Struggling with Kṛṣṇa: Alternative Imaginations in an Odia Mahābhārata.
This article studies the characterization of Kṛṣṇa in a fifteenth-century Odia Mahābhārata by focusing on two cardinal episodes from the epic. The two episodes in question include the infamous disrobing of Draupadī in the assembly hall and Kṛṣṇa's theophany in the Kuru court prior to the war. In the...
| Publicado en: | International Journal of Hindu Studies Vol. 30; no. 1; pp. 1 - 24 |
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| Formato: | Literary Criticism |
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Springer Nature
Apr2026
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| Acceso en línea: | Ver este registro en EBSCOhost |
| fields | @attributes: recordID: 1 pdfLink: plink: https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=hlh&AN=193391054&site=ehost-live header: @attributes: shortDbName: hlh uiTerm: 193391054 longDbName: Humanities International Complete uiTag: AN controlInfo: bkinfo: jinfo: jid: 10224556 AYN jtl: International Journal of Hindu Studies issn: 10224556 maglogo: N pubinfo: dt: Apr2026 vid: 30 iid: 1 pid: 237 pub: Springer Nature artinfo: ui: 193391054 10.1007/s11407-025-09407-7 ppf: 1 ppct: 23 formats: fmt: – @attributes: type: T – @attributes: type: P size: 331KB tig: atl: Struggling with Kṛṣṇa: Alternative Imaginations in an Odia Mahābhārata. aug: au: Ghosh, Ujaan affil: https://ror.org/00rs6vg23 Department of History of Art, The Ohio State University, 1760, Pomerene Hall, 43210, Columbus, Ohio, USA su: Mahābhārata Literary characters Authorship Literary adaptations Odisha (India) sug: subj: Odisha (India) Mahābhārata Literary characters Authorship Literary adaptations keyword: bhakti Duryodhana gender History and Archaeology Historical Studies Jagannātha Kṛṣṇa Koṇārk Lakṣmī Mahābhārata Odisha Sāralādasa theophany vernacular retellings ab: This article studies the characterization of Kṛṣṇa in a fifteenth-century Odia Mahābhārata by focusing on two cardinal episodes from the epic. The two episodes in question include the infamous disrobing of Draupadī in the assembly hall and Kṛṣṇa's theophany in the Kuru court prior to the war. In the Odia text, both these episodes meet a significantly different conclusion when compared to their Sanskrit counterpart. While in the Sanskrit Mahābhārata, the episodes emerge as opportunities to establish the divinity of Kṛṣṇa, the Odia retellings find a way to destabilize—if not overwrite—his agency. Kṛṣṇa does not directly save Draupadī from her humiliation and routes his duty to another deity, while his theophany malfunctions into a humorous conclusion in the Kuru court. Kṛṣṇa, of course, the text accepts, is a divine figure in every supreme sense of the term. Yet his divinity finds hurdles, and his designs falter, more often than not. The Mahābhārata in question was composed by Sāralādāsa, who self-identified as a Śūdra saint and lived in Odisha in the fifteenth century. I argue that in a largely Vaiṣṇava political landscape of early modern Odisha, the Odia epic's complicated characterization of Kṛṣṇa sheds light into a hitherto unexplored aspect of the religious history of the region. Finally, the article aims to enhance our understanding of the regional retellings of the Mahābhārata in general and the Odia rendition in particular, on which there remains a paucity of scholarly literature. pubtype: Academic Journal doctype: Literary Criticism src: R language: English refInfo: copyright: @attributes: flag: Y custom: International Journal of Hindu Studies is a copyright of Springer, 2026. All Rights Reserved. item: International Journal of Hindu Studies holder: Springer Nature dt: @attributes: year: 2026 holdings: @attributes: islocal: N |
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