Krishna, in a historical perspective

Some people are remembered for a few years after their demise. Some are famous enough to be remembered for centuries. Only there are a few who are remembered by humanity for many millania. Vasudeva Kirshna, Yadava, was such a great personality. Most conservative historical estimate place Krishna to be born before 1000 BC.

Krishna was the son of the Yadava chief Vasudeva and his wife Devaki. Hence he was known as Vasudeva Krishna or Vaasudeva.

In this blog I am trying to analyze Krishna's personality as a human being. We all know the divinity of Krishna and the influence he has on Hindu religion and on the devotees spread across the world. I am here focusing on the life of Krishna as a statesman, political reformer and a great philosopher.

Krishna as a statesman and a political reformer

Krishna was the key political figure, in overthrowing Kansa the king of the Kingdom of Surasena (Mathura district in Uttar Pradesh, India). The kingdom of Surasena was the native kingdom of the Yadava clans constituted by the Andhakas, Vrishnis and Bhojas. It was a beautiful kingdom situated on the banks of river Yamuna and lied to the south of the powerful kingdom of the Kurus (Faisabad district in Uttar Pradesh as well as eastern parts of Hariyana). Its capital was Mathura, a city which retains its name even today. By overthrowing Kansa, Krishna re-established the old king Ugrasena on the throne and stabilized the kingdom, from collapse due to factional fighting within the kingdom. The next threat came from outside the country, from the kingdom of Magadha (Patna district in Bihar, India). The ruler of Magadha, Jarasandha, attacked Surasena many times and weakened its millitary. Krishna and other Yadava chief tried all thier best to hold on. Eventually they had to flee from their native kingdom to the south and to the west.

Later, with the initiative of Krishna, the Yadavas who fled from Surasena formed a new kingdom called Dwaraka. Its capital was Dwaravati a city well protected by mountains on all sides, in an island, not far from the Gujarat coast. This made it immune to attacks from land. The kingdom prosepered by sea trade, with sea-faring kingdoms. Dwaraka had ancient roads connecting it to kingdoms like Kamboja (Jammu district, and areas to the west of it in Pakistan) and with major trade routes like Uttarapatha. Dwaraka's influenced reached to as south as Kerala along the western sea-coast of India, leaving many cultural establishments in Gomanta (Goa), Gokarna (in Karnataka) and Guruvayoor (in Kerala).

Krishna established a tie-up of Yadavas with the Pandavas, a faction of Kurus, who were fighting against the established Kuru Kingdom. This tie up prooved profitable to the Yadavas, stratagically. With the help of the Pandavas they overthrew the Magadha king Jarasandha who were thier biggest enemy. Thus the rising power of the Magadhas as a prominent power of ancient India was subdued and the Kurus continued as the major political power of ancient India during the period of Mahabharata epic. For the assistance rendered by the Pandavas in overthrowing Jarasandha, Krishna in turn helped the Pandavas to win the Kurukshetra War against the Kurus headed by Duryodhana. Thus the rule of the Pandava Yudhisthira was re-established by Krishna at Indraprastha (Delhi).

In his endevour of supporting the Pandavas, Krishna faced opposition from his own men, including his own brother Bala Rama and other leaders like Kritavarman. However the leaders like Satyaki and Chekitana stood besides him. But Krishna had to pay a price for this polarization among his own people. The Yadava chiefs faught the Kurukshetra War, on both sides, and even after the war ended, the enimity among the Yadava leaders continued. After 36 years, since the Kurukshetra War, another war broke among the Yadavas, in their own kingdom. This resulted in the absolute destruction of the Yadava kingdom in Dwaraka.

But the help Krishna extended to the Pandava Yudhisthira, paid off. When the rule of Yudhisthira ended, he established the Yadava prince Vajra on the throne of Indraprashta along with the Kuru prince Parikshit, at Hastinapura. Thus the royal lineage of the Yadavas continued through the prince Vajra.

The following sections shows glimpses of Krishna's political life, as a supporter of the Pandava cause, and as a mediater among his own kinsmen.

When Pandava Arjuna eloped with the Yadava Princess Subhadra, Krishna pacified his kinsmen with the following words:- (Mahabharata, Book 1, Chapter 223) "Even this is my opinion: go ye cheerfully after Dhananjaya and by conciliation stop him and bring him back. If Partha goes to his city after having vanquished us by force, our fame will be gone. There is no disgrace, however, in conciliation."

During the preparations for the Kurukshetra War Pandavas held many discussions camping at Upaplavya (a city in the Kingdom of Matsyas, identified to be in the Alwar district of Rajasthan). Everybody knew that the war will cost a great deal of destruction of human life and wealth. Pandavas, Krishna and other kings discussed on peaceful resolution of the dispute with the Kuru king Duryodhana. Krishna expressed his openion as follows:- (Mahabharata, Book 5, Chapter 5) "As we are desirous of adopting a politic course, this is, no doubt, our first duty; a man acting otherwise would be a great fool. But our relationship to both the Kurus and the Pandus is equal, howsoever these two parties may behave with each other. If that chief of the Kuru race should make peace on equitable terms, then the brotherly feelings between the Kuras and the Pandus will sustain no injury. If on the other hand, the son of Dhritarashtra should wax haughty and from folly refuse to make peace, then, having summoned others, summon us too, for war. "

Krishna also offered aid in war for both Pandava Arjuna and Kaurava Duryodhana as both were his kinsmen. (Arjuna was married to Krishna's sister Subhadra and also was the son of his aunt Kunti, the sister of Vasudeva. Duryodhana's son Lakshmana was married to Krishna's daughter).

Arjuna was the beloved friend of Krishan and so secretly wished to help him than Duryodhana and spoke thus:- (Mahabharata, Book 5, Chapter 7) "There is a large body of cowherds numbering ten crores, rivalling me in strength and known as the Narayanas, all of whom are able to fight in the thick of battle. These soldiers, irresistible in battle, shall be sent to one of you and I alone, resolved not to fight on the field, and laying down my arms, will go to the other. You may, first select whichever of these two commends itself to you." Arjuna chose Krishna and Krishna's army went to Duryodhana. Krishna served as the key war-strategeist for the Pandavas in the Kurukshetra war.

Krishna was chosen by the Pandavas to approach the Kurus as an ambassedor of peace. Mahabharata, Book 5, Chapter 83):- "I will go to king Dhritarashtra, desirous of accomplishing what is consistent with righteousness, what may be beneficial to us, and what also is for the good of the Kurus. "

Krishna was always troubled by the in-fighting among the Yadava chiefs. Here is a passage describing the dialemma of Krishna, thinking about his freinds who quarrel among each other:-
(Mahabharata, Book 12, Chapter 80):- "I never behave with slavish obsequiousness towards my kinsmen by flattering speeches about their prosperity. I give them half of what I have, and forgive their evil speeches. As a fire-stick is grinded by a person desirous of obtaining fire, even so my heart is ground by my kinsmen with their cruel speeches. Indeed those cruel speeches burn my heart every day. Might resides in Sankarshana (Balarama); mildness in Gada; and as regards Pradyumna, he surpasses even myself in beauty of person. Although I have all these on my side yet I am helpless. Many others among the Andhakas and the Vrishnis are possessed of great prosperity and might, and during courage and constant perseverance. He on whose side they do not range themselves meets with destruction. He, on the other hand, on whose side they do range themselves, achieves everything. Dissuaded (in turns) by both (viz., Ahuka and Akrura,) I do not side either of them. What can be more painful for a person than to have both Ahuka and Akrura on his side? What, again, can be more painful for one than not to have both of them on his side I am like the mother of two brothers gambling against each other, invoking victory to both. I am thus, afflicted by both."

Battles of Krishna

The epic Mahabharata describes many battles fought by Krishna, and his conquest of various kingdoms. He defeated the king Naraka of Prakjyotisha (Gohati). He also conqured Bana or Vana of Sonitapura (Sonitpur of Assam), to the east of Prakjyotisha. (Some historians consider the location of Prakjyotisha and Sonitapura to be along the Sindhu river in Pakistan). Bana later became an ally, as Krishna's grandson Aniruddha married Usha, the daughter of Bana. He belonged to the Daitya clan of Asuras. In (Mahabharata, Book 5, Chapter 62), Krishna is described as the slayer of Vana and Bhumi’s son (Naraka). Krishna married Rukmini, his first wife, by abducting her from the Vidarbha Kingdom (Vidarbha retains it name as the Vidarbha region in Maharashtra). He also abducted and married a Gandhara princess in the same manner. Krishna aslo attacked and conqured the Pandya Kingdom in the south.

Krishna as a Philosopher

The best internet resource for Bhagavat Gita (MP3 Audio of each Sanskrit-verse in 18 chapters with translation to any language of choice, Hindi and English included):- http://www.bhagavad-gita.org/

One of the most astonishing aspect of Krishna was the Philosopher in him. He authered the famous Bhagavat Gita, the Bible of Hindus. How he amassed this great knowledge is revealed in the Anugita chapters of Mahabharata, which stats that he got this knowledge by interactions with many learned men, and by his own meditations.

The following was what Krishna told to Arjuna when later told to repeat what he discoursed as Bhagavat Gita, in the midst of the Kurukshetra War.

Bhagavat Gita in Krishna's own Words (Mahabharata, Book 14, Chapter 16):- "I made thee listen to truths that are regarded as mysteries. I imparted to thee truths that are eternal. Verily, I discoursed to thee on Religion in its true form and on all the eternal regions. It is exceedingly disagreeable to me to learn that thou didst not, from folly, receive what I imparted. The recollection of all that I told thee on that occasion will not come to me now. Without doubt, O son of Pandu, thou art destitute of faith and thy understanding is not good. It is impossible for me, O Dhananjaya (Arjuna), to repeat, in detail, all that I said on that occasion. That religion about which I discoursed to thee then is more than sufficient for understanding Brahma. I cannot discourse on it again in detail. I discoursed to thee on Supreme Brahma, having concentrated myself in Yoga."

Krishna mentions about the knowledge he obtained from a certain Brahmana. (Mahabharata, Book 14, Chapter 16):- "On one occasion, a Brahmana came to us. Of irresistible energy, he came from the regions of the Grandsire. He was duly reverenced by us. Listen, to what he, said, in answer to our enquiries.The Brahmana said, That which thou askest me, O Krishna, connected with the religion of Moksha (Emancipation), led by thy compassion for all creatures and not for thy own good,--that, indeed, which destroys all delusion, O thou that art possessed of supreme puissance I shall now tell thee duly. Do thou listen with concentrated attention as I discourse to thee." - words of Krishna.

Extracts from Bhagavat Gita the Philosophy of Krishna

(Mahabharata, Book 6, Chapter 26):- "There is no objective existence of anything that is distinct from the soul; nor non-existence of anything possessing the virtues of the soul. This conclusion in respect of both these hath been arrived at by those that know the truths of things. Know that the soul to be immortal by which all this [universe] is pervaded. No one can compass the destruction of that which is imperishable. It hath been said that those bodies of the Embodied soul which is eternal, indestructible and infinite, have an end."

(Mahabharata, Book 6, Chapter 26):- "As a man, casting off robes that are worn out, putteth on others that are new, so the Embodied (soul), casting off bodies that are worn out, entereth other bodies that are new. Weapons cleave it not, fire consumeth it not; the waters do not drench it, nor doth the wind waste it. It is incapable of being cut, burnt, drenched, or dried up. It is unchangeable, all-pervading, stable, firm, and eternal. It is said to be imperceivable, inconceivable and unchangeable. "

(Mahabharata, Book 6, Chapter 26):- "All beings (before birth) were unmanifest. Only during an interval (between birth and death), O Bharata, are they manifest; and then again, when death comes, they become (once more) unmanifest. "

(Mahabharata, Book 6, Chapter 27):- "In this world, two kinds of devotion; that of the Sankhyas through knowledge and that of the yogins through work."

(Mahabharata, Book 6, Chapter 29) Arjuna said,--"Thou applaudest, O Krishna, the abandonment of actions, and again the application (to them). Tell me definitely which one of these two is superior." The Holy One said—"Both abandonment of actions and application to actions lead to emancipation. But of these, application to action is superior to abandonment. He should always be known to be an ascetic who hath no aversion nor desire. For, being free from pairs of opposites, he is easily released from the bonds of action.
"
(Mahabharata, Book 6, Chapter 29):- "He who is wise never taketh pleasure in these that have a beginning and an end. "

Other Dimensions of Krishna's Personality

Mahabharata is the oldest text mentioning about Krishna and seemed to be authentic about his true charecter. Harivamsa, a later addition to Mahabharata as well as Mahabhagavata Purana speak about his childhood and his role as a lover among the milk-maids (Gopikas) in the villages (Gokula and Vrindavana) where Krishna passed his childhood and tean-age days. The Bhakti cult which describe Krishna as an incarnation of Vishnu ( a Vedic God ), gave more importance to this aspect of Krishna, viz that of a charming and carishmatic child who did miracles and that of a tean age lover.

Mahabharata

I started reading the Indian epics from the age of ten. Mahabharata of Krishna Dwaipayana Vyasa, in Sanskrit translated to Malayalam by Dr PS Nair was my first book. This became a craze and I continued analyzing these books.

My strong belief is that mythology (see Euhemerus) is nothing but a transformation of history. Absolute events transform into history after a few decades and history transforms into mythology after a few centuraries. It is always possible to extract history from mythology and absolute events from history, but with a predictable loss of information.

My view on the Indian epics Mahabharata and Ramayana is that they are the substitutes of history of the period they describe. Just like a candle-light is better than total darkness, these epics serve to tell us something about those periods. In the absence of a proper history to describing these periods, Mahabharata and Ramayana serve as something close to it. They are closer to historical documents than to mythological or imaginative works. It is very inappropriate to dismiss them as mere imaginations or as fables and legends or even as mythology. Careful readers can easily separate, fact and fiction from the narrations in Mahabharata and Ramayana.

I will put it this way:-

• Mahabharata:- Historical content (aprox. 70%) Mythological (non-historic)content (aprox 30%)
• Ramayana:- Historical content (aprox. 60%) Mythological (non-historic) content (aprox 40%)
• Puranas:- Historical content (aprox. 50%) Mythological (non-historic) content (aprox 50%)

Geographical and Historical content in Mahabharata and Ramayana

In Vyasa's own words, Mahabharata is:-

(MBh 1.1) the mystery of the Veda, and other subjects have been explained by me; the various rituals of the Upanishads with the Angas; the compilation of the Puranas and history formed by me and named after the three divisions of time, past, present, and future; the determination of the nature of decay, fear, disease, existence, and non-existence, a description of creeds and of the various modes of life; rule for the four castes, and the import of all the Puranas; an account of asceticism and of the duties of a religious student; the dimensions of the sun and moon, the planets, constellations, and stars, together with the duration of the four ages; the Rik, Sama and Yajur Vedas; also the Adhyatma; the sciences called Nyaya, Orthoephy and Treatment of diseases; charity and Pasupatadharma; birth celestial and human, for particular purposes; also a description of places of pilgrimage and other holy places of rivers, mountains, forests, the ocean, of heavenly cities and the kalpas; the art of war; the different kinds of nations and languages: the nature of the manners of the people; and the all-pervading spirit;--all these have been represented (in this work).

The highest concentration of geographic information in Mahabharata is found at the start of Bhisma Parva (Mahabharata: Book 6) chapters 6 to 12, where he mentions more than 10000 geographic entities like rivers, lakes, place-names and names of kingdoms, regions, and sub-continents. Bhishma parva is belived to be the starting point of the core of Mahabharata, authored by Vyasa known as Jaya. The rest of the epic that preceeds Bhisma Parva and that succeed Sauptika Parva (book 10) is believed to be accumulated over this core called Jaya which grew to the work called Bharata and later to Mahabharata.

Thus true to what Vyasa says, his work Jaya starts with astronomy (contemporary to that period) and geography. After he explained these, in subsequent chapters he explains the philosophy of the age, in the form of Bhagavat Gita. Some say Bhagavat Gita is a later addition, though Vyasa seems to know much of this philosophy himself, since one of his (and his race of Vyasas, which probably spanned many generations, and whose descendents, even now use the surname Vyas or Byas) major activity was to classify Vedas (hence the name Veda-Vyasa (the one who divided or classified the Vedas)). Then he begins the main portion of his work which is the Kurukshetra War, where he describes the art of war, its strategies and finally its ill effects.

The Sabha Parva (Book 2), Chapter 14 contains passages that show glimpses of a political scenario, resulted due to the rising power of Magadha against the established Kuru rulers and how this threat is subdued by the combined policy of the Kurus (represented by the Pandavas) and Yadavas (represented by Krishna). In a later period we see that the Magadhas re-emerged as the major political power overshadowing the Kurus, which is part of the recorded history. Mahabharata also gives a glimps of other cultures like the Naga culture, which was spread all over India before the emergense of the Kurus. Most of the Kuru-Panchala cities had an older name showing there Naga origin, such as Hastinapura of the Kurus, which was formerly known as Naga-pura, Indraprastha of Kurus, which was built by clearing an earlier settlement of Nagas at Khandava-prastha and Ahichatra of Panchalas, which, as the name Ahi (Naga) indicates, belonged to the Nagas.

Ramayana, as the name indicates is an account of travels (ayana) of Rama, and thus is related to geography. At least, Valmiki when he named the epic as 'Ramayana' (which directly translates to travels of Rama) had this thought in his mind, and developed his epic to describe the extensive travels made by Rama from Ayodhya to Lanka. In later stages this original intent was long forgotten. Focus was shifted to the tragic story of Rama and Sita.

Divinity of Rama and Krishna

In a much later stage (effected by the Bhakti movement) Rama was considered as an incarnation and thus a divinity. While this transformation is within the scope of Indic-belif system (especially the Vedanta philosophy), which state that divinity is inherent in every human and in evey creature and it is upto every individual to express this divinity, we should not ignore the actual human named Rama and his historicity. Rama was a person, who, due to his inner strength of charecter, was able to express his inherent divinity, to the extent that later generations revered him as a god or as an incarnation (Avatara).

Much the same happened to Krishna, as revealed by epic Mahabharata. My view is that, while it is consistent with the Indic belief-system to consider them as gods, one should not be blind to ignore the actual human-being behind these divinities, to the extent that it becomes impossible for others to analyze their historicity. By the same coin, those who study the historicity of these personalities should not hurt the religious sentiments of people who consider them as divinities. Again, those who adore them as divinities, should know that the images of Rama or Krishna, are a means to attain the ultimate divinity and are not to be mistaken as the ultimate divinity, which as per Vedanta principles, is within ones own self.

Epic literature and fossils

I always tend to think about the similarity of epic literature and fossils. Just like fossils preserve signs of the existence of a creature that lived in the past, epic literature preserve information about the people and their lives in the past distorted yet reconstruct-able. Just like fossils are deposited layer by layer, epic literature is accumulated in layers after layers. By knowing in which fossil-layer a fossil belongs we are able to approximately know in which time the creature is fossilized. Same is more or less true with information crystallized inside layers of epic literature.

Epic personalities and distant light sources

Another analogy that comes into mind is the nature of epic personalities and their similarities with distant light sources as explained by astronomy. In astronomy we know that some of the distant stars that we think as single are actually binary stars, multiple stars or some times even a galaxy of stars. Some times these stars that appear as one are never related and could be located at locations separated by light-years and appear as one as they happened to be on the same line of sight from us.

This is true with some of the epic personalities like Vyasa and Vasistha. Due to their temporal-distance in the past they seem to us, when analyzing the epic literature, to be a single person. But close study reveals them as a generation of people. Some times multiple personalities that lived at different ages and different places are fused together into one personality. Many personalities in epic literature, including Rama and Krishna shows this fusion of multiple personalities.

Transmission loss of information in epic literature

Deep analysis of epics reveals that at their cores are actual events that occurred in some point of time in the distant past. Later, these turned into contemporary history. But unlike in our age, this historical information was transmitted from generation to generation through oral traditions. Information theory states that loss of information is inevitable due to the principle of entropy that maintains that any ordered system (coded-information being one example of an ordered system) is bound to lose its orderliness and tend to be chaotic. Ancient people who transmitted the epic history through oral traditions invented fables to fill the gaps that formed because of the missing information which was again due to information loss owing to the transmission loss. Thus history turned to mythology.

A typical example is the lack of knowledge of actual number of people who participated in the Kurukshetra War. This was substituted by a table (a hymn) that explains the relations between various divisions of the army like Akshauhini and Anikini (MBh 1.2). If we follow this calculation we get an impossible figure (considering the human-population of that era) as the number of soldiers and animals who took part in the war. Some historians had used this impossibility to rule out the historicity of Kurukshetra War, dismissing it as a fable. By the same way lack of knowledge of exact duration of the war resulted in the myth that it took place in 18 days, making the war much more impossible to occur historically. This is the negative effect of adding fables to historical facts.

Some times the gaps in information is not due to transmission loss. The information required in a later stage some times is never transmitted initially but became a necessity subsequently. An example is the lack of information about the exact origin of the Kauravas and the Pandavas. This lead to the fable that Kauravas were all born out of a dead-fetus born by Gandhari, which were divided into hundred pieces by Vyasa and that the Pandavas were born of the five well known Devas. The fables about the birth of Drona, Kripa, Dhristadyumna and Panchali were also are other examples.

Some times absent information is never substituted by any fable but are approximated by other means. Examples are the names like Panchali and Gandhari (and also Kaikeyi in Ramayana). The original author (Vyasa) seems to be ignorant about their actual maiden names. The name Panchali, Gandhari and Kaikeyi were derived based on their mother-land viz the Panchala, Gandhara and Kekeya Kingdoms. Another name of Panchali, is Draupadi, which is derived from her father Drupada, the king of Panchala. Yet another name of Panchali is Krishna, which could be the name by which she was called by her parents, but we can never be sure, since it can be a name derived from her physical appearance. She was darker in hue compared to other ladies and hence was called Krishna (the dark one). Same applies to Vasudeva Krishna and Krishna Dwaipayana Vyasa.

Steps taken to prevent the transmission loss

The ancient sages had devised a means to minimize the transmission loss by rendering the literature as poems and hymns, coded in a metric-system (Matra:- guru and laghu sounds) so based on their phonetics. This is much like the check-sum used to ensure the integrity of transmitted information in digital transmission. Though this helped to reduce the distortions that occured during oral transmission of epic literature, it could not eliminate the information-loss completely.

Similary one of the major occupation of the ancient sages and people who handled this epic literature though oral transmission was to assemble togather at one place and render the whole epic commited in memory so that others can varify that they are having the same version and errors had not crept in. This tradition is still existing in India, in spite of the fact that the entire epic has already been writen down and commited to text, and now into hypertext over Internet. The myth of Ganesha writing down the Mahabharata, as Vyasa rendered it from his memory is a glimps of the stage at which the orally transmitted epic is writtend down into text for the first time, possibly by Gana-Patis (heads of the republics) of those ages.

Preservation effect of fables

There is a positive effect also in adding fables to historic facts. They serve to make the information more attractive and appealing which could encourage a society who were less inclined in preserving historical fact than in preserving stories that invoke a sense of wonder and those that deals with their religion. The fiction part of the epic serves as an outer envelop that preserve the core historic information by continuous retelling over generations so that they reach us now (like a fruit is preserved by its outer covering, until it is ready to be consumed by its intended consumers). The ancient sages some times deliberately added these fables to the factual information to make the information long lived. This is like the mummification of information, which otherwise could have dissipated completely in course of a few centuries.

Comparing Illiad and Oddyssy to Mahabharata and Ramayana

Comparison of Illiad and Odyssey which are much less in size compared to Ramayana and Mahabharata, to the extent that the later ones are considered some-how to be a retelling of the former (Homeric) works, seems to be like comparing the stars like Sirius and Betelgeuse to the Sun. Due to proximity to Earth, the Sun is the most familiar star for people of Earth. But in absolute terms Sirius and Betelgeuse are obviously much larger and majestic than the Sun. Who ever says that Mahabharata or Ramayana are a retelling of Homeric works are doing this due to their greater familiarity with Homeric works and their lack of familiarity with the works of Vyasa and Valmiki.