Parijata Haran: Krishna Steals the Parijata

by Harsha V. Dehejia

Krishna Steals the Parijata (Parijataharana) is a collection of a few accounts, edited by Harsha V. Dehejia, on Krishna forcibly taking away Parijata from Indra, which finds expression through the paintings of different kalams. Christopher R. Austin relates this event to the citations and narrations in Mahabharata and Harivamsha, wherein the focus is on Krishna’s effort to appease his perturbed wife Satyabhama, by fulfilling her desire to have Parijata from Indra’s abode. Mahendra Kumar Mishra approaches this incident from Sarala Mahabharata angle. Here the narrative and episode are little different though the centre theme and characters remain the same.

The third narrative is in Hindi by Narmada Prasad Upadyaya. He approaches this story from a different viewpoint that by forcibly taking away the Parijata tree from Indraloka, Krishna broke Indra’s Himalayan pride. The main characters in the episode are same here too: Krishna, Indra and Satyabhama. In the final article, Harsha V. Dehejia provides a visual narrative account of the event. The story looks almost similar to that of Austin with little more narration and a few additional characters. The sequentially given paintings tell the story faster than the literature.

In a nutshell the book is an exemplar attempt to visually covey a well-known, well-rooted story where Krishna is the central character.