In Indian legends he is the much-loved baby, Bala Krishna, the holy, curly-haired child with huge eyes and a prankish passion for fresh milk, sweet cream and smooth butter. The cute, chubby cherub grows into the handsome, happy shepherd boy of the outdoors, playing a magical flute to his herd of contented cattle, and sporting irresistible charm as he captivates gorgeous girls and great gods alike.
Even the Hindu deity of love Kamadeva is entranced, wielding a symbolic bow of sugarcane with a string of honeybees and arrows decorated with fragrant flowers, like diverse lotuses, heavenly jasmine and pale mango blossoms. For some two millennia, Krishna and his stories have remained perennially popular in the pantheon, with his birthday Janmashtami widely celebrated annually in August-September.
Known by many titles, he is the brilliant black-blue-hued or charismatic “krsna” icon of an international movement, the skilled philosopher and calm charioteer of feuding families in the Mahabharata text, a powerful avatar of the Universe’s Supreme Being in similar ancient accounts, and the devoted consort of the beautiful Goddess Radha reflecting the inherent dualism or male/feminine balance of the divine. The revered slayer of tyrants and the protector of the poor and oppressed, Lord Krishna was long woven into Hindu mythology, history and culture, but especially so at Vrindavan, his ancient pilgrimage town of thousands of temples in the Mathura district of Uttar Pradesh.
So too, back in January, 1838, an
