Harivamsha

01The khila of the Mahabharata

The Adi Parva's own list of contents counts the Harivamsha among the parvas of the Mahabharata, as its khila, or supplement. Janamejaya has heard the whole of the Bharata from Vaishampayana, the disciple of Maharshi Vyasa, and he is not satisfied. You told me of the Kurus, he says, but not of the Vrishnis and Andhakas; to me the Vrishnis and the Pandavas are one family. The Harivamsha is Vaishampayana's answer, later retold by Ugrashravas Suta to Shaunaka at Naimisharanya. It is listed here with the Itihasa, and read in the manner of a Purana.

02Three parvas

The Harivamsha has three parvas. The Harivamsha Parva gives creation and the lineages down to Vasudeva. The Vishnu Parva tells the life of Shri Krishna from before his birth to the war with Bana. The Bhavishya Parva speaks of Janamejaya's own line and of the age to come. In the Critical Edition prepared at the Bhandarkar Oriental Research Institute, Pune, the whole runs to 118 adhyayas: the first parva to adhyaya 45, the Vishnu Parva from 46 to 113, the Bhavishya Parva the last five. The vulgate text that Nilakantha commented on is much longer, and the Gita Press Harivansh Puran follows it.

03Creation, Prithu and the lineages

The first parva holds the five marks of a Purana, though the Harivamsha does not call itself one. It begins with creation and the Manvantaras. Then the katha of Prithu, son of Vena, who chased the earth as she fled in the form of a cow until she agreed to yield her milk, and who divided and levelled the land so that villages and towns could stand. The Solar line follows, then the Lunar line through Yayati, and at last the Yadavas, the Syamantaka jewel and the family of Vasudeva. The parva closes with the gods preparing for Vishnu's descent.

04How did Vishnu become a cowherd?

Janamejaya's question shapes the whole Vishnu Parva. He who protects the entire world, how did he come down to earth and become a protector of cows? He who holds the elements, how was he carried in a woman's womb? Vaishampayana answers with the katha. Narada warns Kamsa. Vishnu asks Nidra, the Yoganidra, to be born to Yashoda while he is born to Devaki, and when Kamsa tries to dash her against a stone she rises into the sky. Vasudeva carries the child across the Yamuna at night to Nanda's camp. The Harivamsha tells this more fully than any part of the Mahabharata.

05Krishna in Braj

Putana comes and dies at the child's mouth. The cart is overturned, the twin trees uprooted. When Gokul grows unsafe, Krishna makes wolves appear from his own body so that the elders agree to move the camp to Vrindavan, near Govardhan and the great banyan Bhandira on the Yamuna. Kaliya is driven from the river. When Krishna turns Braj from Indra's festival to the worship of the mountain, Indra sends rain for seven nights, and Krishna lifts Govardhan with his left hand and holds it like a house over the cows. On the autumn nights that follow he plays with the gopis under the moon.

06Mathura, Dvaraka and Bana

Akrura comes to take the brothers to Mathura. Krishna and Balarama kill Kamsa's wrestlers and Kamsa himself, and set Ugrasena back on the throne. Jarasandha besieges Mathura again and again, Kalayavana comes from the west, and Krishna takes the Yadavas to the sea and builds Dvaraka. Then Rukmini, the slaying of Naraka, the bringing of the Parijata tree from Indra's garden. The parva closes with Usha, daughter of the asura Bana, who sees Aniruddha in a dream; her friend Chitralekha carries him off to her. Krishna comes to free him and fights Bana's protector, Shiva himself, until Shiva asks him to spare Bana's life.

07Janamejaya and the age to come

The Bhavishya Parva turns back to the listener. Janamejaya asks about his own descendants, and hears them named. He begins an ashvamedha, and Vyasa warns him that the age is turning; the Kali Yuga will not let such yajnas stand as they did. The last adhyayas describe the Kali age, the decline of dharma in it, and the return of the Krita age after it. Some in the assembly wept as they heard the rishi speak of what had been and what was to come, the last adhyaya says; others sat in thought. With that the Harivamsha ends, and so, in the order of its parvas, does the Mahabharata.

08Hari, Hara and the Devi

The Harivamsha is the book of Hari's lineage, and Krishna in it is Vishnu come down for the earth's relief. Yet its Vishnu Parva also holds praise of Nidra, the Devi who is Vishnu's own power, whom Vishnu sends ahead of him and who is worshipped on earth after she rises from Kamsa's hands. In the Bana war Krishna and Shiva meet as opponents and part with honour, Shiva speaking for his devotee and Krishna granting the request. Vaishnavas, Shaivas and Shaktas each find their own reverence respected. When Krishna tells the cowherds, I am your kinsman, think of me only so, the whole book softens.

09Heard for a child, read with commentary

A phalashruti found at the close of many manuscripts says that one who hears the Harivamsha gains long life and health, and that the sonless gain a son. By old custom couples who long for a child sponsor a Harivamsha katha, and Gita Press prints the Harivansh Puran in Sanskrit with Hindi for that use. Nilakantha Chaturdhara commented on it along with the Mahabharata in his Bharata Bhavadipa. M. N. Dutt published an English translation of the vulgate in 1897. The illustrated Harivamsha made at Akbar's court about 1590–95 is now spread across museums, the Govardhan folio among the best known.

What it contains

1. 1
   Harivamsha Parva हरिवंशपर्व

   Adhyayas 1–45 in the Critical Edition. Janamejaya's request, creation, the Manvantaras, Prithu who milked the earth, and the Solar and Lunar dynasties down to the Yadavas and Vasudeva. It ends with the devas preparing for Vishnu's descent.

2. 2
   Vishnu Parva विष्णुपर्व

   Adhyayas 46–113. Shri Krishna's birth, his childhood in Gokul and Vrindavan, Govardhan, Mathura and Kamsa, Jarasandha, the founding of Dvaraka, Rukmini, Naraka and the Parijata, and the war with Bana. It is the fullest early telling of Krishna's life outside the Bhagavata and Vishnu Puranas.

3. 3
   Bhavishya Parva भविष्यपर्व

   Adhyayas 114–118. Janamejaya's descendants, his ashvamedha after the serpent sacrifice, and Vyasa's words on the Kali Yuga and the return of the Krita age. The whole recital of the Bharata ends here.

Famous verses

न च मे तृप्तिरस्तीह कीर्त्यमाने पुरातने। एकश्च मे मतो राशिर्वृष्णयः पाण्डवास्तथा॥

Janamejaya says: I am not yet satisfied as this ancient account is told. To me the Vrishnis and the Pandavas are one single family.Harivamsha 1.11 (BORI Critical Edition, via GRETIL)

गोपायनं यः कुरुते जगतः सार्वलौकिकम्। स कथं गां गतो विष्णुर्गोपत्वमगमद्विभुः॥

He who keeps the whole world safe, how did that all-pervading Vishnu come down to earth and become a herdsman of cows?Harivamsha 30.7 (BORI Critical Edition, via GRETIL)

अद्याहमिममुत्पाट्य सकाननवनं गिरिम्। कल्पयेयं गवां स्थानं वर्षत्राणाय दुर्धरम्॥

Krishna resolves: Today I will uproot this mountain with its woods and groves, and make of it a shelter for the cows against the rain, one nothing can break.Harivamsha 61.27 (BORI Critical Edition, via GRETIL)

यथा मन्यन्ति मां सर्वे भवन्तो भीमविक्रमाः। तथाहं नावगन्तव्यः स्वजातीयोऽस्मि बान्धवः॥

To the cowherds, after Govardhan: Do not think of me in the way you all now think, mighty ones. I am of your own people, your kinsman.Harivamsha 63.11 (BORI Critical Edition, via GRETIL)