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Plate 1 A bamboo flute held level, a peacock feather rising behind it

Krishna

Krishna is one of the most popular Hindu gods: for most Vaishnavas the eighth avatar of Vishnu, and for Gaudiya Vaishnavas, including ISKCON, God himself. He plays the flute, wears a peacock feather in his hair, and speaks the Bhagavad Gita.

Hindu deities and their symbols. Also called Govinda, Krishna flute, Krishna peacock feather, krishna symbol, krishna symbols, Lord Krishna.

Meaning

The Himalayan Academy calls Krishna, whose name means “black”, one of the most popular gods of the Hindu pantheon, worshipped by Vaishnavas as the eighth avatar of Vishnu, and best known from the Mahabharata and, within it, the Bhagavad Gita. The Hindu American Foundation adds that his name, from a root meaning “to attract”, is also read as “all attractive”, and that many consider his original form to be a young cowherd boy in the village of Vrindavan, with Radharani, his eternal consort. Painters mark him as divine with blue skin, the Cleveland Museum of Art notes of a Pahari painting in which the boy Krishna draws the cows to him by the sound of his flute, and devotees once wore small images of him as Shri Nathji, his left hand raised in memory of his lifting of Mount Govardhan.

Origin and history

The Bhagavad Gita, the “Song of God”, is his dialogue with the warrior Arjuna as the battle of the Mahabharata is about to begin, and the Hindu American Foundation calls it a text cherished in its own right, distinct from the epic. In it Krishna explains why he comes into the world. In the translation of A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, founder-acharya of the International Society for Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON): “To deliver the pious and to annihilate the miscreants, as well as to reestablish the principles of religion, I Myself appear, millennium after millennium.”

Some Hindus believe he came again. The foundation notes the belief that Krishna returned as Caitanya Mahaprabhu, a fifteenth-century saint of West Bengal who taught the open chanting of Hare Krishna, and that the Gaudiya Vaishnavas who follow him include the International Society for Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON), with hundreds of temples and centres worldwide.

The flute and the peacock feather

The Bhagavata Purana describes the young Krishna entering the forest of Vrindavan. In the ISKCON translation: “Wearing a peacock-feather ornament upon His head, blue karṇikāra flowers on His ears, a yellow garment as brilliant as gold, and the Vaijayantī garland, Lord Kṛṣṇa exhibited His transcendental form as the greatest of dancers”, and “He filled the holes of His flute with the nectar of His lips.” The Cleveland Museum’s Pahari painting shows the boy drawing the cows to him with the sound of his flute.

Avatar, or the source of the avatars?

Hindus answer differently. For Vaishnavas generally, the Himalayan Academy writes, Krishna is the eighth avatar of Vishnu; for Gaudiya Vaishnavism, Krishna is the Godhead. The Hindu American Foundation puts it the same way: in some traditions he is an avatar of Vishnu, and in others he is the supreme being from whom all creation comes. ISKCON holds the second view. Its translation of the Bhagavata Purana (1.3.28) says that the incarnations are portions of the Lord, “but Lord Śrī Kṛṣṇa is the original Personality of Godhead.”

Lifting Mount Govardhan

One of his best-known deeds is the lifting of Mount Govardhan. A Cambodian sculpture of about 600 in the Cleveland Museum shows him holding the mountain aloft to shelter his village and its herds from storms sent by a jealous god, and the small pendants of Krishna as Shri Nathji show his raised left hand for the same story, with his herdsman’s staff in his right.

Janmashtami and Holi

Krishna Janmashtami celebrates his birth. The Hindu American Foundation describes Vrindavan’s celebration: many fast on the day, the images of Radha and Krishna are bathed and dressed in new clothes, and at midnight, the hour of his birth, the curtains open for his birth-time darshan. Holi belongs to him too. A painting of about 1770 in Cleveland shows him among the cowherd boys at the spring festival, reaching a milkmaid’s heart with a well-aimed plunger of colour.

See also

Vishnu, Shiva, Parvati, Ganesha, Murugan, Lakshmi.

Sources

  1. Dancing with Śiva: glossary (Kṛishṇa), Satguru Sivaya Subramuniyaswami, Dancing with Śiva: Hinduism’s Contemporary Catechism, glossary, Himalayan Academy (Kauai’s Hindu Monastery), glossary, s.v. Kṛishṇa
  2. 5 things to know about Krishna (Syama Allard, Hindu American Foundation), Syama Allard, “5 things to know about Krishna”, Hindu American Foundation, 2023, Hindu American Foundation, article text
  3. Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 1.3.28 (A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupāda), Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, Canto 1, chapter 3, verse 28, translation and purport by A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupāda, Bhaktivedanta Book Trust (Bhaktivedanta VedaBase), verse 1.3.28, translation; page credit
  4. Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 10.21.5 (A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupāda), Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, Canto 10, chapter 21, verse 5, translation from the Bhaktivedanta Book Trust edition, Bhaktivedanta Book Trust (Bhaktivedanta VedaBase), verse 10.21.5, translation
  5. Bhagavad-gītā As It Is 4.8 (A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupāda), Bhagavad-gītā As It Is, chapter 4, verse 8, translation by A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupāda, Bhaktivedanta Book Trust (Bhaktivedanta VedaBase), verse 4.8, translation
  6. Krishna summoning the cows (1989.339, Cleveland Museum of Art), Krishna summoning the cows, c. 1780–90, Cleveland Museum of Art, 1989.339, collection description, Cleveland Museum of Art, Description
  7. Pendant: Krishna as Shri Nathji (1946.257, Cleveland Museum of Art), Pendant: Krishna as Shri Nathji, c. 1800–1830, Cleveland Museum of Art, 1946.257, collection description, Cleveland Museum of Art, Description
  8. Krishna Lifting Mount Govardhan (1973.106, Cleveland Museum of Art), Krishna Lifting Mount Govardhan, c. 600, Cleveland Museum of Art, 1973.106, collection description, Cleveland Museum of Art, Description
  9. Krishna celebrates Holi (2018.104, Cleveland Museum of Art), Krishna celebrates Holi, c. 1770, Cleveland Museum of Art, 2018.104, collection description, Cleveland Museum of Art, Description

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Researched, edited and approved by Rory Hansen before publishing. Last reviewed October 10, 2026. How we research

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