Harivamsa

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The first two of three books of Harivamsa are largely dedicated to Krishna, described as the eighth incarnation of Hindu deity Vishnu. The stories about Krishna's birth to youth, told in these two books, are widely followed by Vaishnavism sect of Hinduism.^[1][2]

The Harivamsha (also Harivamsa; Sanskrit: Harivaṃśa हरिवंश, "the lineage of Hari (Vishnu)") is an important work of Sanskrit literature, containing 16,374 verses, mostly in Anustubh metre. The text is also known as the Harivamsha Purana. This text is believed to be a khila (appendix or supplement) to the Mahabharata^[3] and is traditionally ascribed to Veda Vyasa. The most celebrated commentary of the Mahabharata by Neelakantha Chaturdhara, the Bharata Bhava Deepa also covers the Harivamsha. According to Adi Parva,^[4] the Harivamsha is divided into two parvas or books and had 12,000 verses. The manuscripts found in the 19th century in different parts of India included three books and are also known as puranas - the Harivamsha Purana, the Vishnu Purana and the Bhavishya Purana. These books are included with the eighteen Mahapuranas of the Mahabharata.^[3]

The first book of Harivamsa Parva describes the creation of the cosmos and the legendary history of the kings of the Solar and Lunar dynasties leading up to the birth of Krishna. Vishnu Parva recounts the history of Krishna up to the events prior to the Mahabharata.^[1] Bhavishya Parva, the third book, includes two alternate creation theories, hymns to Shiva and Vishnu, and provides a description of Kaliyuga.^[5] While the Harivamsha has been regarded as an important source of information on the origin of Visnu's incarnation Krishna, there has been speculation as to whether this text was derived from an earlier text and what its relationship is to the Brahma Purana, another text that deals with the origins of Krishna.^[6]

Chronology

Dwarka Dwarka is the setting for many chapters in Harivamsa.[7] The city is described as near the sea, in modern era Gujarat; a painting of the city in the 19th century (lower).

The bulk of the text is derived from two traditions, the pañcalakṣaṇa tradition, that is, the "five marks" of the Purana corpus one of which is vaṃśa "genealogy", and stories about the life of Krishna as a herdsman.

The text is complex, containing layers that goes back to the 1st or 2nd centuries BCE. The origin of this appendix is not precisely known but it is apparent that it was a part of the Mahabharata by the 1st century CE because "the poet Ashvaghosha quotes a couple of verses, attributing them to the Mahabharata, which are now only found in the Harivamsa" (Datta 1858).

Hopkins considers Harivaṃśa the latest parva of Mahabharata. Hazra has dated the Purana to the 4th century CE on the basis of the description of Rasa lila in it. According to him, the Visnu Purana and the Bhagavata Purana belong to the 5th century CE and 6th century CE respectively. According to Dikshit, the date of Matsya Purana is the 3rd century CE. When we compare the biography of Krishna, the account of Raji and some other episodes as depicted in the Harivaṃśa, it appears to be anterior to the former. Therefore the Viṣṇu parva and the Bhaviṣya parva can be dated to at least the 3rd century CE.

By its style and contents, the Harivaṃśa parva appears to be anterior to the Viṣṇu parva and Bhaviṣya parva. The verses quoted by Asvaghosa belong to this parva. On this basis, we can safely assume the Harivaṃśa parva (except for the later interpolations) to be at least as old as the 1st century CE.

Editions

The Harivaṃśa is available in two editions. The vulgate text of the Harivaṃśa has total 271 adhyāyas (chapters), divided into three parvas, Harivaṃśa parva (55 chapters), Viṣṇu parva (81 chapters) and Bhaviṣya parva (135 chapters). The Critical Edition or CE (1969–71, Ed. P.L.Vaidya) is around a third (118 chapters in 6073 slokas) of this vulgate edition. Like the vulgate, the chapters in the CE are divided into three parvas, Harivaṃśa parva (chapters 1-45), Viṣṇu parva (chapters 46-113) and Bhaviṣya parva (chapters 114 -118). Vaidya suggests that even the CE represents an expanded text and proposes that the oldest form of Harivaṃśa probably began with chapter 20 (which is where Agni Purana 12 places its start) and must have ended with chapter 98 of his text.^[8]

Contents

The last chapter of the text gives a brief description of the subjects narrated in it as follows:

Harivaṃśa parva

Viṣṇu parva

† These pieces definitely appear to be interpolations into the text.

Bhaviṣya parva

† This suggests that at some point of time this chapter used to close the text (which is what the CE does, i.e. the narrative comes to an end at this chapter).

Translations

City of Dwarka in Harivamsa, as painted for the Mughal emperor Akbar.

There have been translations of the Harivamsa in many Indian vernacular languages, English (Manmatha Nath Dutt, 1897), French (M. A. Langlois, Paris, 1834–35), and other languages.^[9]

Jaina Harivamsas

There are also Jaina Harivamsas in various languages that present Jaina traditions of the Krishna story. One of the earliest of these is the Harivaṃśapurāṇa (783 AD) of Jinasena. It is divided into 66 cantos and contains 12,000 slokas. The book aims to narrate the life of Arishtanemi, the twenty-second Tirthankara of the Jainas. According to the Jaina sources, Arishtanemi is the first cousin of Krishna. Therefore, Krishna’s adventures too occupy a significant portion of the book. An outline of Jinasena’s work is as follows.

The description of the dynasty of the Yadus is spread over the cantos 19-63. The 32nd canto contains the description of Balarama. The tale of the birth of Krishna begins from canto 35. The description of the youthful exploits of Krishna is similar to the Hindu lore. There follows the description of the slaying of Kansa at the festival of consecration of the bow. Then Jarasandha sends his brother and his son to attack Mathura, both of them killed by Krishna. The birth of Arishtanemi takes place in Sauryapura amidst great celebrations. Jarasandha then lays siege of Mathura resulting in the migration of Krishna and his kinsmen to Dwarka. The marriage with Rukmini and the birth and abduction of Pradyumna follows. Then the account of the Pandavas is narrated which bears significant differences from the Hindu accounts. The reunion of Krishna and Pradyumna is narrated next. The text then describes the final combat between Jarasandha and Krishna with the Kauravas acting as allies to the former while the Pandavas to the latter. The war ends with the death of Jarasandha and the deification of Krishna as Narayana. Thereafter the Pandavas retreat to south to establish Pandu Mathura (modern Madurai). This is followed by the account of the attainment of arhathood by Arishtanemi, the destruction of Dwarka by Krishna Dwaipayana’s curse, the demise of Krishna and Balarama and the ascent of the Pandavas to the heavens. The book closes with and account of the dynasty of Yadu propagated by Jaratkumara.

Although styled as a Purana, the text follows the techniques of classical Sanskrit poetry and is more a kavya than a Purana.

See also

• First book of Mahabharata: Adi Parva
• Previous book of Mahabharata: Svargarohana Parva

Notes

1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 Maurice Winternitz (1981), History of Indian Literature, Vol. 1, Delhi, Motilal Banarsidass, ISBN 978-0836408010, pages 426-431
2. ↑ Edwin Francis Bryant (2007), Krishna: A Sourcebook, Oxford University Press, ISBN 978-0195148923, Chapters 4-21
3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 The Mahabharata in Sanskrit: Book I: Chapter 2 in sacred-texts.com website
4. ↑ The Mahabharata, Book 1, Chapter 2, Verses 377-378; M.N. Dutt Adi Parva, page 21
5. ↑ Maurice Winternitz (1981), History of Indian Literature, Vol. 1, Delhi, Motilal Banarsidass, ISBN 978-0836408010, pages 432-435
6. ↑ Ruben 115.
7. ↑ Manmatha Nath Dutt, Vishnu Purana, Harivamsa (1896), pages 283-286
8. ↑ [Harivaṃśa 1969-71: 785, XXX and 795]
9. ↑ Translations of the Harivamsa

References

• Bowker, John, The Oxford Dictionary of World Religions, New York, Oxford University Press, 1997, p. 410
• Winternitz, Maurice (1981) History of Indian Literature Vol. I. Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass.
• Ruben, Walter (1941) "The Krsnacarita in the Harivamsa and Certain Puranas.” Journal of American Oriental Society. Vol. 61, No.3. pp. 115–127.
• Lorenz, Ekkehard (2007) The Harivamsa: The Dynasty of Krishna, in Edwin F. Bryant (ed.), Krishna, A Source Book, Oxford University Press.
• Shastri, Rajendra Muni, Jaina Sahitya mein Sri Krishna Charita, Jaipur, Prakrit Bharati Akademi, 1991.

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Harivamsa.

• Original Sanskrit text online with English translation
• Manmatha Nath Dutt, Vishnu Purana, English Translation of Book 2 of Harivamsa (1896)
• Alexandre Langlois, Harivansa: ou histoire de la famille de Hari, French Translation of Harivamsa (1834)

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