50 Fun Facts About Krishna

Krishna and Rama are both avatars of which Hindu god?

Vishnu is said to descend as an avatar whenever some evil upsets the world's order, and Krishnaite traditions go further, treating Krishna himself as the origin of every avatar.

In which city was Krishna born, according to Hindu tradition?

Mathura is where his parents were held in the king's prison, so the Krishna Janmasthan temple there marks a cell, not a palace, as his birthplace.

In South India, Diwali marks Krishna's victory over which demon?

Narakasura had held thousands of women captive, so his death is kept as Naraka Chaturdashi, the eve of the main Diwali night in most of India.

What relation was the tyrant Kamsa to Krishna?

His maternal uncle Kamsa jailed Krishna's mother and her husband after a prophecy that her child would kill him, which is why Krishna was born in a prison cell.

According to the prophecy Kamsa heard at Devaki's wedding, which of her children would kill him?

The eighth child was Krishna, smuggled out to Gokul on the night of his birth, and the number echoes in Janmashtami, kept on the eighth day of a lunar fortnight.

Which river did Vasudeva carry the infant Krishna across on the night of his birth?

The Yamuna lay between the prison where he was born and the cowherd village of Gokul, so crossing it put the newborn out of the king's reach.

The Sanskrit word krishna, from which the god takes his name, means what?

Dark or black is the plain sense of the Sanskrit adjective, which is why he is painted blue-black, and the same word names Krishna Paksha, the darkening half of the lunar month.

Krishna's childhood pranks earned him the nickname Makhan Chor, meaning what?

Butter thief recalls the tales of him raiding pots of curd hung out of reach, which Janmashtami crowds re-enact by building human pyramids to smash a hanging pot.

Which hill did Krishna lift to shelter the people of Vrindavan from devastating rain?

Govardhan stayed aloft for seven days, the tales say, until Indra gave up the storm he had sent in anger at losing the villagers' offerings.

Krishna is most often shown playing which instrument?

A bansuri flute is his emblem because its sound is said to draw the gopis from their homes to dance with him by moonlight, a scene read as the soul answering God.

The gopis who danced with Krishna were what by occupation?

Milkmaids from the cowherd villages of Braj, the gopis are said to have left their homes to join him, and their devotion is held up as the model of unconditional love for God.

Which demoness tried to kill the infant Krishna by breastfeeding him poisoned milk?

Putana died when the baby drained her life along with the milk, yet because she had nursed him the texts grant her a mother's reward and count her among his foster-mothers.

The serpent Kaliya had settled in Vrindavan because a curse kept which enemy of all serpents away?

Garuda had been cursed by a sage to die if he ever came back to fish there, so Kaliya felt safe in the pool until Krishna danced on his hoods and drove him out.

Yashoda, Krishna's foster mother, was married to which chieftain of Gokul?

Nanda led the cowherds of Gokul and raised the boy as his own, which is why a prince born in a prison grew up herding cattle instead of at court.

Krishna's elder brother Balarama is usually described as an incarnation of which being?

Shesha is the many-headed cosmic serpent, and in the Mahabharata a great white snake leaves Balarama's mouth as he dies and makes for the sea.

After killing Kamsa, whom did Krishna reinstate as king of the Yadavas?

Ugrasena was Kamsa's own father, overthrown by his son, so Krishna handed the crown back and stayed on as a prince at his court.

Which coastal city in present-day Gujarat did Krishna found as his capital?

Dwarka became his court after he judged the old kingdom unsafe and led the Yadavas west to the coast, a link that makes it one of Hinduism's seven great pilgrimage towns.

Who is listed first among Krishna's eight principal wives in the Bhagavata Purana?

Rukmini was a princess of Vidarbha whose brother had promised her to another king, so Krishna carried her off on the eve of that wedding and married her.

What humble gift did Krishna's poor childhood friend Sudama bring to his royal court?

Handfuls of parched rice were all Sudama could bring, yet Krishna ate them with delight and turned his friend's hut into a palace without being asked for anything.

Where did Krishna and Sudama study together as boys?

Sandipani's ashram is placed at Ujjain, and when the sage named his teacher's fee Krishna is said to have fetched his lost son back from the god of death.

On what condition did Krishna agree to be Arjuna's charioteer?

That he would never raise a weapon was the catch in his offer: one side could have his army, the other only himself, and Arjuna chose Krishna unarmed over the troops.

Which Manhattan Project physicist famously quoted the Gita?

Robert Oppenheimer said the 1945 Trinity blast brought to mind the Gita's 'Now I am become Death', spoken as Krishna shows Arjuna his divine form; he counted it among the books that most shaped his philosophy of life.

The Bhagavad Gita is traditionally attributed to which sage?

Veda Vyasa gets the credit because the Gita is an episode within the Mahabharata, the vast epic he is traditionally said to have composed or compiled.

What is the name of Krishna's conch, which he blew at Kurukshetra?

Panchajanya is said to take its name from Panchajana, a demon slain for it; in one telling Krishna kills him under the sea while searching for his teacher's lost son and keeps the shell.

Krishna beheaded which abusive king with the Sudarshana Chakra at Yudhishthira's Rajasuya sacrifice?

Shishupala was Krishna's own cousin, and Krishna had promised the king's mother to pardon a hundred offences; once the tally was full, the discus flew.

The dazzling Syamantaka jewel of the Krishna legends originally belonged to which god?

Surya gave the jewel to his devotee Satrajit, and when it vanished Krishna was suspected of the theft, so he tracked it to the bear-king Jambavan to clear his name.

How does Krishna die in the Mahabharata and Puranic accounts?

A hunter's arrow hits his foot because the hunter, Jara, mistakes the resting god for a deer, and the dying Krishna forgives him.

In many tellings, which queen calls on Krishna as the Kauravas try to strip her after a dice game?

Draupadi had been staked and lost at dice by her husband, and in the tellings where she calls on Krishna each cloth pulled away is replaced by another until her attacker tires.

Krishna's birthday festival, Janmashtami, usually falls in which months of the Gregorian calendar?

August or September, because the date follows the lunar calendar rather than the solar year, and devotees fast until midnight, the traditional hour of his birth.

The Dahi Handi human-pyramid celebration after Janmashtami is especially associated with which state?

Maharashtra's troupes, called govindas, climb ever-taller human towers around Mumbai because politicians and sponsors hang large cash prizes on the pots.

Which Braj town, famed for its stick-wielding Lathmar Holi, is revered as Radha's home village?

Barsana's women pummel men from Krishna's village with staves each spring while the men shelter behind shields, a playful battle tied to the legend of the divine couple.

The 'vrinda' in Vrindavan, Krishna's childhood town, is the Sanskrit name of which sacred plant?

Holy basil, better known as tulsi, is vrinda in Sanskrit, so the name can be read as 'basil grove'; Vrinda is also a name of Radha, though, which gives the rival reading 'Radha's forest'.

Who make up the other two members of Jagannath's temple triad at Puri?

Balabhadra and Subhadra are his brother and sister, and the towering chariots that haul the three through Puri each year gave English the word 'juggernaut'.

Which Alvar saint composed the Tiruppavai, Tamil songs in which she imagines herself as a gopi?

Andal, the only woman among the Alvars, is said to have worn the temple's garlands herself before offering them to the god, and her thirty songs are still recited each Margazhi.

Guruvayoorappan is the form of Krishna worshipped at the Guruvayur Temple in which Indian state?

Kerala's temple receives elephants as offerings from devotees, so it has long kept a herd of dozens in the grounds of a former palace nearby.

Which 12th-century poet wrote the Gita Govinda, the great lyric of Krishna and Radha's love?

Jayadeva's poem became worship in its own right, sung for the deity at Puri's Jagannath temple each night, a recital once performed by the temple's own dancers.

The 16th-century mystic poet Mirabai is famous in legend for surviving what attempt on her life by her in-laws?

Poisoning failed, the legend says: she drank the cup without harm, and when a snake was sent to her in a flower basket she found an image of Krishna inside instead.

Where was the International Society for Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON) founded in the 1960s?

New York City gave Prabhupada his first converts: teaching from a Lower East Side storefront, he drew young hippies who were soon chanting with him in the streets and parks.

Where is ISKCON's spiritual and administrative headquarters?

Mayapur, West Bengal, is revered by the movement as the birthplace of Chaitanya, the saint who taught devotion through chanting Krishna's names five centuries ago.

Which Beatle produced a hit single of the Hare Krishna mantra?

Harrison produced the London devotees' 1969 single, and four years later he bought the movement a country estate outside the city, now Bhaktivedanta Manor.

When Yashoda made the toddler Krishna open his mouth to check for dirt, what did she see inside?

The whole universe appeared inside, sky, stars and even herself and the village, leaving Yashoda wondering whether she was dreaming or looking at her child's own power.

Which tech founder recalled walking seven miles every Sunday for a free meal at a Hare Krishna temple?

Steve Jobs told Stanford's 2005 graduates that as a college dropout he slept on friends' floors and returned Coke bottles for food money, and called the temple dinner his one good meal a week.

Whose gift of divine sight lets him relay Krishna's battlefield counsel to the blind king Dhritarashtra?

Sanjaya, the king's charioteer, was granted sight of the distant battlefield, so the whole Gita reaches us as his report to a father about to lose his sons.

After the Kurukshetra war, which grieving queen cursed Krishna that his own clan would destroy itself?

Gandhari had lost all hundred of her sons and blamed Krishna for letting the war happen; the epic has him accept the curse, which falls due in the thirty-sixth year.

Which Greek hero did Megasthenes equate with the god scholars think was Krishna?

Herakles, he reported some 2,300 years ago, was honoured above all by one Indian tribe; scholars match that tribe and its river to Krishna's own clan and homeland.

Which 16th-century poet of Braj, blind by tradition, is loved for songs of Krishna as a lovable child?

Surdas gave his name to the Sursagar, 'Sur's Ocean', a collection so popular that later poets went on adding songs under his name for generations.

In which religion's scriptures is Krishna a cousin of the saintly teacher Neminatha?

Jainism makes Neminatha the saint and Krishna his worldly cousin: the story has Neminatha renounce everything on hearing animals penned for slaughter at his own wedding feast.

By what name is Krishna's moonlit dance with the gopis of Vrindavan known?

Ras Lila became a stage tradition of its own: the scene is a favourite of Kathak and Odissi dancers and one of the pillars of Manipur's classical dance.

Which later appendix to the Mahabharata gives a detailed account of Krishna's childhood and youth?

The Harivamsa covers the parts of Krishna's life that the epic's own books leave out, his birth and herdsman youth, and with the Puranas became a mainstay of his legend.

The 'Krishna Avtar' section of the Dasam Granth is traditionally attributed to which Sikh leader?

Gobind Singh was the tenth and last Guru, and Dasam Granth is short for 'Book of the Tenth Emperor'; how much of it he wrote himself is still debated.