Review of 'Historical Krishna' Book

[Guest guest]

Splendid genius

http://www.the-week.com/24dec12/lifestyle_article1.htm#1

Search for the Historical Krishna

By N.S. Rajaram

Published by Prism

Price Rs 165

Pages 210

 

By David Frawley

 

Krishna is, without doubt, the dominant historical and cultural

personality in India. The tolerant and syncretic nature of Hindu

thought and spirituality owes a lot to the teachings of Lord Krishna,

whose Gita is, probably, India's greatest book.

 

Krishna was a many-sided personality. He was not simply a monk or a

renunciate who left the world but held the highest spiritual

realisation along with the social skills of a great king, statesman

and warrior and the intellectual skills of a great poet and

philosopher. His human dimension was as fully developed as his

spiritual dimension.

 

Surprisingly, little has been written on the historical aspect of

Krishna. Many modern historians of the western school have tried to

turn Krishna into a myth without any historical basis, though there

is adequate information to examine in ancient texts about his life,

era, environment and contemporaries. Clearly, there is a need for a

new examination of Krishna.

 

N.S. Rajaram is one of India's foremost historical researchers in

recent years. His work on Vedic India and the decipherment of the

Indus script is well known. He has helped expose the myth of the

Aryan invasion of India and other historical distortions that came in

through the colonial era. His book on Krishna is only one of several

important titles on ancient and on modern India. All are worthy of

serious examination.

 

Rajaram is a research scientist trained in the west with over 20

years of working experience in the United States. But he is also

aware of the literature and history of India and the views of great

Indian thinkers like Aurobindo and Vivekananda. This gives him a

rational and scientific approach but one that does not ignore the

Indian and yogic point of view. Such a combination gives weight to

his opinions that few other such writers have.

 

Most notably, Rajaram examines Krishna in the light of new evidence

on ancient India. He puts Krishna in the context of the Harappan era

and the entire movement of civilisation in ancient India as an

epochal figure in its development. Who is Krishna and what were the

main facts of his life? Who was Krishna the spiritual leader and

Krishna the man? These are the topics that his comprehensive study

takes up. What era did Krishna live in and how did he shape it?

Perhaps no other figure in the world has so shaped history for such a

long period. The Vedic era is defined as the period before Krishna,

the post-Vedic the period after him.

 

The Pandavas and Kauravas were not simply fictional characters. They

were part of many historical records, referred to in many ancient

texts. There was never any doubt of their historical status or of the

main events of their lives.

 

Yet the Mahabharata consists of several layers and Rajaram examines

how these different layers were built up, the eras which they reflect

and how they have shaped our views of Krishna. The devotional image

of Krishna has continued to develop into later times, up to the

present day, as Krishna has continued as a spiritual presence in

India long after his death. Rajaram examines these many layers of

Krishna's story. Of special interest, he notes the events of the war

and shows the psychology which shaped them.

 

On the archaeological side, Rajaram examines the role of the ancient

Sarasvati River on both Vedic civilisation and that of the

Mahabharata war. The Mahabharata reflects a certain phase of the

drying-up of this great river which existed, according to current

geological research, only before 2000 BCE (Before the Common Era),

when northwest India had a wetter climate and received more water

from melting glaciers. This information in itself refutes the view

that the Vedic culture came after 1500 BCE from central Asia.

 

Rajaram also scrutinises the recent marine archaeological excavation

of Dwaraka, Krishna's city, putting it in the broader context of the

many geological changes that have shaped the coasts of India over the

past millennia. Rajaram concludes that there is nothing which

contradicts the traditional date of Krishna of 3100 BCE. On the

contrary, there is much that supports it from the history, geology

and archaeology.

 

Search for the Historical Krishna is not simply a good examination of

the historical background of Krishna's life; it is an important

examination of the entire history of ancient India. The book makes a

nice companion to the study of the Mahabharata and Bhagavad Gita for

those who want to look at it in a historical context.