Week 12 Reading Diary A: The Life of Krishna

For my reading diary this week, I decided to read Sir Edmund Charles' Tales of Ancient India, Krishna and Other Gods.

Krishna was a fascinating character for me in the Mahabharata, and I was interested to learn more about his story. And boy did I!

I loved the parallelisms (and stark juxtapositions) drawn between Krishna and his archnemesis Kansa. Starting from each of their births, one where the earth grieved and the other where it flourished. They were literally born to be at eachother's throats. Usually, I am not such a fan of the fight of good vs. evil, I much prefer morally ambiguous characters and gray zones, but here I think it totally worked.

However, there was never much worry about Krishna losing. Kansa was a wimp compared to Krishna, who was literally performing miraculous feats of strength since birth. Speaking of, I really enjoyed how Krishna spent his youth as a cowherd. It sort of reminded me of the humble nomadic origins of an earth-mover like Ghengis Khan, who also rose to overthrow an empire. But unlike Khan or Rama, Krishna does it while still half a child.

Krishna, putting the beat down on Kansa

That's another thing that struck me about this piece. Krishna is freaking BRUTAL. Like . . . bloodthirsty, metal, fist-bangingly brutal. He kills a giant elephant with his bear hands, then proceeds to literally stomp Kansa into slush. As a 12 year old boy he literally curb stomps the king into oblivion. Holy cow-herd!