Krishna Trivia
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50 free Krishna trivia questions with answers — history quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
Krishna is one of the most loved figures in Hinduism: the eighth avatar of Vishnu, the mischievous butter thief of Gokul, the flute player who drew the gopis to the Yamuna, and the charioteer who spoke the Bhagavad Gita on the field of Kurukshetra. This quiz follows the whole story, from the prophecy that doomed his uncle Kamsa to the hunter's arrow at Bhalka. Along the way you will meet Devaki and Vasudeva, Nanda and Yashoda, Radha of Barsana, Sudama and his parched rice, the serpent Kaliya, the Syamantaka jewel, and the eight wives listed in the Bhagavata Purana. Later questions cover the festivals of Janmashtami and Dahi Handi, the regional forms of Krishna from Jagannath to Vithoba, Jayadeva's Gita Govinda, Mirabai, and how A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada founded ISKCON in New York in 1966. Easy questions suit anyone who has heard the stories; the expert tier asks about the Heliodorus pillar and what Megasthenes called him. Every answer was checked against Wikipedia's articles on Krishna, the Bhagavata Purana and the people and places around him, and each question carries the sentence that backs it up.
30 of 50 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Krishna and Rama are both avatars of which Hindu god?
Vishnu
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.
Q 02In which city was Krishna born, according to Hindu tradition?
Mathura
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.
Q 03In South India, Diwali marks Krishna's victory over which demon?
Narakasura
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.
Q 04What relation was the tyrant Kamsa to Krishna?
His maternal uncle
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.
Q 05According to the prophecy Kamsa heard at Devaki's wedding, which of her children would kill him?
The eighth
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.
Q 06Which river did Vasudeva carry the infant Krishna across on the night of his birth?
The Yamuna
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.
Q 07The Sanskrit word krishna, from which the god takes his name, means what?
Dark or black
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.
Q 08Krishna's childhood pranks earned him the nickname Makhan Chor, meaning what?
Butter thief
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.
Q 09Which hill did Krishna lift to shelter the people of Vrindavan from devastating rain?
Govardhan
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.
Q 10Krishna is most often shown playing which instrument?
A bansuri flute
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.
Q 11The gopis who danced with Krishna were what by occupation?
Milkmaids
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.
Q 12Which demoness tried to kill the infant Krishna by breastfeeding him poisoned milk?
Putana
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.
Q 13The serpent Kaliya had settled in Vrindavan because a curse kept which enemy of all serpents away?
Garuda
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.
Q 21On what condition did Krishna agree to be Arjuna's charioteer?
That he would never raise a weapon
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.
Q 22Which Manhattan Project physicist famously quoted the Gita?
Robert Oppenheimer
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.
Q 23The Bhagavad Gita is traditionally attributed to which sage?
Veda Vyasa
Q 14Yashoda, Krishna's foster mother, was married to which chieftain of Gokul?
Nanda
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.
Q 15Krishna's elder brother Balarama is usually described as an incarnation of which being?
Shesha
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.
Q 16After killing Kamsa, whom did Krishna reinstate as king of the Yadavas?
Ugrasena
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.
Q 17Which coastal city in present-day Gujarat did Krishna found as his capital?
Dwarka
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.
Q 18Who is listed first among Krishna's eight principal wives in the Bhagavata Purana?
Rukmini
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.
Q 19What humble gift did Krishna's poor childhood friend Sudama bring to his royal court?
Handfuls of parched rice
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.
Q 20Where did Krishna and Sudama study together as boys?
Sandipani's ashram
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.
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.
Q 24What is the name of Krishna's conch, which he blew at Kurukshetra?
Panchajanya
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.
Q 25Krishna beheaded which abusive king with the Sudarshana Chakra at Yudhishthira's Rajasuya sacrifice?
Shishupala
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.
Q 26The dazzling Syamantaka jewel of the Krishna legends originally belonged to which god?
Surya
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.
Q 27How does Krishna die in the Mahabharata and Puranic accounts?
A hunter's arrow hits his foot
A hunter's arrow hits his foot because the hunter, Jara, mistakes the resting god for a deer, and the dying Krishna forgives him.
Q 28In many tellings, which queen calls on Krishna as the Kauravas try to strip her after a dice game?
Draupadi
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.
Q 29Krishna's birthday festival, Janmashtami, usually falls in which months of the Gregorian calendar?
August or September
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.
Q 30The Dahi Handi human-pyramid celebration after Janmashtami is especially associated with which state?
Maharashtra
Maharashtra's troupes, called govindas, climb ever-taller human towers around Mumbai because politicians and sponsors hang large cash prizes on the pots.