Cite
MLA
“Bhagwan Shri Krishna.” Hindu History, 2026, https://www.hinduhistory.in/devata/krishna/. Accessed .
APA
Hindu History. (2026). Bhagwan Shri Krishna. Retrieved , from https://www.hinduhistory.in/devata/krishna/
यदा यदा हि धर्मस्य ग्लानिर्भवति भारत। अभ्युत्थानमधर्मस्य तदात्मानं सृजाम्यहम्॥
yadā yadā hi dharmasya glānir bhavati bhārata | abhyutthānam adharmasya tadātmānaṃ sṛjāmy aham ||
Dark blue, in yellow pitambara, a peacock feather in his crown and a vaijayanti garland, playing the flute with legs crossed in tribhanga; or as Bal Gopal crawling with a ball of butter, or lifting Govardhan on one finger. Beside him stands Radha, or Rukmini and Satyabhama.
01Born in Mathura, raised in Gokul
Kamsa had heard that the eighth child of his sister Devaki would kill him, so he kept her and Vasudeva in prison and killed six of their children. On the eighth night of the dark half of Bhadrapada, at midnight, Krishna was born; the chains fell open, and Vasudeva carried him across the flooded Yamuna to Nanda’s house in Gokul. The Bhagavata Purana’s tenth skandha tells everything that followed: Putana, the stealing of butter, the subduing of Kaliya, the lifting of Govardhan, and the raas lila on the moonlit nights of Sharad Purnima.
02The Gita at Kurukshetra
Grown, Krishna killed Kamsa, moved the Yadavas to Dwarka by the western sea, and stood by the Pandavas through every trial. When Arjuna lost heart between the two armies at Kurukshetra, Krishna spoke the eighteen chapters of the Bhagavad Gita, which sit in the Bhishma Parva of the Mahabharata. He tells Arjuna to act without clinging to the fruit, and at the end asks him to give up all dharmas and come to him alone. By the traditional reckoning, Kali Yuga began in 3102 BCE with his departure from the world.
03Bhakti to Krishna
Jayadeva’s Gita Govinda in the twelfth century, the songs of Surdas and Mirabai, the sampradayas of Vallabhacharya, Nimbarka and Madhvacharya, and Chaitanya Mahaprabhu’s sankirtan in Bengal and Puri made Krishna the centre of an immense river of devotion. Janmashtami is kept with a fast until midnight, when the baby is bathed and rocked in a cradle; in Maharashtra the dahi handi is broken the next day. In Braj, Holi lasts weeks, and Govardhan Puja the day after Diwali offers him a mountain of food, the Annakut.
04Mathura to Guruvayur
The Krishna Janmabhoomi at Mathura, the hundreds of temples of Vrindavan with Banke Bihari at their heart, and the Govardhan parikrama make up Braj. Dwarkadhish rules from his temple on the Gomti at Dwarka. Shrinathji was brought from Govardhan to Mewar in 1672 to keep him safe, and Nathdwara grew around him. Madhvacharya installed the Bala Krishna of Udupi in the thirteenth century. Guruvayur in Kerala, Parthasarathy at Triplicane and Ranchhodrai at Dakor draw lakhs every year.
In the texts
- Bhagavata Purana, Skandha 10–11
- Bhagavad Gita (Mahabharata, Bhishma Parva)
- Harivamsha
- Vishnu Purana, Amsha 5
- Gita Govinda of Jayadeva
