The fructification of the tale of a tree: the Parijataharana in the Harivamsa and its appendices.

• Author: Austin, Christopher
• Position: Critical essay

INTRODUCTION

While the principal Sanskrit sources for the Krsna biography--the Mahabharata's (MBh) appendix, the Harivamsa (HV), the Visnu Purana (ViP), and the Bhagavata Purava (BhP)--all relate Krnia's entire life, devoting equal attention to his childhood and adulthood, (1) it is Krsna's youth and adolescence that have always dominated the imagination of the Vaisnava tradition. From the appearance of the earliest evidence of Krsna's life in physical representation, scenes from his biography subsequent to the killing of Kamsa (an act which effectively terminates his adolescence and initiates him into maturity) are extremely rare. (2) There is, however, one scene of Krsna's adult biography that provides a counter-example to the tradition's great preference for the child Krsna: the Parijataharana or episode of Krsna's removal of the magical Parijata tree from Indra's heaven and its transplantation to Dvaraka, the western coastal city of Krsna's mature years. The earliest example of a literary elaboration upon this deed in isolation from Krgia's biography is the Harivijaya (HVj) of Sarvasena, a kavya poem in Maharastri Prakrit dating to the early fifth century C.E. (Harivijaya, v), which took as its subject the Parijataharana. The episode as an adventure isolated from Krsna's biography then remained a popular subject for poetic and dramatic retellings in subsequent literary history. (3) Physical evidence of interest in this episode also begins early on: in the Badami caves of Karnataka (late sixth century c.E.) we find, among several scenes of Krsna's childhood and youth, a single bas-relief of the Parijataharana (Banerji 1998: 47-52; Bhattacharya 1996: 37-41; Burgess 1877: 364-65). To my knowledge, the [Miami portrayal of this deed is the earliest representation of a scene of Krsna's adult life. Later on in the south, the Hoysalesvara temple in Halebid (twelfth-thirteenth centuries) features various scenes of the krsnacarita--again, almost entirely those of his youth--but here as well one finds among them the Parijataharana (Evans 1997: 200). Although my concern in this paper is not with the Parijata's manifestations in kavya or its physical representation, I begin with these examples in order to underline the following point: the theft of the Parijata tree stands out as an anomaly within a tradition that has generally neglected the adult biography of Krsna in its enthusiasm for the child and adolescent Gopala.

The Parijataharana's fame may seem odd at first, given that in the earliest source for it that we have--namely the Critical Edition (CE) text of the Harivamsa (HV), dating between the first and third centuries C.E. (Harivamsa [Couture], 77)--this episode is uneventful and extremely brief. However, the HV's later manuscripts build upon the Critical text of the Parijata episode a large block of seven appendices (App. I. 29-29F) that are among the most extensive in the HV. These HV manuscript developments echo the larger Indian tradition, which assigns to the adventure of the Parijata tree a significance shared by no other episode of Krsna's adult life. Very briefly, the seven appendices relate how Satyabhama (one of Krsna's wives) prompted Krsna to acquire the Parijata, thus giving rise to a war with Indra over the tree; subsequently she performs a ritual with the tree called the Punyaka (App. I 29). This is then followed by a discourse on the Punyaka and related issues concerning pativratas or devoted and faithful wives (App. I 29A); various other adventures and battles then unfold in the following five appendices (App. I 29 B-F), most developing in a tangential manner from the Parijata theft.

The concern of this article is with App. I 29 and 29A, and with their relationship with the Critical HV text of Krsna's biography. I will argue that the author or authors of these manuscript additions sought to elaborate in full two mutually implicated themes--one altogether absent and the second at best minimally articulated in the Critical text of the Parijata scene--that are fundamental to the understanding of Krsna's adult identity: vigorous conflict over the tree and the role of the auspicious feminine. The first of these themes, examined in the paper's first section, requires a short review of early sources of the Parijata episode, but otherwise will not detain us at length. The second theme will demand the bulk of the paper's attention: I will argue that App. I 29A, although at first appearing to lose all interest in the Krsna biography, makes explicit a fundamental dynamic of the auspicious feminine and its association with, indeed identity as, wealth within the Krsna biography. Beginning with Satyabhama and her ritual activity at the Parijata tree, 29A configures the ideal pativrata as a form and guarantor of social and biological wealth, and in so doing brings to the foreground a pattern of association, present even in the earlier HV Critical text of the "post-Karmsavadha" krsnacarita, between Krsna's wives and certain magical treasure-objects that themselves perpetually yield forth more wealth and that must necessarily be fought for. I will argue that the appendices conscript the deed of the ParijAta theft fully into the adult Krsna biography by amplifying the elements of conflict and the auspicious feminine, App. I 29A particularly developing the latter theme in such a way as to greatly illuminate the earlier Critical text's imagery surrounding Krsna's wives and the fabulously valuable objects that invariably accompany them. This sharpened understanding of the HV's imagery will then make it possible to return to the larger issue of why the Parijataharana episode seems to have enjoyed a degree of fame otherwise reserved only for narrative moments of Krsna's childhood and adolescence.

THE CRITICAL HV TEXT OF THE PARIJATAHARANA AND APP. I 29 AND 29A

The HV commences its treatment of Krsna's adult life with the slaying of Kamsa (adhyaya 76), the subsequent war with Jarasamdha of Magadha, and the relocation of the Vrsnis from Mathura to Dvaraka (80-86). The dominant theme of the following adhyayas 87-93 is the establishment of Krsna's domestic status as a husband and the development of his opulent new coastal city. Krsna abducts Rukmini (87), defeats her brother Rukmin and marries her (88), and establishes an alliance with the southern kingdom of Vidarbha that lasts for three generations (89). After a hymn of praise to Samkarana (90), we come to the episode of the slaying of the demon Naraka (91), who had stolen Aditi's earrings, Varuna's umbrella, and other items of value, and abducted 16,100 women. (4) Accompanied by his wife Satyabhama and riding upon Garuda, (5) Krsna dispatches the avaricious Naraka, rescues the stolen items, and takes the women for himself. Holding Varuna's gold-producing umbrella aloft (92.18), he and Satyabhsma fly to heaven to return the booty. Some pleasantries are exchanged between Krsna, Satyabhama, Indra, and Saci, and Aditi blesses Satyabhama to remain ever young so long as Krsna retains his human form (92.60).

Krsna and Satyabhama then stroll about in Indra's garden, where they see the Parijata tree. This is described as a divine tree eternally bearing flowers, of extraordinary fragrance, and endowed with the property that those who approach it remember their past lives. Krsna "conquers" (prasahya), uproots, and holds aloft the tree, although it is protected by the gods. There is as yet no hint as to Kpna's motives, except that he looks at Satyabhama (apasyat, 92.66), perhaps making her subtly complicit in the theft. No objections are made to the tree's removal: Indra in fact approves the deed (anumene) either with praise or at least resignation (krtam karmeti cabravit, 92.67), and Krsna is praised by the gods and seers. On their return to Dvaraka, Krsna holds aloft the wish-fulfilling tree, much as he had Vamp's precious umbrella on his ascent. The city is then described in great detail in adhydya 93. Thus the actual Parijata scene in this, the Critical HV text, covers no more than eight verses (92.63-70); with Indra's approval, no battle is necessary for the tree, and although Kma is accompanied by Satyabhama, he takes the tree without her direct prompting.

These two elements--the vigorous battle over the tree and the prompting role of Satyabhama and of women's roles and ritual identities in general--are highly significant factors developed in the first two of the seven appendices that are adjoined here between the HV Critical text of 92 and 93 (App. I 29-29F). The block of appendices becomes extremely popular, being found in all but four (S, M1-3) of the thirty-seven manuscripts consulted in the constitution of the Critical text, with two (S11, SI3) containing 29 and 29A only. The entire sequence of App. I 29-29F appears in the Vulgate (Vu) Harivamsa as II (Visnuparvan) 65-97.

These appendices do not so much extend the Critical text's Parijataharana as provide an elaborate alternative to it. Ignoring the fact that Krsna has just brought the tree from heaven, App. I 29 begins the whole adventure anew, opening with a scene at Mount Raivataka, where Rukmini has just completed a vow and accompanying fast. Narada arrives bearing a flower of the heavenly Parijata tree, praising its superb qualities, and mischievously invites Krsna to offer it to Rukmini. Krsna falls for Narada's trick: Rukmini is now publicly marked by the flower as Krsna's favorite wife and this sends Satyabhama into a jealous rage (App. I 29 lines [11.] 1-120).6 Retreating to her krodhagrha, Satyabhama must be wooed at length by Krsna who promises to obtain the entire tree for her to prove she is his favorite (11. 121-303). Sending Narada as a negotiator, Krsna initially sues Indra for the Parijata, but his requests come to naught and an earth-shattering battle takes place, involving several Vii heroes, divine assistants of Indra, Garuda and Airavata, and others. The battle is so ferocious that...