The Ark

The most popular God of Hinduism, and the 8th avatar of Vishnu, Hinduism's highest God, Krishna famously appears as Arjuna's charioteer and counsellor in the Bhagavad-Gita.

Transcript

Rachael Kohn: Imagine a god whose childhood games are considered the central principle of the Universe.

Hello, I'm Rachael Kohn, and this is The Ark on ABC Radio National. That's not the only distinctive characteristic of Lord Krishna which he contributes to Hinduism. In fact Krishna is also a chief exemplar of love and something of a demon slayer, which is probably how he became one of the most important gods in the Hindu pantheon. If you're in Melbourne, you can get acquainted with Krishna at the National Gallery of Victoria, where its paintings from Rajasthan in the 17th to the 19th centuries, are on display.

I spoke to Carol Cains, the curator, who began by telling me about Krishna's rank.

Carol Cains: Well he's usually known as the eighth incarnation of Vishnu, and Vishnu of course one of the great triad of Hindu gods, along with Brahma and Shiva, and they're really representations of aspects of the Supreme Being. So Krishna, I guess, is the Supreme avatar of Vishnu, so he's up at the top of the pantheon I guess you could say.

Rachael Kohn: Well how far back does the worship of Lord Krishna go?

Carol Cains: Well it's a very interesting subject, because it's unknown really whether he was an historical figure who became deified, or whether he was a tribal god who was originally associated with the worship of nature, in particular the worship of forests, or whether in fact, he was absorbed into Hinduism in various aspects of those earlier forms, or absorbed into Hinduism as an avatar of Vishnu. But he's definitely been known as a forest god from very early, from the 6th century, if not before, and he's mentioned in texts that date from before the year dot, the year zero, so he's recognised very early on in Hindu literature.

Rachael Kohn: So when you say the 6th century, are you talking about BCE, or - ?

Carol Cains: BCE, yes, and in that form he was known in the South of India as a god associated with the worship of the forest, and he was known as Mayon. He was also associated with the herds and worship which incorporated offerings of milk and butter, which of course is something that's later been incorporated into Krishna worship within Hinduism.

Rachael Kohn: How much is the thesis accepted that Krishna might have been a real person?

Carol Cains: It seems to be a much-debated issue and it's not really mentioned, or discussed all that much in depth, and I think that's simply because a lot of the early records or literature relating to Krishna are really works that have been written down and compiled from an oral tradition which existed from much earlier than the works themselves. So for example, the Mahabharata, the date for writing that down is given anywhere from 400 BCE until 200 CE, and it's because it's a compilation of oral literature that was written down in various forms and perhaps the earliest form that survives is a much later version of earlier written forms. So the whole early history is really very vague, I guess you could say.

Rachael Kohn: Yes, well dating is always a contentious issue among scholars, isn't it?

Carol Cains: Yes.

Rachael Kohn: Now so many of the Hindu gods are recognisable, and Lord Krishna is certainly recognisable because of his blue skin. Now what does that signify? How did that come about?

Carol Cains: Well in Sanskrit, the term 'Krishna', which is KRSNA, really means 'dark' or 'black', and I think that Krishna's blue colouring could, in terms of the visual arts, simply be the easiest way, or perhaps the most effective way of denoting this darkness or blackness, because KRSNA and Krishna are really the same term, or forms of the same term. But it's also been suggested that this blue colouration might identify him as a tribal god who originally was worshipped by an ethnic group with a dark skin, or perhaps also that he was a forest god and may have originally been worshipped in ceremonies that included staining the skin with forest products.

Rachael Kohn: You've mentioned forest god a few times. What does that mean?

Carol Cains: Well many of the gods which were later incorporated into Hinduism, were in fact aspects of nature, and in communities where the earliest form of spiritualism was associated with one's surroundings, aspects of nature were personified, so they came to be associated as a spiritual identity.

Rachael Kohn: Well it certainly lends itself to beautiful depictions and paintings of Lord Krishna, and of course many of the other Gods.

Carol Cains: Yes, it's interesting when you start to look at depictions of Hindu gods, how many nature aspects are incorporated either in forms of animals such as the snake in particular, or personifications of elements such as water, for example the goddess Ganga and the goddess Jumuna which are forms of rivers, and also flowers, like the lotus, which is used as a decorative device, but also symbolises the male and the female form.

Rachael Kohn: Well people would have seen Lord Krishna's blue skin and his antics in Peter Brooks' staging of the Mahabharata, the great Indian epic. Is the Mahabharata the first text that actually mentions Lord Krishna?

Carol Cains: No, there's a slightly earlier text, but the Mahabharata's important because it's really I guess the first existing text where Krishna's personality comes out, or one of the aspects of his personality is really developed, and also his form as I guess a dual sort of personality, both human and divine is clarified.

Rachael Kohn: Well I guess it's in that particular story that one reads in a part of the Mahabharata, the Bhavagad-Gita, Krishna appears as Arjuna, the charioteer.

Carol Cains: That's right.

Rachael Kohn: And I think Arjuna is kind of a reluctant warrior, isn't he?

Carol Cains: Yes, Krishna has to counsel Arjuna, he's the great hero of one of the clans that's involved in the stories of the Mahabharata, the Pandava clan, and Arjuna is a great archer. He's about to go into the battle of Kurukshetra, which is a sort of climactic battle, and he has a sudden crisis of confidence, because he sees arrayed before him in the enemy's ranks, many of his kinsmen because the two clans are related, and Arjuna thinks he can't go ahead and kill all his relatives, which he's known since birth, and Krishna counsels him and really stresses that his role in life is to fulfil his duty, to fulfil the role into which he was born, which was that of a warrior, and without regard really for possible outcomes which he really can't predict. And so he eventually cajoles Arjuna into going into battle, and this is really Krishna's role as counsellor and I guess tribal leader, which is explored in the Mahabharata and this particular incident.

Rachael Kohn: Doesn't Krishna have another role that involves demons and kind of balancing good and evil?

Carol Cains: Yes, well in fact that aspect of his personality is really clarified in the Mahabharata, and it's continued throughout all the depictions of Krishna and as an avatar of Vishnu. His role in the world as a human was really to destroy evil and restore the balance between good and evil, because of course Vishnu was the great creator, and preserver of cosmic order, and Krishna, as an avatar of Vishnu, had to maintain that cosmic order. So in the Mahabharata, he's counselling Arjuna to fulfil his duty and in the Bhagavata Purana, a 9th or 10th century text, which details Krishna's childhood and early life, he destroys evil in the form of many demons which take on fantastic forms.

Rachael Kohn: Carol Cains, just give a sort of thumbnail explanation of the term 'avatar'.

Carol Cains: Well avatar, it's interesting, isn't it, avatar's become quite a common word now, through virtual reality and people taking on avatars or creating their own avatars, but in the Hindu meaning, it really means it's an incarnation of a supreme being which is sent to earth to perform a particular function. The form can be an animal form, such as a boar or a turtle, some of them were fantastic forms such as a many-armed warrior, and some of them were human forms, such as Krishna.

Rachael Kohn: Is Krishna a figure who develops over time? Does he accumulate more aspects, more functions or roles as a god?

Carol Cains: He does, actually, and it's interesting, if you explore Krishna through the literature, through Vaishnavite literature which focuses on Krishna, you see the early form, the Mahabharata he's a warrior and a statesman and a counsellor. In the Bhaghavata Puranaa naughty child, an adorable baby, a demon killer, a lover, and then in 16th century courtly literature, he becomes the ultimate court hero and lover. So in a way different times and places have I guess explored different aspects of his personality in order to make him more accessible or believable or more relevant to the people who were reading the literature.

Rachael Kohn: Well the works on show at the National Gallery of Victoria are gathered under the rubric Krishna, Love and Devotion. Is that the way he is most popularly known, or appreciated?

Carol Cains: Well I think so. You know, there's many ways that you can love Krishna, and be devoted to Krishna and that was what I discovered as I was researching the works for the show. There's works that depict him as a naughty baby playing tricks on his foster mother, Yashoda, and I know that many devotees who adore him in that way, in a maternal sort of way, they react favourably to his naughtiness, that makes him more endearing and more approachable I think. There's other forms of devotion in which he is seen as the subject of very intensely romantic poetry, and devotion to Krishna in this form is the most gorgeous lover and courtier, is seen as a way of channelling, you know, ardent fervour into this devotion for a particularly loving and lovable god.

Rachael Kohn: Well there is some sensual depictions of Krishna and his gopis that you have in the show, can you talk about some of them?

Carol Cains: Yes, it's a very interesting aspect of Krishna, his role as the ultimate lover. I was actually talking to a young Indian woman who's a Krishna devotee, the other day in the show and she was saying that many of these very erotic and sensual depictions of the god, she didn't actually think were about Krishna as a spiritual subject, she was saying that they'd been commissioned by courtly rulers and they were really reflecting more aspects of courtly life. But I guess to me, the fact that they depict Krishna just shows that they really still do depict some aspect of the god which can be approached as a devotee. So for example, the whole idea of lila or play, which is very important in Krishna worship, is depicted in these court paintings where Krishna is seen as courteous and gopis or cowherders' wives peering at them through the reeds as they bathe naked in the river Jumuna, and this sort of idea of his naughtiness is carried all the way through from him as an infant to an adult male. And I think it's a way that expresses his approachability and his humanity, so that he is a god or a spiritual being which one can approach almost as an equal, or without fear or guilt.

Rachael Kohn: Do you have a personal favourite among the paintings?

Carol Cains: My favourite is a court painting from the early 1600s, and it's from the text of the Sur Sagar. It's an illustration for a manuscript of the Sur Sagar which was a poetry compilation that was written by the poet Sur Das in the 16th century, and it shows a heroine, a very forlorn heroine, depicted three times, beneath a ragingly stormy sky, the love god Karma seated in a tree pointing his lotus arrow at her, and in the foreground she's depicted for a fourth time, handing a letter to a postman and it's an illustration to a fantastic text which depicts how she's absolutely beside herself with grief. Her lover's gone away, and she's handing a letter to the postman, hoping that the letter will bring her lover back, and it's really expressing the devotee's longing for union with Krishna, through this metaphor of courtly love.

Rachael Kohn: Well you've mentioned commission paintings and also manuscripts. Are there any paintings there or works of art that are from temples?

Carol Cains: We have a lovely contemporary work which was painted within the last four years, and it was made by an artist called Niranjan Maharana. He's a third generation painter from Orissa, and his family have worked creating works for the temples around the region of Puri, and this work is the type of work that would have been placed in the temple and hung during one of the celebrations for part of the Krishna festivals, so perhaps for Krishna's birthday, or the gopashtani event which celebrates his coming of age as a cowherd, or one of the other events in the Krishna festival. And it's a lovely large painting on cloth, with numerous scenes from Krishna's life, so it's quite a didactic piece, but it's very elaborate and fantastical.

Rachael Kohn: You can have a look at those marvellous paintings of Krishna at the National Gallery of Victoria in Melbourne until the 16th March next year. Carol Cains is the Curator of Asian Art at the Gallery.

Next week, we meet Kathryn Rudy, the Keeper of illuminated manuscripts in The Hague. That's on The Ark next week at the same time, with me, Rachael Kohn.

Guests

Carol Cains
is the curator of Krishna: Love and Devotion.

Further Information

Krishna: Love and Devotion
This exhibition at the National Gallery of Victoria explores Krishna's iconography, through approximately 70 works including paintings, sculpture, textiles, photography, and jewellery. From 6 October 2007 to 16 March 2008 at the Asian Art Temporary Exhibition Space , Level 1.

Presenter

Rachael Kohn

Producer

Geoff Wood and Rachael Kohn