The Arthashastra on Krishna worship
Tradition attributes the arthaśāstra to kauṭilya, who conspired with chandragupta maurya to overthrow the nanda empire (around 320 BCE). This ancient work contains several interesting allusions to the vāsudeva cult and its mythology. The chapter 1.6 titled indriyajayaḥ or ‘The conquering of the senses’, asserts that kings who fail to control their senses face destruction and substantiates this statement with a list of examples, among which the destruction of the vṛṣṇis at the hands of dvaipāyana is alluded to;
“atyāsādayan vṛṣṇisanghaścha dvaipāyanaṃ”
‘The vṛṣṇi’s disrespecting dvaipāyana (were destroyed)’
The next pertinent reference is in the chapter 13.3 apasarpapraṇidhiḥ, ‘on spies’ refers to the association of balarāma and his devotees with the consumption of spirituous liquor. He suggests spies disguised as worshipers of sankarṣaṇa with a shaved head or wearing braided hair feigning piety may overcome enemies while drugging them with wine
“sankarṣaṇadaivatīyaḥ va muṇḍajaṭilavyañjanaḥ prahavaṇakarmaṇā madanarasayogābhyāmatisandadhyāt”
Chapter 14.3 titled pralambhane bhaiṣajyamantraprayogaḥ – ‘ṭhe usage of drugs and incantations in deceit’ contains the following ‘sleeping spell’ invoking kṛṣṇa
“baliṃ vairochanaṃ vande śatamāyaṃ cha śambaraṃ
nikumbhaṃ narakaṃ kumbhaṃ tantukachchhaṃ mahāsuram
armālavaṃ pramīlaṃ cha maṇḍolūkaṃ ghaṭobalaṃ
kṛṣṇaṃ kaṃsopachāraṃ cha paulomīṃ cha yaśasvinīṃ
abhimantrayitvā grhṇami siddhārthaṃ śavaśārikāṃ
jayatu jayati cha namaḥ śalakabhūtebhyaḥ svāhā
sukhaṃ svapantu shunakā ye ch grāme kutūhalāḥ
sukhaṃ svapantu siddhārthā yamarthe mārgayāmahe
yāvadastamayādudau yāvadarthaṃ phalaṃ mama
iti svāhā”
‘I salute bali, son of vairochana, śatamāya, śambara, nikumbha, naraka, kumbha and tantukachchhaṃ mahāsuram
On addressing armālava, pramīla, maṇḍolūka, ghaṭobala, kṛṣṇa, the service of kaṃsa and the famous paulomī, to achieve my goals I hold the piece of a corpse.
Victory to the spiders. svāhā. May the village dogs sleep peacefully. May those whose goals have been achieved, whom we seek, sleep peacefully
From dusk to dawn, until my invocation bears fruit’
Krishna and the Nastikas
Of the two nāstika sects that have survived unto the present, the jaina tradition is the more ancient one. In contrast some of the Buddhist texts available today are more ancient than the oldest surviving Jain texts. Though the Buddha is believed to have preached in an ancient Māgadhī dialect, his teachings are no longer available in the language of their origin. The oldest extant works are in pāḷi, an early central middle indo-aryan language and were compiled in the centuries immediately following the Buddha‘s passing (c.400 BCE) though written down only at the time of the 4th Buddhist council in the 1st century BCE. The Niddesa is a text belonging to the khuddaka nikāya of the pāli canon in the form of a commentary on the sutta nipata. It was probably composed around the time of Aśoka in the 3rd century BCE. A list of cults prevailing at that time occur in the following passage of the Mahāniddesa, among which the worship of vāsudeva and baladeva find mention
“Sant’eke samaṇabrāhmaṇā vattasuddhikā. te hatthivattikā vā honti ,assavattikā vā honti, govattikā vā honti, kukkuravattikā vā honti, kākavattikā vā honti, vāsudevavattikā vā honti, baladevavattikā vā honti, maṇibhaddavattikā vā honti, pūṇṇabhaddavattikā vā honti aggidevavattikā vā honti, nāgavattikā vā honti, supaṇṇa vattikā vā honti, yakkhavattikā vā honti, asuravattikā vā honti, gandhabbavattikā vā honti mahārājavattikā vā honti, chandavattikā vā honti, suriyavattikā vā honti, indavattikā vā honti, brahmavattikā vā honti, devavattikā vā honti, disavattikā vā honti. ime te samaṇabrāhmaṇā vattasuddhikā; tena vattena suddhiṃ visuddhiṃ parisuddhiṃ muttiṃ vimuttiṃ parimuttiṃ paccenti”
‘Some śramaṇas and brāhmaṇas practice purification through the fulfillment of vows (pa. vatta/vata – sa. vrata). They keep vows to (worship) elephants, horses, cows, dogs, crows, vāsudeva, baladeva, maṇibhadra, purṇabhadra (yakṣa deities), the fire god, serpents, garuda, yakṣas, asuras, gandharvas, kubera, the moon, the sun, indra, brahma, the gods or to the directions. These śramaṇas and brāhmaṇas practice purification through the fulfillment of vows. They believe purity is by means of these vows’
The Jātakas are a collection of stories detailing the previous lives of the Buddha. While a few of the Jātakas are later additions, many of them date back to the lifetime of the buddha. The ghaṭa jātaka details the lives of ghaṭa panḍita and vāsudeva depicted as previous identities of the buddha and śāriputra respectively. It broadly follows the outline of the story as narrated in the harivaṃśa but contains certain marked deviations. The Jātaka narrates that devagabbhā was held captive when it was prophesied that her son would be the killer of her brother the king kaṃsa of añjana. Though secluded from the world except for the maid nandagopā and her husband andhakaveṇhu, prince upasāgara of mathurā chanced upon her and the two fell in love. Following their wedding, kaṃsa promised to kill any son born to the couple, though agreeing to spare any daughters born to the couple. their first offspring was the princess asitañjanā, following which they had ten sons; vāsudeva, baladeva, chandadeva(chandra), sūriyadeva(sūrya), aggideva(agni), varuṇadeva, ajjuna(arjuna), pajjuna(pradymna), Ghaṭa paṇḍita and aṃkura(akrūra). Each time they were saved by exchanging with the daughters born to the the maid nandagopā. Here it is clear that in the character of nandagopā is preserved a memory of vāsudeva’s foster parents, while andhakaveṇhu is an allusion to the andhakas and vṛṣṇis, kṛṣṇa’s tribesmen.
Paralleling the legend in the harivaṃśa, the brothers were invited by kaṃsa to wrestle chaṇūra and muṭṭhika, whom they killed. vāsudeva then decapitated kaṃsa by throwing a wheel at him, a reference to the deity’s weapon of choice.
The narration proceeds to describe the conquests by the brothers and their settling at dvāravatī. The crux of the narration is a discourse by ghaṭa paṇdita to the grieving vāsudeva kaṇha upon the occasion of his son’s death. It then describes the describes the familiar story of the clan’s annihilation due to the wrath of sage kaṇha dīpāyana (kṛṣṇa dvaipāyana vyāsa, who interestingly was himself viewed as a previous incarnation of the buddha). This substitution of durvāsa with kaṇha dīpāyana and the iron mace with a wooden one is interesting and may in fact be a more archaic telling supported as it is by archaic sources such as the by arthaśāstra as seen earlier. This version is also corroborated by the following lines from the saṃkicca jātaka “Assailing black Dīpāyana the men of Vishṇu race; with Andhakas sought Yama’s realm, each slain by other’s mace” [4]. The jātaka ends by describing baladeva’s end at the hands of a goblin and vāsudeva’s end at the hands of Jara, the huntsman who mistook his foot for a pig. Most importantly vāsudeva is described as teaching a science before he died, a possible reference to a precursor of the bhagavad gītā.
The mahā ummagga jātaka refers to vāsudeva, one of the ten brothers who ruled dvāravatī as having married jambāvatī, a chaṇḍālī by caste. In later narrations jāmbavatī was considered a daughter of the bear jambavan, and her legend was tied to that of the syamantaka maṇi. Intrestingly the jātaka refers to kaṇha as the name of vāsudeva’s clan. [5]
vāsudeva and baladeva found a place within the jaina cosmology as śalākapuruṣas. The earliest reference to the pair as distinguished beings occurs in the kalpasūtra a śvetāmbara text composed in the 1st century. “It never has happened, nor does it happen, nor will it happen, that Arhats, chakravartins, Baladevas, or Vāsudevas, in the past, present, or future, should be born in low families, mean families, degraded families, poor families, indigent families, beggars’ families, or brahmanical families. For indeed Arhats, chakravartins, Baladevas, and Vāsudevas, in the past, present, and future, are born in high families, noble families, royal families, noblemen’s families, in families belonging to the race of Ikshvâku, or of Hari, or in other suchlike families of pure descent on both sides.”[6] . Other early texts such as the śvetāmbara text samavayanga sūtra and the ṣaṭkhaṇḍagama an early digamabara scripture also mention the Vāsudevas.
Bibliography
[1] The Arthasastra, with commentary by T Ganapati Sastri, No 454
[2] Niddesa Vol. I, Vallee Poussin and E.J Thomas, suddhaṭṭhakasuttaniddesa
[3] The Jataka, Vol. IV, tr. by H.T. Francis, No 454
[4] The Jataka, Vol. V, tr. by H.T. Francis, No. 530
[5] The Jataka, Vol. VI, tr. by H.T. Francis, No. 546
[6] Jaina Sutras, Part II, tr. by Hermann Jacobi,
dirghakarna 