Studies in the Epics and Puranas c12.49

c12.49

The Harivaṃśa, Brahma, Viṣṇu, Bhāgavata and Brahmavaivarta among the Purāṇas deal exhaustively with the life of Kṛṣṇa, and the accounts in the different Purāṇas are not only inconsistent but mutually contradictory. Ruben has critically considered some incidents relating to the life of Kṛṣṇa from different Purāṇas and has come to the conclusion that the original supplement (Khila) of the Mahābhārata was much shorter than the Khila Harivaṃśa now current, that the original Harivaṃśa is the oldest Purāṇa and that the original archetype of the Harivaṃśa has been better preserved in the Brahma.³¹ The order of the Purāṇas has variously been placed as: Viṣṇu-Harivaṃśa-Bhāgavata-Brahmavaivarta,³² Harivaṃśa-Brahma-Viṣṇu-Bhāgavata-Brahmavaivarta,³³ Brahma-Viṣṇu-Bhāgavata-Brahmavaivarta,³⁴ etc. A critical evaluation of the different accounts of Kṛṣṇa given in the Purāṇas shows that only the Brahma and the Viṣṇu have a common text, and that the former has an account older than the Viṣṇu.³⁵ Besides these, the Padma, Agni, Bhāgavata and Brahmavaivarta deal at some length with the Kṛṣṇa story, and the Harivaṃśa, truly as the supplement of the Mahābhārata, goes over the entire Purāṇic story, carefully omitting all references to the Mahābhārata story. The Bhāgavata is the only Purāṇic account which combines both the epic and Purāṇic accounts setting them in proper context. The Brahmavaivarta is a late work, solely written to glorify Rādhā.