Krishna A Sourcebook

Krishna is one of the most important deities in the Hindu pantheon, judging by the themes that have emerged in Hindu drama, poetry, dance, painting, song, literature, iconography, and temple worship over the fast millennium and more. Although for most people outside of India the Bhagavad-Gita comes to mind when thinking of Krishna, there is also an abundance of other popular, sectarian, and scholastic literary genres focused on this deity that is not readily available, which has had as much influence as the Bhagavad-Gita, if not more. In this collection, leading scholars of Hinduism offer new translations of the most popular and prominent samples of Krishna religious literature spanning over two thousand years from a variety of genres-epic, poetic, literary, philosophical, hagiographical, and more-and from geographically diverse regions of the Indian subcontinent. By bringing together for the first time a broad range of primary texts about Krishna, this book offers fresh material and approaches to the study of this popular god. Book jacket.