Studies in the Epics and Puranas c12.28

c12.28

Sifting the different Brahmanical works it is found that the Ṛgveda, Kauṣītaki Brāhmaṇa and Chāndogya Upaniṣad refer to Kṛṣṇa as a Vedic seer, obviously a human personality.¹⁴ As already stated, Pāṇini indicates that Vāsudeva and Arjuna, originally Kṣatriya heroes, were raised to the rank of gods before his time and Patañjali shows that they had attained divinity by his time. The Mahābhārata clearly shows the human and divine character of Kṛṣṇa. Leaving aside the consideration of the point whether the Kṛṣṇa element formed part of the original epic or was a later addition as contended by Oldenberg and others,¹⁵ it is clear that in the oldest nucleus of the epic we find clear references to the human character of Kṛṣṇa. In this connection, it may be pointed out that even among his senior contemporaries who were specially gifted with divine insight such as Vyāsa, Nārada and Bhīṣma, Kṛṣṇa was regarded as representing an avatāra of the Supreme Being, though his human elements were not forgotten.¹⁶ As against these, Śiśupāla, Duryodhana and others disputed the divinity of Kṛṣṇa, and regarded him as a mere cowherd. Evidence of the different stages in the progress of deification of Kṛṣṇa will be found in the Mahābhārata itself.¹⁷ In contrast to the earliest portions which clearly bring out the human elements of Kṛṣṇa and portray him as a human hero, he is represented as a semi-divine being in the later portions; whereas the parts of the epic that come still later, regard Kṛṣṇa as the Supreme God. The Purāṇas also present similar strata belonging to different ages showing various stages in the deification of the human hero Kṛṣṇa. Megasthenes testifies to the worship of Kṛṣṇa by the Śūrasenas. The earliest inscriptional records of the second century B.C. refer to the deification of Kṛṣṇa, to the worship of his sculptural images and to the erection of temples in his honour. He is devadeva, and even foreigners ruling in India styled themselves as Paramabhāgavata.¹⁸ Subsequent inscriptions, as already stated, also show the divinity of Kṛṣṇa.