Harivamsha
The Harivamsha or Harivamsa is an important work of Sanskrit literature that was written around the birth of Christ. It consists of 16,374 verses, most of which are written in the anustubh verse.
etymology
Harivamsha - Sanskrit हरिवंश - harivaṃśa - is derived from Hari - हरि, a name for Vishnu , and vaṃśa - वंश - meaning family tree, genealogy (a clan association). The Harivamsha thus describes the family ties of the Hari clan.
General
The text of the Harivamsha is often seen as a khila or appendix to the Mahabharata . Veda Vyasa is traditionally considered its author . The bharata bhava deepa , the most famous commentary on the Mahabharata, written by Neelakantha Chaturdhara , also deals with the Harivamsha. According to the Adi Parva , the Harivamsha is divided into two books (parvas) with a total of 12,000 verses. However, the manuscripts found in various regions of India in the 19th century consisted of three books, the Harivamsha Purana , the Vishnu Purana and the Bhavishya Purana (with a total of more than 16,000 verses). These three books are found among the 18 Mahapuranas of the Mahabharata.
The first book (Harivamsha Parva) describes the creation of the universe, the legendary story of the kings of the sun and lunar dynasties up to the birth of Krishna . The second book (Vishnu Parva) tells the story of Krishna up to the events that occurred shortly before the beginning of the Mahabharata. The third book (Bhavishya Parva) contains two different theories of creation, hymns to Shiva and Vishnu and a description of Kali-Yuga .
The Harivamsha is undoubtedly an important source of information on the origins of Krishna, the incarnation of Vishnu . However, there is a suspicion that the Harivamsha emerged from an even earlier text, which may have a relationship with the Brahma Purana . The Brahma Purana is in turn an important source text for clarifying the origins of Krishna.
Chronological order
Most of the Harivamsha text is based on two different sources, on the one hand on the pañcalakṣaṇa tradition (consisting of the five characteristics of the Purana corpus, one of which is vaṃśa or genealogy) and on the other hand on stories about the life of Krishna as a shepherd boy.
The inconsistent text has a complex structure, with certain positions dating back to the 1st or 2nd century BC. Go back BC . When the Harivamsha was attached to the Mahabharata is not exactly known, but it may have happened before the 1st century , as the poet Ashvagosha (approx. 80 to 150 AD) quotes verses from the Mahabharata that are only used in the Harivamsha can be found (Datta 1858).
Hopkins regards the Harivamsha as the last Parva of the Mahabharata. Hazra places the Harivamsha Purana in the 4th century based on a description of the Rasa lila . For him, the Vishnu-Purana comes from the 5th and the Bhagavata-Purana from the 6th century . The Matsya Purana heard loud Dikshit to the 3rd century . If we compare the Krishna biography, the narrative of Raji and other episodes from the Harivamsha with the Puranas mentioned, they appear to be older than the Puranas. The Vishnu-Parva and the Bhavishya-Parva are definitely older than the 3rd century.
Comparisons of style and content suggest that the Harivamsha-Parva is older than the Vishnu-Parva and the Bhavishya-Parva. The verses quoted by Ashvaghosha belong to the Harivamsha-Parva. We can therefore be sure that the Harivamsha-Parva (with the exception of later insertions) was edited by the 1st century at the latest.
expenditure
There are two editions of the Harivamsha. The ordinary edition (Vulgate) has a total of 271 adhyāyas (chapters), which are divided into three parvas (books): 55 chapters for the Harivamsha-Parva, 81 chapters for the Vishnu-Parva and 135 chapters for the Bhavishya-Parva. The so-called Critical Edition ( English. Critical Edition , or abbreviated CE - publisher PL Vaidya, 1969–1971) with 118 chapters and 6073 slokas (verses) is only around a third as strong as the normal edition. It is also divided into three parvas, the Harivamsha-Parva from chapters 1-45, the Vishnu-Parva from chapters 46-113 and the Bhavishya-Parva from chapters 114-118. Vaidya is of the opinion that even the Critical Edition is a bloated text and that the original edition probably did not start until chapter 20 (as can be seen from the Agni-Purana , verse 12) and already ended at chapter 98.
Translations
The Harivamsha has been translated into many languages on the Indian subcontinent, but also into English (by Manmatha Nath Dutt in 1896/1897), into French (by MA Langlois in Paris, 1834-1835) and other languages.
content
In the penultimate chapter (chapter 134) of the Harivamsha text, a brief recapitulation of the topics covered takes place as follows:
Harivamsha-Parva
| chapter | content |
|---|---|
| 1-3 | Janamejaya asked Vaisampayana to describe the family tree of the Vrisnis from the beginning. Vaisampayana begins to describe the process of creation. |
| 4-6 | The story of Prithus, Vena's son |
| 7-8 | Description of the reigns of the Manus |
| 9-10 | Origin of the Vaivasvata dynasty |
| 11 | History of the Dhundumara |
| 12 | History of the Galava |
| 13-15 | History of the Ikshvaku and Sagara families |
| 16-24 | Pitrkalpa (beatification of the Manen) including the story of Brahmadatta and his seven sons |
| 25-27 | History of Soma, Budha and Pururava |
| 27-28 | The Amavasu and Raji dynasty |
| 29 | The race of Kshatravriddha and the legend of Divodasa |
| 30th | The legend of Yayati |
| 31-32 | The Purus family |
| 33-39 | The History of the Yadavas; contains in chapters 38–39 the narrative of the Syamantaka gemstone |
| 40-41 | The incarnations of Vishnu |
| 42-48 | The Tarakamaya battle between the gods and the titans |
| 49-52 | The award of Brahma and the earth goddess |
| 53-55 | The partial incarnation of the gods |
Vishnu-Parva
| chapter | content |
|---|---|
| 1 | Narada's warning to Kamsa |
| 2-3 | Kamsa orders that Devaki be put under guard and all of her children killed |
| 4-5 | Birth of Krishna and his exchange with the daughter of Nanda and Yashoda; Description of the cowherd's camp |
| 6-7 | Overturning the cart and killing the putana; Uproot the two arjuna trees |
| 8-10 | Move to Vrindavan |
| 11-12 | Krishna's victory over Kaliya |
| 13-14 | Krishna kills the donkey Dhenuka as well as Pralamba |
| 15-19 | Krishna lifts Govardhana hill to protect against Indra |
| 20th | The rasa dance |
| 21st | Krishna kills the bull Arishta |
| 22-23 | The deliberative assembly of Kamsas |
| 24 | Krishna kills the mare Keshi |
| 25-28 | The journey of Krishna and Samskarsana, accompanied by Akrura, to the court of Kamsa |
| 29-30 | Death of the elephant Kuvalayapida; Krishna kills Chanura and Andhra and then Kamsa |
| 31-32 | Wailing of women kamsas; Burial of Kamsas and installation of Ugrasenas on the throne of Mathura |
| 33 | Education of Krishna and Balaramas through Sandipani and the salvation of his children |
| 34-36 | Jarasandha of Magadha's attack on Mathura and his defeat |
| 37-38 | The executions of Vicadrus |
| 39-42 | The meeting of Krishna and Balarama with Parasurama; climbing Mount Gomanta; Burn gomantas |
| 43-44 | The end of Srigala |
| 45 | Return to Mathura |
| 46 | Samskarsana plows the Yamuna's bed |
| 47-54 | Svayamvara Rukminis and the conspiracy of Jarasandha and his allies |
| 55-56 | Moving from Mathura to Dwarka |
| 57 | The attack of Kalayavana and the death of Krishna |
| 58 | Founding of Dwarkas |
| 59-61 | Rukmini's abduction by Krishna, her wedding and her descendants |
| 62 | The deeds of Balarama |
| 63-64 | Killing Naraka |
| 65-76 | The theft of the Parijata tree from Indra's garden |
| 77-81 | The observance of punyakavidhi, that is, ceremonies, celebrations and vows by which a wife makes her body attractive to her husband and keeps his affections alive |
| 82-85 | Slaying the demons of Shatpura |
| 86-87 | Mahadeva kills Andhaka |
| 88-89 | The pleasures of the Yadavas in the sea |
| 90 | The kidnapping of Bhanumati |
| 91-97 | Wedding of Pradyumna and Prabhavati |
| 98-100 | Rebuilding Dwarkas; moving into Dwarka and moving into town hall |
| 101-102 | Narada's remarks |
| 101-102 | The tradition of the Vrishni dynasty |
| 104-109 | The legend of Pradyumna and the killing of Sambaras |
| 110 | The story of Samba |
| 111-115 | Krishna removes the four dead sons of a Brahmin |
| 111-115 | Krishna's fight with Bana and the marriage of Usa, the daughter of Bana, with Aniruddha, the grandson of Krishna |
Note: Verses 77-97 are definitely later text inserts.
Bhavishya-Parva
| chapter | content |
|---|---|
| 1-2 | The family tree of Janamejaya and his aswamedha (horse sacrifice) |
| 3-4 | The essentials of the Kali Yuga |
| 5 | The reconciliation between Janamejaya and his queen after Indra's intervention in the aswamedha |
| 6th | The formal blessing |
| 7-28 | The origin of creation from the lotus |
| 29-72 | The story of the boar, the human lion and the dwarfs - all incarnations of Vishnu |
| 73-90 | Krishna's journey to Mount Kailasa (Kailash) |
| 91-102 | The killing of Paundrakas |
| 103-129 | The story of Hamsa and Dimbhaka |
| 130-131 | Krishna meets the Vrindavana cowherd at Govardhana Mountain and returns to Dwarka |
| 132 | Religious benefit of studying Mahabharata and Harivamsha |
| 133 | The legend of the destruction of the three heavenly fortresses by Shiva |
| 134 | Brief table of contents of the Harivamsha |
| 135 | List of the religious merits obtained by listening to this Purana |
Note: The Harivamsha once ended with the blessing of Chapter 6, as is still the case in the Critical Edition .
Harivamshas in Jainism
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In Jainism, there are several Harivamshas in different languages that represent the Krishna story from the point of view of the Jain traditions. One of the oldest among them is Harivaṃśapurāṇa from 783, written by Jinasena . It consists of 66 Cantos with a total of 12,000 slokas . The aim of the book is to tell the life story of Arishtanemi , the 22nd Tirthankara of the Jainas. According to Jain sources, Arishtanemi was a cousin of Krishna. Krishna's adventures therefore occupy a not insignificant place in Harivaṃśapurāṇa .
The Harivaṃśapurāṇa of Jinasena can be summarized as follows:
The characterization of the Yadu dynasty is distributed over the Cantos 19–63. In Canto 32 Balarama is described. From Canto 35 the story of Krishna's birth is told. His adventures as a youth resemble Hindu stories. This is followed by the story of Kamsa's killing at the bow festival. Jarasandha then sends his brother and son to attack Mathura, but Krishna kills both. The birth of Arishtanemi is celebrated in Saurapura. Jarasandha besieges Mathura, whereupon Krishna evades with his entourage to Dwarka. This is followed by the wedding of Krishna to Rukmini and the birth and kidnapping of Pradyumna. The narrative about the Pandavas is very different from the Hindu version. Next, the reunion of Krishna with Pradyumna is described. The text then describes the final battle between Jarasandha and Krishna. On the side of Jarasandha the Kauravas fight and on the side of Krishna the Pandavas fight. The war ends with the death of Jarasandha. Krishna is deified as Narayana . The Pandavas then move south and establish Pandu Mathura (today's Madurai ). Then follows the account of how Arishtanemi ascends to Arhat , the description of the destruction of Dwarka by Krishna Dvaipayana's curse, the fall of Krishna and Balarama and the rise of the Pandavas to heaven. The book closes with Jaratkumara's account of the Yadu dynasty.
Although the Harivaṃśapurāṇa is laid out in the Purana style , the text follows the techniques of classical Sanskrit and is probably more like a Kavya than a stylish Purana.
meaning
For Vishnuism and especially for Krishnaism , in addition to the Bhagavata-Purana, the Harivamsha with the Harivamsha-Parva and the Vishnu-Parva represent a fundamental source text.
Web links
- The Harivamsha Purana - German translation
See also
Individual evidence
- ^ Maurice Winternitz: History of Indian Literature . Vol. 1. Motilal Banarsidass, Delhi 1981, ISBN 978-0-8364-0801-0 , pp. 426-431 .
- ^ Ruben, Walter: The Krsnacarita in the Harivamsa and Certain Puranas . In: Journal of American Oriental Society . Vol. 61, No. 3, 1941, pp. 115-127 .
- ↑ Manmatha Nath Dutt: Vishnu Purana, Harivamsa . 1896.