In search of Krishna - Page 67

Originally posted by: night13

<p align="left">I recently read a book...Yuganta by Irawati Karve, she grapples with the complexity of Krishna the man and Krishnathe God.She concludes that the deifying of Krishna as a god only happened after the Mahabharata. The story of his naughty childhood, the dalliance with Gopis, ect all could only have been a later addition. During the epic, he was very much human. He is seen more as a close friend and contemporary of Arjuna. Rather than make a bald statement here and invite the wrath of a billion believers, the author refers and infers from myriad sources that reveal not only her scholarship, but also ability to sift through a mountain of information. He was intelligent, just, farsighted and brave, but no God, says the author. </p>

Is does make you think!

You are right here. Mahabharata had no relation with any religion or philosophy. It was supposed to be a pure political drama with all gray characters, including Krishna. In the Mahabharata Krishna is an astute statesman, grand strategist and politician and not an omnipotent God-incarnate. Mahabharata was initially written as a 8000 verse poem by the name Jaya anywhere around 6th-5th century BC. Jaya further evolved into 24,000 verse Bharata and Bharata became 100,000 verse Mahabharata by 3rd-2nd century BC. Most probably Vyasa or Krishna-Dwaipayana was the historical author of Jaya and not Mahabharata. Most curiously, Jaya and Bharata were both written prior to Ramayana.

Most would be surprised to know that Bhagwad Gita itself was never a part of Mahabharata. Gita was written in several forms few centuries post Epic age. It was a later interpolation along with Harivansha (where Krishna's birth and youth is mentioned) along with the Vishnu and Shiva Sahasranamas. The word 'Bhagwad' was added to it to match the Bhagwad Purana which is the most important book of the Gaudiya Vaishnavas in modern times. It was not until Brahma Vaivarta Purana and Gita Govinda that the Radha-Krishna cult gained popularity. Neither Harivansha nor Vishnu Purana mention anything of Radha.

I guess, it was around Puranic age where the erstwhile Vedic and Upanishadic impersonal (Nirguna) Brahman began to acquire personal (Swaguna) forms (like Vishnu, Shiva etc) that these human heroes and characters of Epics were turned into Gods and Avatars.