History of Dharmashastra (Ancient and Mediaeval Religious and Civil Law in India) v6.c81.488

v6.c81.488

It would not be out of place to say a few words about Kṛṣṇa and about the antiquity of Kṛṣṇa worship. There is a reference in the Chāndogya-upaniṣad (III. 17. 6) to Kṛṣṇa Devakīputra receiving instruction from Ghora Āṅgirasa. There was a Vedic poet named Kṛṣṇa who calls upon the Aśvins to listen to his invocation in Ṛg. VIII. 85. 3 and the Anukramaṇī assigns Ṛg. VIII. 86-87 to Kṛṣṇa Āṅgirasa. Jain tradition regards Kṛṣṇa as contemporaneous with Nemi, the 22nd Tīrthaṅkara, and from the account of the 63 great men of Jain pre-history about one third are shown as associated with Kṛṣṇa. The life of Kṛṣṇa as gathered from the Mahābhārata is a composite one. In some passages he is depicted as a Yādava prince, the staunchest friend of the Pāṇḍavas³²⁸ (and particularly of Arjuna), as a great warrior, statesman and philosopher. In other passages he is identified with the Supreme Lord of the worlds and as Viṣṇu Himself (Śānti 47. 28, Droṇa 146. 67-68, Karṇa 87. 74, Vanaparva 49. 20, Bhīṣma 21. 13-15). There are most sublime praises of Kṛṣṇa put in the mouths of Yudhiṣṭhira (Droṇa 149. 16-33), Draupadī (Vanaparva 263. 8-16) and Bhīṣma when about to die (Anuśāsana 167. 37-45). We have further information about him from the Harivaṁśa, the Viṣṇupurāṇa, Vāyu (98. 100-102), the Bhāgavata and Brahmavaivarta that deal with Kṛṣṇa's romantic career among cowherds, which is wanting in the Mahābhārata.