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14. THE CONCEPT OF AVATARS
KRISHNA
There is a lot of speculation about the antecedents of Lord Krishna. We do not have any clear historical records about him other than the scriptural evidence and his connection with the epic Mahabharata war. We are not even sure whether the Krishna of Mathura, Gopala of Brindavan and the Vasudeva Krishna of Dwaraka are different historical personalities or one and the same. More intriguing is how he came to be accepted as an incarnation of Lord Vishnu and how exactly his inclusion in the Hindu pantheon happened. He was definitely not a Vedic god and was not worshipped by early Vedic Aryans. He was neither a Brahmin, nor a Kshatriya nor a Vaishya. He came from a nonVedic background and grew in the company of cowherds. From the vedic perspective he led a controversial life and preached a philosophy that emphasized the internalization of ritual and liberation through desireless actions, devotion to God and self-surrender. He tried to combine the finer aspects of vedic philosophy with the complex philosophies of Samkhya and Yoga and thereby made his teachings extraordinarily appealing to all sections of society. Long before the Buddha, he tried to reform the Vedic religion through his teachings and by making public the mostly secretive Upanishadic knowledge that remained confined to some selected families and vedic schools. The following paragraphs are excerpted from the book, the Hinduism and Buddhism An Historical Sketch, by Sir Charles Eliot in which the author tries to trace the origin of the legend of Krishna based on the available literary evidence. The author made best possible effort to trace the historical origin of Krishna from various sources. He also drew some erroneous conclusions such as the possible connection between Krishna and Greek gods such as Herakles and Pan and his clear bias in favor of
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