāsudeva-Krishna with attributes of the shankha and the sudarshana chakra wheel. According to Bopearachchi, the headdress of the deity is actually a misrepresentation of a shaft with a half-moon parasol on top.Inscriptions
The Heliodorus Pillar, a stone pillar with a Brahmi script inscription, was discovered by colonial era archaeologists in Besnagar. Based on the internal evidence of the inscription, it has been dated to between 125 and 100BCE and is now known after Heliodorus – an Indo-Greek who served as an ambassador of the Greek king Antialcidas to a regional Indian king, Kasiputra Bhagabhadra. The Heliodorus pillar inscription is a private religious dedication of Heliodorus to "Vāsudeva", an early deity and another name for Krishna in the Indian tradition. It states that the column was constructed by "the Bhagavata Heliodorus" and that it is a "Garuda pillar". Additionally, the inscription includes a Krishna-related verse from chapter11.7 of the Mahabharata stating that the path to immortality and heaven is to correctly live a life of three virtues: self-temperance, generosity, and vigilance. The Heliodorus pillar site was fully excavated by archaeologists in the 1960s. The effort revealed the brick foundations of a much larger ancient elliptical temple complex with a sanctum, mandapas, and seven additional pillars. The Heliodorus pillar inscriptions and the temple are among the earliest known evidence of Krishna-Vasudeva devotion and Vaishnavism in ancient India.File:Rama Krishna at Chilas.jpg|thumb|Balarama and Krishna with their attributes at Chilas. The Kharoshthi inscription nearby reads Rama ṣa. 1st century CE.
The Heliodorus inscription is not isolated evidence. The Hathibada Ghosundi Inscriptions, all located in the state of Rajasthan and dated by modern methodology to the 1stcenturyBCE, mention Saṃkarṣaṇa and Vāsudeva, also mention that the structure was built for their worship in association with the supreme deity Narayana. These four inscriptions are notable for being some of the oldest-known Sanskrit inscriptions.
A Mora stone slab found at the Mathura-Vrindavan archaeological site in Uttar Pradesh, held now in the Mathura Museum, has a Brahmi inscription. It is dated to the 1stcenturyCE and mentions the five Vrishni heroes, otherwise known as Saṃkarṣaṇa, Vāsudeva, Pradyumna, Aniruddha, and Samba.
The inscriptional record for Vāsudeva starts in the 2nd century BCE with the coinage of Agathocles and the Heliodorus pillar, but the name of Krishna appears rather later in epigraphy. At the Chilas II archaeological site dated to the first half of the 1st-century CE in northwest Pakistan, near the Afghanistan border, are engraved two males, along with many Buddhist images nearby. The larger of the two males held a plough and club in his two hands. The artwork also has an inscription with it in Kharosthi script, which has been deciphered by scholars as Rama-Krsna, and interpreted as an ancient depiction of the two brothers, Balarama and Krishna.
The first known depiction of the life of Krishna himself comes relatively late, with a relief found in Mathura, and dated to the 1st–2nd century CE. This fragment seems to show Vasudeva, Krishna's father, carrying baby Krishna in a basket across the Yamuna. The relief shows at one end a seven-hooded Naga crossing a river, where a makara crocodile is thrashing around, and at the other end a person seemingly holding a basket over his head.
Literary sources
Mahabharata
The earliest text containing detailed descriptions of Krishna as a personality is the epic Mahabharata, which depicts Krishna as an incarnation of Vishnu. Krishna is central to many of the main stories of the epic. The eighteen chapters of the sixth book of the epic that constitute the Bhagavad Gita contain the advice of Krishna to Arjuna on the battlefield.During the ancient times that the Bhagavad Gita was composed in, Krishna was widely seen as an avatar of Vishnu rather than an individual deity, yet he was immensely powerful and almost everything in the universe other than Vishnu was "somehow present in the body of Krishna". Krishna had "no beginning or end", "fill space", and every god but Vishnu was seen as ultimately him, including Brahma, "storm gods, sun gods, bright gods", light gods, "and gods of ritual." Other forces also existed in his body, such as "hordes of varied creatures" that included "celestial serpents." He is also "the essence of humanity."
The Harivamsa, a later appendix to the Mahabharata, contains a detailed version of Krishna's childhood and youth.
Puranas
Many Puranas tell Krishna's life story or some highlights from it. Two Puranas, the Bhagavata Purana and the Vishnu Purana, contain the most elaborate telling of Krishna's story, but the life stories of Krishna in these and other texts vary, and contain significant inconsistencies. The Bhagavata Purana consists of twelve books subdivided into 332chapters, with a cumulative total of between 16,000 and 18,000 verses depending on the version. The tenth book of the text, which contains about 4,000 verses and is dedicated to legends about Krishna, has been the most popular and widely studied part of this text.Iconography
Krishna is represented in the Indian traditions in many ways, but with some common features. His iconography typically depicts him with black, dark, or blue skin, like Vishnu. But ancient and medieval reliefs and stone-based arts depict him in the natural color of the material out of which he is formed, both in India and in southeast Asia. In some texts, his skin is poetically described as the color of Jambul.File:Krishna-in-Kyoto.jpg|thumb|upright|Depiction of Krishna playing the flute in Todai-ji Temple, constructed in 752CE on the order of Emperor Shomu, in Nara, Japan
Krishna is often depicted wearing a peacock-feather wreath or crown, and playing the bansuri. In this form, he is usually shown standing with one leg bent in front of the other in the Tribhanga posture. He is sometimes accompanied by cows or a calf, which symbolise the divine herdsman Govinda. Alternatively, he is shown as a romantic young boy with the gopis, often making music or playing pranks.
File:Krishna Govardhana. Bharat Kala Bhavan, ni03-24.jpg|thumb|upright|Krishna lifting Govardhana at Bharat Kala Bhavan, recovered from Varanasi. It is dated to the Gupta Empire era.
In other icons, he is a part of battlefield scenes of the epic Mahabharata. He is shown as a charioteer, notably when he is addressing the Pandava prince Arjuna, symbolically reflecting the events that led to the Bhagavad Gitaa scripture of Hinduism. In these popular depictions, Krishna appears in the front as the charioteer, either as a counsel listening to Arjuna or as the driver of the chariot while Arjuna aims his arrows in the battlefield of Kurukshetra.
Alternate icons of Krishna show him as a baby, a toddler crawling on his hands and knees, a dancing child, or an innocent-looking child playfully stealing or consuming butter, holding Laddu in his hand or as a cosmic infant sucking his toe while floating on a banyan leaf during the Pralaya observed by sage Markandeya. Regional variations in the iconography of Krishna are seen in his different forms, such as Jaganatha in Odisha, Vithoba in Maharashtra, Shrinathji in Rajasthan and Guruvayoorappan in Kerala.
Guidelines for the preparation of Krishna icons in design and architecture are described in medieval-era Sanskrit texts on Hindu temple arts such as Vaikhanasa agama, Vishnu dharmottara, Brihat samhita, and Agni Purana. Similarly, early medieval-era Tamil texts also contain guidelines for sculpting Krishna and Rukmini. Several statues made according to these guidelines are in the collections of the Government Museum, Chennai.
Krishna iconography forms an important element in the figural sculpture on 17th–19th century terracotta temples of Bengal. In many temples, the stories of Krishna are depicted on a long series of narrow panels along the base of the facade. In other temples, the important Krishnalila episodes are depicted on large brick panels above the entrance arches or on the walls surrounding the entrance.