The Loves of Krishna in Indian Painting and Poetry by W. G. Archer
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W. G. Archer >> The Loves of Krishna in Indian Painting and Poetry
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While they are searching, the particular cowgirl who has gone with Krishna
is tempted to take liberties. Thinking Krishna is her slave, she complains
of feeling tired and asks him to carry her on his shoulders. Krishna
smiles, sits down and asks her to mount. But as she puts out her hands, he
vanishes and she remains standing with hands outstretched.[29] Tears stream
from her eyes. She is filled with bitter grief and cries 'O Krishna! best
of lovers, where have you gone? Take pity.'
As she is bemoaning her fate, her companions arrive.[30] They put their
arms around her, comfort her as best they can, and then, taking her with
them, continue through the moonlight their vain and anguished search.
Krishna still evades them and they return to the terrace where the night's
dancing had begun. There they once again implore Krishna to have pity,
declaring that there is none like him in charm, that he is endlessly
fascinating and that in all of them he has aroused extremities of
passionate love. But the night is empty, their cries go unanswered, and
moaning for the Krishna they adore, they toss and writhe on the ground.
At last, Krishna relents. He stands among them and seeing him, their cares
vanish 'as creepers revive when sprinkled with the water of life.' Some
of the cowgirls hardly dare to be angry but others upbraid him for so
brusquely deserting them. To all, Krishna gives the same answer. He is not
to be judged by ordinary standards. He is a constant fulfiller of desire.
It was to test the strength of their love that he left them in the forest.
They have survived this stringent test and convinced him of their love.
The girls are in no mood to query his explanation and 'uniting with him'
they overwhelm him with frantic caresses.
Krishna now uses his 'delusive power' in order to provide each girl with
a semblance of himself. He asks them to dance and then projects a whole
series of Krishnas. 'The cowgirls in pairs joined hands and Krishna was
in their midst. Each thought he was at her side and did not recognize him
near anyone else. They put their fingers in his fingers and whirled about
with rapturous delight. Krishna in their midst was like a lovely cloud
surrounded by lightning. Singing, dancing, embracing and loving, they
passed the hours in extremities of bliss. They took off their clothes,
their ornaments and jewels and offered them to Krishna. The gods in heaven
gazed on the scene and all the goddesses longed to join. The singing
mounted in the night air. The winds were stilled and the streams ceased to
flow. The stars were entranced and the water of life poured down from the
great moon. So the night went on--on and on--and only when six months were
over did the dancers end their joy.'
As, at last, the dance concludes, Krishna takes the cowgirls to the Jumna,
bathes with them in the water, rids himself of fatigue and then after once
again gratifying their passions, bids them go home. When they reach their
houses, no one is aware that they have not been there all the time.
[Footnote 25: Plate 11.]
[Footnote 26: Plate 12.]
[Footnote 27: Note 11.]
[Footnote 28: Plate 13.]
[Footnote 29: Plate 14.]
[Footnote 30: Plate 15.]
(iii) The Death of the Tyrant
This scene with its crescendos of excitement, its delight in physical
passion and ecstatic exploration of sexual desire is, in many ways, the
climax of Krishna's pastoral career. It expresses the devotion felt for
him by the cowgirls. It stresses his loving delight in their company. It
suggests the blissful character of the ultimate union. No further
revelation, in fact, is necessary for this is the crux of Krishna's life.
None the less the ostensible reason for his birth remains--to rid the
earth of the vicious tyrant Kansa--and to this the _Purana_ now returns.
We have seen how in his anxious quest for the child who is to kill him,
Kansa has dispatched his demon warriors on roving commissions, authorizing
them to attack and kill all likely children. Many children have in this
way been slaughtered but Kansa is still uncertain whether his prime
purpose has been fulfilled. He has no certain knowledge that among the
dead children is his dreaded enemy. He is still unaware that Krishna is
destined to be his foe and he therefore continues the hunt, his demon
emissaries pouncing like commandos on youthful stragglers and hounding
them to their deaths. Among such youths Krishna is still an obvious target
and although unaware that this is the true object of their quest, demons
continue to harry him.
One night Krishna and Balarama are in the forest with the cowgirls when a
yaksha demon, Sankhasura, a jewel flashing in his head, comes among them.
He drives the cowgirls off but hearing their cries, Krishna follows after.
Balarama stays with the girls while Krishna catches and beheads the demon.
On another occasion, Krishna and Balarama are returning at evening with
the cows when a bull demon careers amongst them. He runs amok scattering
the cattle in all directions. Krishna, however, is not at all daunted and
after wrestling with the bull, catches its horns and breaks its neck.
To such blind attacks there is no immediate end. One day, however, a sage
discloses to Kansa the true identity of his enemy. He tells him in what
manner Balarama and Krishna were born, how Balarama was transferred
from Devaki's womb to that of Rohini, and how Krishna was transported
to Nanda's house in Gokula. Kansa is now confronted with the ghastly
truth--how Vasudeva's willingness to surrender his first six sons has
lulled his suspicions, how his confidence in Vasudeva has been entirely
misplaced, and how completely he has been deceived. He sends for Vasudeva
and is on the point of killing him when the sage interposes, advising
Kansa to imprison Vasudeva for the present and meanwhile make an all-out
attempt to kill or capture Balarama and Krishna. Kansa sees the force of
his remarks, spares Vasudeva for the moment, throws him and Devaki into
jail and dispatches a special demon, the horse Kesi, on a murderous
errand.
As the horse speeds on its way, Kansa assembles his demon councillors,
explains the situation to them and asks for their advice. If Krishna
should not be killed in the forest, the only alternative, the demons
suggest, is to decoy him to Mathura. Let a handsome theatre be built, a
sacrifice to Siva held and a special festival of arms proclaimed. All the
cowherds will naturally come to see it. Nanda, the rich herdsman, will
bring presents, Krishna and Balarama will come with other cowherds. When
they have arrived the wrestler Chanura can throw them down and kill them.
Kansa is delighted at the suggestion, adding only that a savage elephant
should be stationed at the gate ready to tear Krishna and Balarama to
pieces immediately they enter. He then dismisses his demon advisers and
sends for Akrura, the chief of the Yadavas and a leading member of his
court. Akrura, he judges, will be the best person to decoy Krishna to
Mathura. He accordingly briefs him as to his intentions and instructs him
to await orders. Akrura deems it politic to express compliance but
secretly is overjoyed that he will thus obtain access to the Krishna he
adores.
The first stage of Kansa's master plan is now brought into effect. The
horse demon, Kesi, reaches Brindaban and begins to paw the ground and kick
up its heels. The cowherds are frightened but Krishna dares it to attack.
The horse tries to bite him but Krishna plunges his hand down its throat
and expands it to a vast size until the demon bursts. Its remains litter
the ground but Krishna is so unmoved that he merely summons the cowherd
children to play a game. Squatting with them under a fig tree, he names
one of them a general, another a minister, a third a councillor and
himself pretending to be a raja plays with them at being king. A little
later they join him in a game of blind man's bluff.
This unexpected _denouement_ enrages Kansa but instead of desisting from
the attempt and bringing into force the second part of his plan, he
decides to make one further effort to murder his hated foe. He accordingly
summons the wolf demon, Vyamasura, gives him detailed instructions and
dispatches him to Brindaban. The demon hies to the forest, arriving while
Krishna and the children are still at blind man's buff. He has dressed
himself as a beggar and going humbly up to Krishna asks if he may join in.
Krishna tells him to choose whatever game he likes and the demon says,
'What about the game of wolf and rams?' 'Very well,' Krishna answers, 'You
be the wolf and the cowherd boys the rams.' They start to play and the
demon rounds up all the children and keeps them in a cave. Then, assuming
true wolf's form he pounces on Krishna. Krishna, however, is quite
prepared and seizing the wolf by the throat, strangles it to death.
Akrura is now sent for and instructed to go to Brindaban and return with
Krishna to Mathura. He sets out and as he journeys allows his thoughts to
dwell on the approaching meeting. 'Now,' he muses 'has my life borne
fruit; my night is followed by the dawn of day; since I shall see the
countenance of Vishnu, whose eyes are like the expanded leaf of the lotus.
I shall behold that lotus-eyed aspect of Vishnu, which, when seen only in
imagination, takes away the sins of men. I shall today behold that glory
of glories, the mouth of Vishnu, whence proceeded the Vedas, and all their
dependent sciences. I shall see the sovereign of the world, by whom the
world is sustained; who is worshipped as the best of males, as the male
sacrifice in sacrificial rites. I shall see Vishnu, who is without
beginning or end; by worshipping whom with a hundred sacrifices, Indra
obtained the sovereignty over the gods. The soul of all, the knower of
all, he who is all and is present in all, he who is permanent, undecaying,
all-pervading will converse with me. He, the unborn, who has preserved the
world in the various forms of a fish, tortoise, a boar, a horse, a lion
will this day speak to me. Now the lord of the earth, who assumes shapes
at will, has taken upon him the condition of humanity, to accomplish some
object cherished in his heart. Glory to that being whose deceptive
adoption of father, son, brother, friend, mother, and relative, the world
is unable to penetrate. May he in whom cause and effect, and the world
itself, is comprehended, be propitious to me, through his truth; for
always do I put my trust in that unborn, eternal Vishnu; by meditation on
whom man becomes the repository of all good things.'[31]
He goes on to think of how he will kneel before Krishna with folded hands
and afterwards put on his head the dust of Krishna's feet--the same feet
which 'have come to destroy crime, which fell on the snake Kaliya's head
and which have danced with the cowgirls in the forest.' Krishna, he
believes, will know at once that he is not Kansa's envoy and will receive
him with kindness. And this is what actually ensues. Meeting Krishna
outside Brindaban, he falls at his feet, Krishna lifts him up, embraces
him and brings him into Nanda's house. Akrura tells Nanda and Krishna
how Kansa has oppressed the people of Mathura, imprisoned Vasudeva and
Devaki and has now sent him to invite them to attend the festival of
arms. Krishna listens and at once agrees to go, while Nanda sends out a
town-crier to announce by beat of drum that all the cowherds should get
ready to leave the next day. When morning comes, Krishna leaves in a
chariot, accompanied by the cowherds and their children.
The news of his sudden departure devastates the cowgirls. Since the
circular dance in which their love was consummated, they have been meeting
Krishna every evening and delighting in his company. And during the
daytime their passionate longings have centred solely on him. That he
should leave them so abruptly causes them complete dismay and they are
only comforted when Krishna assures them that he will return after a few
days.
On the way to Mathura Akrura bathes in the Jumna and is granted a vision
of Krishna as Vishnu himself.
Reaching Mathura, Nanda and the cowherds pitch their tents outside the
city walls[32] while Krishna with Balarama and the cowherd children go
inside the city for a walk. As they wander through the streets, the news
of their arrival precedes them and women, excited by Krishna's name,
throng the rooftops, balconies and windows. 'Some ran off in the middle of
their dinner: others while bathing and others while engaged in plaiting
their hair. They forgot all dalliance with their husbands and went to look
at Krishna.' As Krishna proceeds, he meets some of Kansa's washermen
carrying with them bundles of clothes. He asks them to give him some and
when they refuse, he attacks one of them and strikes off his head. The
others drop their bundles and run for their lives. The cowherd children
try to dress themselves up but not knowing how to wear the clothes, some
of them put their arms into trousers and their legs into coats. Krishna
laughs at their mistakes until a tailor, a servant of Kansa, repudiates
his master, glorifies Krishna and sets the clothes right. A little later,
a gardener takes them to his house and places garlands round their necks.
As they are leaving, they meet a young woman, a hunchback, carrying a pot
of scented ointment. Krishna cannot resist flirting with her and asks her
for whom she is carrying the ointment. The girl, Kubja, sees the amorous
look in his eyes and being greatly taken by his beauty answers 'Dear one,
do you not know that I am a servant of Raja Kansa and though a hunchback
am entrusted with making his perfumes?' 'Lovely one,' Krishna answers,
'Give us a little of this ointment, just enough to rub on our bodies.'
'Take some,' says Kubja, and giving it to Krishna and Balarama, she allows
them to rub it on their bodies. When they have finished, Krishna takes her
under the chin, lifts her head and at the same time, presses her feet down
with his toes. In this way he straightens her back, thereby changing her
into the loveliest of girls. Filled with love and gratitude, Kubja catches
Krishna by the dress and begs him to come and visit her. Krishna promises
to go later and smilingly dismisses her.
Krishna now reaches the gate where the bow of Siva 'as long as three palm
trees' and very heavy, is being guarded by soldiers. He picks it up, bends
it to the full and breaks it in pieces. When the guards attack him, he
kills them and presently slaughters all the reinforcements which Kansa
sends. When the battle is over, he strolls calmly back to the cowherds'
tents.[33]
Next day, Krishna and the cowherds enter Mathura to attend the sports.
Krishna is obstructed by a giant elephant, attacks it and after a great
fight kills it. He and Balarama then extract the tusks and parade with
them in the arena. It is now the turn of Kansa's wrestlers. Their leader,
Chanura, dares Krishna to give Kansa a little amusement by wrestling with
him. Krishna takes him at his word and again after a fierce combat leaves
the wrestler dead on the ground.[34] At the same time, Balarama attacks and
kills a second wrestler, Mustaka. When other wrestlers strive to kill
Krishna and Balarama, they also are dispatched. Seeing first one and then
another plan go astray, Kansa orders his remaining demons to fetch
Vasudeva, Devaki and Ugrasena, declaring that after he has killed them he
will put the two young men to death. This declaration seals his fate. In a
flash Krishna slays Kansa's demons and then, leaping on the dais where
Kansa is sitting, he seizes him by the hair and hurls him to the ground.
Kansa is killed and all Mathura rejoices. Kansa's eight demon brothers are
then slain and only when Krishna has dragged Kansa's body to the river
Jumna and is sure that not a single demon is left do he and Balarama
desist from fighting.
[Footnote 31: Note 7.]
[Footnote 32: Plate 16.]
[Footnote 33: Plate 16.]
[Footnote 34: Plate 17.]
IV
THE _BHAGAVATA PURANA_: THE PRINCE
(i) The Return to Court
The death of Kansa brings to a close the first phase of Krishna's career.
His primary aim has now been accomplished. The tyrant whose excesses have
for so long vexed the righteous is dead. Earth's prayer has been granted.
Krishna has reached, in fact, a turning-point in his life and on what he
now decides the rest of his career depends. If he holds that his earthly
mission is ended, he must quit his mortal body, resume his sublime
celestial state and once again become the Vishnu whose attributes have
been praised by Akrura when journeying to Brindaban. If, on the other
hand, he regards his mission as still unfulfilled, is he to return to
Brindaban or should he remain instead at Mathura? At Brindaban, his foster
parents, Nanda and Yasoda, his friends the cowherds and his loves the
cowgirls long for his return. He has spent idyllic days in their company.
He has saved them from the dangers inherent in forest life. He has kept a
host of demon marauders at bay. At the same time, his magnetic charms have
aroused the most intense devotion. If he returns, it will be to dwell with
people who have doted on him as a child, adored him as a youth and who
love him as a man. On the other hand, Mathura, it is clear, has also
strong claims. Although reared and bred among the cowherds, Krishna is, in
fact, a child of Mathura. Although smuggled from the prison immediately
afterwards, it was in Mathura that he left his mother's womb. His true
father is Vasudeva, a leader of the Yadava nobility and member of the
Mathura ruling caste. His true mother, Devaki, is related to the Mathura
royal family. If his youth and infancy have been passed among the
cowherds, this was due to special reasons. His father's substitution of
him at birth for Yasoda's baby daughter was dictated by the dire perils
which would have confronted him had he remained with his mother. It was,
at most, a desperate expedient for saving his life and although the
tyrant's unremitting search for the child who was to kill him prolonged
his stay in Brindaban, his transportation there was never intended as a
permanent arrangement. A deception has been practised. Nanda and Yasoda
regard and believe Krishna to be their son. None the less there has been
no formal adoption and it is Vasudeva and Devaki who are his parents.
It is this which decides the issue. As one who by birth and blood belongs
to Mathura, Krishna can hardly desert it now that the main obstacle to his
return--the tyrant Kansa--has been removed. His plain duty is to his
parents and his castemen. Painful therefore as the severance must be, he
decides to abandon the cowherds and see them no more. He is perhaps
fortified in his decision by the knowledge that even in his relations with
the cowgirls a climax has been reached. A return would merely repeat their
nightly ecstasies, not achieve a fresh experience. Finally although Kansa
himself has been killed, his demon allies are still at large. Mathura and
Krishna's kinsmen, the Yadavas, are far from safe. He can hardly desert
them until their interests have been permanently safeguarded and by then
he will have become a feudal princeling, the very reverse of the young
cowherd who night after night has thrilled the cowgirls with his flute.
Following the tyrant's death, then, a train of complicated adjustments are
set in motion. The first step is to re-establish Krishna with his true
parents who are still in jail where the tyrant has confined them. Krishna
accordingly goes to visit them, frees them from their shackles and stands
before them with folded hands. For an instant Vasudeva and Devaki know
that Krishna is God and that in order to destroy demons he has come on
earth. They are about to worship him when Krishna dispels this knowledge
and they look on him and Balarama as their sons. Then Krishna addresses
them. For all these long years Vasudeva and Devaki have known that Krishna
and Balarama were their children and have suffered accordingly. It was not
Krishna's fault that he and Balarama were placed in Nanda's charge. Yet
although parted from their mother, they have never forgotten her. It pains
them to think that they have done so little to make her happy, that they
have never had her society and have wasted their time with strangers. And
he reminds them that in the world only those who serve their fathers and
mothers obtain power. Vasudeva and Devaki are greatly touched by Krishna's
words. Their former woe vanishes and they embrace Krishna and Balarama
fondly.
Having acknowledged Vasudeva and Devaki as his true parents, Krishna has
now to adjust his social position. Since Nanda and the cowherds belong to
a lower caste than that of Vasudeva and the other Yadavas, Krishna and
Balarama, who have eaten and drunk with the cowherds and have been brought
up with them, are not true members of the Yadava community. The family
priest is accordingly consulted and it is decided that a ceremony for
admitting them into caste must be performed. This is done and Krishna and
Balarama are given the customary sacred threads. They are now no longer
cowherds but true Yadavas. At the same time they are given a spiritual
preceptor who instructs them in the sacred texts and manuals of learning.
When they have finished the course, they express their gratitude by
restoring to him his dead son who has been drowned in the sea.
One further obligation springs from their new position. We have seen how
in the epic, the _Mahabharata_, Krishna stands in a special relation to
the Pandavas, the faction which emerges victorious from the great feud.
The mother of the Pandavas is called Kunti and it is Kunti who is the
sister of Krishna's father, Vasudeva. Since he is now with his true
father, rumours concerning Kunti reach Krishna and he learns that along
with her sons, the five Pandavas, she is being harassed by the Kaurava
king, the blind Dhritarashtra, egged on by his son, the evil Duryodhana.
Being now a part of his father's family, Krishna can hardly be indifferent
to the fate of so intimate a relative. Akrura, the leading Yadava
diplomat, whom the tyrant had employed to bring Krishna to Mathura, is
accordingly despatched on yet another mission. He is to visit the Kauravas
and Pandavas, ascertain the facts, console Krishna's aunt, Kunti, and then
return and report. Akrura reaches the Kauravas' capital and discovers that
the rumours are only too correct. Relations between the two families are
strained to breaking point. The blind king is at the mercy of his son,
Duryodhana, and it is the latter who is ceaselessly harrying Kunti and her
sons. A little later, as we have already seen, a final attempt on their
lives will be made, they will be induced to sleep in a new house, the
house will be fired and only by a fortunate chance will the Pandavas
escape to the forest and dwell in safety. This, however, is in the future
and for the moment Kunti and her sons are still at court. Akrura assures
Kunti of Krishna's abiding concern and returns to Mathura. Krishna and
Balarama are perturbed to hear his news, deliberate on whether to
intervene, but decide for the moment to do nothing.
The second adjustment which Krishna has now to make is to reconcile the
cowherds to his permanent departure from them and to wean them from their
passionate adherence to his presence. This is much more difficult. We have
seen how on the journey to Mathura, Krishna has been accompanied by Nanda
and the cowherds and how during the closing struggle with the tyrant they
also have been present. When the fight is finally over, they prepare to
depart, taking it for granted that Krishna and Balarama will come with
them. Krishna has therefore to disillusion Nanda. He breaks the news to
him that it is not he and Yasoda who are actually his parents but Vasudeva
and Devaki. He loads Nanda with jewels and costly dresses and thanks him
again and again for all his loving care. He then explains that he has now
to stay in Mathura for a time to meet his castemen, the Yadavas. Nanda is
greatly saddened by the news. The cowherds strive to dissuade him but
Krishna is adamant. He retains a few cowherds with him, but the rest
return to Brindaban, Krishna promising that after a time he will visit
them. On arrival Nanda strives in vain to console Yasoda and is forced to
tell her that Krishna has now acknowledged Vasudeva as his true father,
that he has probably left Brindaban for good and that his own early
intuition that Krishna was God is correct. Yasoda, as she thinks of her
lost 'son,' is overwhelmed with grief, but recovers when she realizes that
actually he is God. As to the cowgirls, their grief is endless as they
recall Krishna's heart-ensnaring charms.
Such a step is obviously only the first move in what must necessarily be a
long and arduous operation. Finding it impossible to say outright that he
will never see them again, Krishna has committed himself to paying the
cowherds a visit. Yet he realizes that nothing can be gained by such a
step since, if his future lies with the princely Yadavas, any mingling
with the cowherds will merely disrupt this final role. Yet clearly he
cannot just abandon his former associates without any regard at all for
their proper feelings. Weaning is necessary, and it must above all be
gradual. He decides, therefore, that since he himself cannot go, someone
must be sent on his behalf. Accordingly, he instructs a friend, Udho, to
go to Brindaban, meet the cowherds and make excuses for his absence. At
the same time, he must urge the cowgirls to give up regarding Krishna as
their lover but worship him as God. Udho is accordingly dressed in
Krishna's clothes, thereby making him appear a real substitute and is
despatched in Krishna's chariot.
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