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Harivamsa

January 01, 1970

Not to be confused with Harivamsa Purana.

The Harivamsa (Sanskrit: हरिवंश, lit. 'The genealogy of Hari', IAST: Harivamśa[1]) is an important work of Sanskrit literature, containing 16,374 shlokas, mostly in the anustubh metre. The text is also known as the Harivamsa Purana. This text is believed to be a khila (appendix or supplement) to the Mahabharata[2][3] and is traditionally ascribed to Vyasa. The most celebrated commentary of the Mahabharata by Neelakantha Chaturdhara, the Bharata Bhava Deepa also covers the Harivamsa. According to a traditional version of the Mahabharata, the Harivamsa is divided into two parvas (books) and 12,000 verses.[2] These are included with the eighteen parvas of the Mahabharata.[3] The Critical Edition has three parvas and 5,965 verses.[4]

Parashurama leads Krishna and Balarama toward Mount Gomanta. Miniature from a Harivamsha series ascribed to Purkhu of Kangra. Kangra, c. 1800-1815. Government Museum and Art Gallery, Chandigarh

The Adi Parva of Harivamsa describes the creation of the cosmos and the legendary history of the kings of the Solar and Lunar dynasties leading up to the birth of Krishna. Vishnu Parva recounts the history of Krishna up to the events prior to the Mahabharata.[5] Bhavishya Parva, the third book, includes two alternate creation theories, hymns to Shiva and Vishnu and provides a description of the Kali Yuga.[6] While the Harivamsa has been regarded as an important source of information on the origin of Vishnu's incarnation Krishna, there has been speculation as to whether this text was derived from an earlier text and what its relationship is to the Brahma Purana, another text that deals with the origins of Krishna.[7]

Chronology edit

 
 
Dwarka
 
Dwarka is the setting for many chapters in the Harivamsa.[8] The city is described as near the sea, in modern era Gujarat; a painting of the city in the 19th century (lower).

The bulk of the text is derived from two traditions, the pañcalakṣaṇa tradition, that is, the five marks of the Purana corpus one of which is the vaṃśa genealogy, and stories about the life of Krishna as a herdsman.

The text is complex, containing layers that go back to the 1st or 2nd centuries BCE.[9]

Probably there was an oral previous version because later in time, the text was enlarged by additions and was matched in style to the Mahabharata.[10]

The origin of this appendix is not precisely known but it is apparent that it was a part of the Mahabharata by the 1st century CE because "the poet Ashvaghosha quotes a couple of verses, attributing them to the Mahabharata, which are now only found in the Harivamsa."[11]

Sivaprasad Bhattacharyya, also considered that Ashvaghosha referred to the Harivamsa, and found internal and external evidence that it was an authoritative text by the first century CE and that its later redaction took place around the end of the second or beginning of the third century CE.[12]

Edward Washburn Hopkins considered the Mahabharata increased by the addition of the Harivamsa c. 200 CE,[13] but also the possible existence of Harivamsa as part of the around hundred thousand verses within the Mahabharata as it can be attested in the Southern recension of the latter.[14]

R. C. Hazra has dated the Purana to the 4th century CE on the basis of the description of the rasa lila in it, as according to him, the Visnu Purana and the Bhagavata Purana belong to the 5th century CE and 6th century CE respectively.[15] According to Dikshit, the date of the Matsya Purana is 3rd century CE. When we compare the biography of Krishna, the account of Raji, and some other episodes as depicted in the Harivaṃśa, it appears to be anterior to the former. Therefore, the Viṣṇu parva and the Bhaviṣya parva can be dated to at least the 3rd century CE.

J. L. Masson and D. H. H. Ingalls regard the language of Harivamsa not later than 2nd or 3rd century CE and possibly from the 1st century CE; and André Couture that Mathura's description in Harivamsa is similar to cities of Kushana period (1st to mid-3rd century CE).[16]

By its style and contents, the Harivaṃśa parva appears to be anterior to the Viṣṇu parva and Bhaviṣya parva. The verses quoted by Asvaghosa belong to this parva. On this basis, we can safely assume the Harivaṃśa parva (except for the later interpolations) to be at least as old as the 1st century CE.

Editions edit

The Harivamśa is available in three editions. The vulgate text of the Harivamśa has total 271 adhyāyas (chapters), divided into three parvas, Harivaṃśa parva (55 chapters), Viṣṇu parva (81 chapters) and Bhaviṣya parva (135 chapters). The traditional edition contains 12000 shlokas (verses) 2 sub-parvas, the Harivamsa Parva (187 chapters) and the Bhavishya Parva (48 chapters) with a total of 235 chapters. The Critical Edition or CE (1969–71, Ed. P.L.Vaidya), estimated to be c. 300 Common Era by Vaidya,[17] is around a third (118 chapters in 6073 slokas)[18] of this vulgate edition. Like the vulgate, the chapters in the CE are divided into three parvas, Harivaṃśa parva (chapters 1-45), Viṣṇu parva (chapters 46-113) and Bhaviṣya parva (chapters 114 -118). Vaidya suggests that even the CE represents an expanded text and proposes that the oldest form of Harivamśa probably began with chapter 20 (which is where Agni Purana 12 places its start) and must have ended with chapter 98 of his text.[19]

Translations edit

 
City of Dwarka in Harivamsa, as painted for the Mughal emperor Akbar

The Harivamsa has been translated in many Indian vernacular languages; The vulgate version containing 3 books and 271 chapters has not been translated into English yet. The only English translation of the traditional version containing 2 sub-parvas (Harivamsa parva - 187 chapters and Bhavishya parva - 48 chapters, a total of 235 chapters) is by Manmatha Nath Dutt in 1897 and it is in the public domain. The critical edition has been translated into English twice so far, once in 2016 by Bibek Debroy and by Simon Brodbeck in 2019.

It has been translated into French by M. A. Langlois,1834–35. [20]

See also edit

Notes edit

  1. ^ "South Asian arts - Sanskrit: epic and didactic literature (400 bc–ad 1000) | Britannica". www.britannica.com. Retrieved 1 April 2022.
  2. ^ a b Datta, Manmathanatha, [Manmatha Nath Dutt], (1895). A prose English translation of the Mahabharata (tr. literally from the original Sanskrit text), Adi Parva, Mahabharata 1.2.377-378, Printed by H.C. Dass, Calcutta, p. 21: "There are Harivansa and Vavisya in its appendix. The number of slokas composed by the great Rishi in the Harivansa, is twelve thousand. These are the contents of the chapters called Parva Sangraha in the Bharata."
  3. ^ a b The Mahabharata in Sanskrit: Book I: Chapter 2 in sacred-texts.com website, (MBh.1.2.69): "hari vaṃśas tataḥ parva purāṇaṃ khila saṃjñitam bhaviṣyat parva cāpy uktaṃ khileṣv evādbhutaṃ mahat." ["Hari Vamsa Purana known as Khila (supplement) and Bhavishya Parva also spoken as Khila are wonderful and great"].
  4. ^ Debroy, Bibeck, (2016). Harivamsha, Penguin Books India, Gurgaon, "Introduction": "There are thus 5,965 shlokas in all of Harivamsha. Non-Critical versions will often have doubled this number, reflective of the slashing."
  5. ^ Maurice Winternitz (1981), History of Indian Literature, Vol. 1, Delhi, Motilal Banarsidass, ISBN 978-0836408010, pages 426-431
  6. ^ Maurice Winternitz (1981), History of Indian Literature, Vol. 1, Delhi, Motilal Banarsidass, ISBN 978-0836408010, pages 432-435
  7. ^ Ruben, Walter, (1941). "The Kṛṣṇacarita in the Harivaṃśa and Certain Purāṇas", Journal of the American Oriental Society, Vol. 61, No. 3, p.115.
  8. ^ Manmatha Nath Dutt, Vishnu Purana, Harivamsa (1896), pages 283-286
  9. ^ Bhattacharya, Pradip, (May 27, 2017). "Review of André Couture: Krsna in the Harivamsha, Vol. 1, 2015": "Couture finds no cogent basis for Vaidya's dating of the HV to 300 or 400 CE. The recent conclusions of scholars like Hiltebeitel, Bailey, Sutton, Biardeau and Fitzgerald that the MB was compiled between 200 BCE and 200 CE as a response to Buddhism, would apply equally to the HV."
  10. ^ Ruben, Walter, (1941). "The Krsnacarita in the Harivamsa and Certain Puranas," Journal of the American Oriental Society, Vol. 61, No. 3, p.124.
  11. ^ Datta, Amaresh (ed.), 1988. Encyclopaedia of Indian Literature, Vol. 2: Devraj to Jyoti, Sahitya Akademi, New Delhi, p. 1558.
  12. ^ Lorenz, Ekkehard, (2007). "The Harivamsa: The Dynasty of Krishna", in: Edwin F. Bryant (ed.), Krishna: A Sourcebook, Oxford University Press, p. 97.
  13. ^ Hopkins, Washburn E., (2020) [1915]. "Date of Epic Poetry", in: E. Washburn Hopkins, Epic Mythology, p. 1: "The Mahabharata has been increased by the late addition of the Harivamsha (perhaps 200 A. D.) [...]"
  14. ^ Hopkins, Washburn E., (2020) [1915]. "Date of Epic Poetry", in: E. Washburn Hopkins, Epic Mythology, p. 2: "Northern version [of the Mahabharata] contains 84,126 verses, which, with the 16,375(526) verses of the Harivamsha, make 100,501(651) verses [...] It is therefore doubtful whether the attribution of a lakh of verses [in the Mahabharata] necessarily implies the existence, as part of the lakh, of the Harivamsha. Yet on the whole this is probable, owing to the fact that the expansion in [the Southern recension] appears for the most part to be due rather to the inclusion of new material than to the retention of old passages."
  15. ^ Hazra, Rajendra Chandra, (1975)[1940]. Studies in the Purāṇic Records on Hindu Rites and Customs, Motilal Banarsidass, p. 55: "[V]isnu-p. is earlier than the Bhagavata [...] Harivamsa also [...] being dated about 400 A. D. [...] Thus the date of composition of the Bhagavata falls in the sixth century A. D."
  16. ^ Bhattacharya, Pradip, (May 27, 2017). "Review of André Couture: Krsna in the Harivamsha, Vol. 1, 2015": "[C]outure conclude[s] that the Mathura described in the HV is evocative of cities of the Kushana era (1st to mid-3rd century CE) and not of the end of the Dvapara Yuga [...]"
  17. ^ Hein, Norvin, (May, 1986). "A Revolution in Kṛṣṇaism: The Cult of Gopāla", in: History of Religions, Vol. 25, No. 4, Religion and Change: ASSR Anniversary Volume, The University of Chicago Press, p. 296.
  18. ^ Bhattacharya, Pradip, (May 27, 2017). "Review of André Couture: Krsna in the Harivamsha, Vol. 1, 2015".
  19. ^ [Harivaṃśa 1969-71: 785, XXX and 795]
  20. ^

References edit

  • Bowker, John, The Oxford Dictionary of World Religions, New York, Oxford University Press, 1997, p. 410
  • Winternitz, Maurice (1981) History of Indian Literature Vol. I. Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass.
  • Ruben, Walter (1941) "The Krsnacarita in the Harivamsa and Certain Puranas.” Journal of the American Oriental Society. Vol. 61, No.3. pp. 115–127.
  • Lorenz, Ekkehard (2007) The Harivamsa: The Dynasty of Krishna, in Edwin F. Bryant (ed.), Krishna, A Source Book, Oxford University Press.
  • Shastri, Rajendra Muni, Jaina Sahitya mein Sri Krishna Charita, Jaipur, Prakrit Bharati Akademi, 1991.

External links edit

 
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Harivamsa.
  • Original Sanskrit text online with English translation
  • Manmatha Nath Dutt, Vishnu Purana, English Translation of Book 2 of Harivamsa (1896)
  • Alexandre Langlois, Harivansa: ou histoire de la famille de Hari, French Translation of Harivamsa (1834)
  • Discourse on Harvamsha by Dr Vyasanakere Prabhanjanacharya

January 01, 1970
harivamsa, confused, with, purana, sanskrit, हर, genealogy, hari, iast, harivamśa, important, work, sanskrit, literature, containing, shlokas, mostly, anustubh, metre, text, also, known, purana, this, text, believed, khila, appendix, supplement, mahabharata, t. Not to be confused with Harivamsa Purana The Harivamsa Sanskrit हर व श lit The genealogy of Hari IAST Harivamsa 1 is an important work of Sanskrit literature containing 16 374 shlokas mostly in the anustubh metre The text is also known as the Harivamsa Purana This text is believed to be a khila appendix or supplement to the Mahabharata 2 3 and is traditionally ascribed to Vyasa The most celebrated commentary of the Mahabharata by Neelakantha Chaturdhara the Bharata Bhava Deepa also covers the Harivamsa According to a traditional version of the Mahabharata the Harivamsa is divided into two parvas books and 12 000 verses 2 These are included with the eighteen parvas of the Mahabharata 3 The Critical Edition has three parvas and 5 965 verses 4 Parashurama leads Krishna and Balarama toward Mount Gomanta Miniature from a Harivamsha series ascribed to Purkhu of Kangra Kangra c 1800 1815 Government Museum and Art Gallery Chandigarh The Adi Parva of Harivamsa describes the creation of the cosmos and the legendary history of the kings of the Solar and Lunar dynasties leading up to the birth of Krishna Vishnu Parva recounts the history of Krishna up to the events prior to the Mahabharata 5 Bhavishya Parva the third book includes two alternate creation theories hymns to Shiva and Vishnu and provides a description of the Kali Yuga 6 While the Harivamsa has been regarded as an important source of information on the origin of Vishnu s incarnation Krishna there has been speculation as to whether this text was derived from an earlier text and what its relationship is to the Brahma Purana another text that deals with the origins of Krishna 7 Contents 1 Chronology 2 Editions 3 Translations 4 See also 5 Notes 6 References 7 External linksChronology edit nbsp nbsp Dwarka nbsp Dwarka is the setting for many chapters in the Harivamsa 8 The city is described as near the sea in modern era Gujarat a painting of the city in the 19th century lower The bulk of the text is derived from two traditions the pancalakṣaṇa tradition that is the five marks of the Purana corpus one of which is the vaṃsa genealogy and stories about the life of Krishna as a herdsman The text is complex containing layers that go back to the 1st or 2nd centuries BCE 9 Probably there was an oral previous version because later in time the text was enlarged by additions and was matched in style to the Mahabharata 10 The origin of this appendix is not precisely known but it is apparent that it was a part of the Mahabharata by the 1st century CE because the poet Ashvaghosha quotes a couple of verses attributing them to the Mahabharata which are now only found in the Harivamsa 11 Sivaprasad Bhattacharyya also considered that Ashvaghosha referred to the Harivamsa and found internal and external evidence that it was an authoritative text by the first century CE and that its later redaction took place around the end of the second or beginning of the third century CE 12 Edward Washburn Hopkins considered the Mahabharata increased by the addition of the Harivamsa c 200 CE 13 but also the possible existence of Harivamsa as part of the around hundred thousand verses within the Mahabharata as it can be attested in the Southern recension of the latter 14 R C Hazra has dated the Purana to the 4th century CE on the basis of the description of the rasa lila in it as according to him the Visnu Purana and the Bhagavata Purana belong to the 5th century CE and 6th century CE respectively 15 According to Dikshit the date of the Matsya Purana is 3rd century CE When we compare the biography of Krishna the account of Raji and some other episodes as depicted in the Harivaṃsa it appears to be anterior to the former Therefore the Viṣṇu parva and the Bhaviṣya parva can be dated to at least the 3rd century CE J L Masson and D H H Ingalls regard the language of Harivamsa not later than 2nd or 3rd century CE and possibly from the 1st century CE and Andre Couture that Mathura s description in Harivamsa is similar to cities of Kushana period 1st to mid 3rd century CE 16 By its style and contents the Harivaṃsa parva appears to be anterior to the Viṣṇu parva and Bhaviṣya parva The verses quoted by Asvaghosa belong to this parva On this basis we can safely assume the Harivaṃsa parva except for the later interpolations to be at least as old as the 1st century CE Editions editThe Harivamsa is available in three editions The vulgate text of the Harivamsa has total 271 adhyaya s chapters divided into three parvas Harivaṃsa parva 55 chapters Viṣṇu parva 81 chapters and Bhaviṣya parva 135 chapters The traditional edition contains 12000 shlokas verses 2 sub parvas the Harivamsa Parva 187 chapters and the Bhavishya Parva 48 chapters with a total of 235 chapters The Critical Edition or CE 1969 71 Ed P L Vaidya estimated to be c 300 Common Era by Vaidya 17 is around a third 118 chapters in 6073 slokas 18 of this vulgate edition Like the vulgate the chapters in the CE are divided into three parvas Harivaṃsa parva chapters 1 45 Viṣṇu parva chapters 46 113 and Bhaviṣya parva chapters 114 118 Vaidya suggests that even the CE represents an expanded text and proposes that the oldest form of Harivamsa probably began with chapter 20 which is where Agni Purana 12 places its start and must have ended with chapter 98 of his text 19 Translations edit nbsp City of Dwarka in Harivamsa as painted for the Mughal emperor Akbar The Harivamsa has been translated in many Indian vernacular languages The vulgate version containing 3 books and 271 chapters has not been translated into English yet The only English translation of the traditional version containing 2 sub parvas Harivamsa parva 187 chapters and Bhavishya parva 48 chapters a total of 235 chapters is by Manmatha Nath Dutt in 1897 and it is in the public domain The critical edition has been translated into English twice so far once in 2016 by Bibek Debroy and by Simon Brodbeck in 2019 It has been translated into French by M A Langlois 1834 35 20 See also editFirst book of Mahabharata Adi Parva Previous book of Mahabharata Svargarohana ParvaNotes edit South Asian arts Sanskrit epic and didactic literature 400 bc ad 1000 Britannica www britannica com Retrieved 1 April 2022 a b Datta Manmathanatha Manmatha Nath Dutt 1895 A prose English translation of the Mahabharata tr literally from the original Sanskrit text Adi Parva Mahabharata 1 2 377 378 Printed by H C Dass Calcutta p 21 There are Harivansa and Vavisya in its appendix The number of slokas composed by the great Rishi in the Harivansa is twelve thousand These are the contents of the chapters called Parva Sangraha in the Bharata a b The Mahabharata in Sanskrit Book I Chapter 2 in sacred texts com website MBh 1 2 69 hari vaṃsas tataḥ parva puraṇaṃ khila saṃjnitam bhaviṣyat parva capy uktaṃ khileṣv evadbhutaṃ mahat Hari Vamsa Purana known as Khila supplement and Bhavishya Parva also spoken as Khila are wonderful and great Debroy Bibeck 2016 Harivamsha Penguin Books India Gurgaon Introduction There are thus 5 965 shlokas in all of Harivamsha Non Critical versions will often have doubled this number reflective of the slashing Maurice Winternitz 1981 History of Indian Literature Vol 1 Delhi Motilal Banarsidass ISBN 978 0836408010 pages 426 431 Maurice Winternitz 1981 History of Indian Literature Vol 1 Delhi Motilal Banarsidass ISBN 978 0836408010 pages 432 435 Ruben Walter 1941 The Kṛṣṇacarita in the Harivaṃsa and Certain Puraṇas Journal of the American Oriental Society Vol 61 No 3 p 115 Manmatha Nath Dutt Vishnu Purana Harivamsa 1896 pages 283 286 Bhattacharya Pradip May 27 2017 Review of Andre Couture Krsna in the Harivamsha Vol 1 2015 Couture finds no cogent basis for Vaidya s dating of the HV to 300 or 400 CE The recent conclusions of scholars like Hiltebeitel Bailey Sutton Biardeau and Fitzgerald that the MB was compiled between 200 BCE and 200 CE as a response to Buddhism would apply equally to the HV Ruben Walter 1941 The Krsnacarita in the Harivamsa and Certain Puranas Journal of the American Oriental Society Vol 61 No 3 p 124 Datta Amaresh ed 1988 Encyclopaedia of Indian Literature Vol 2 Devraj to Jyoti Sahitya Akademi New Delhi p 1558 Lorenz Ekkehard 2007 The Harivamsa The Dynasty of Krishna in Edwin F Bryant ed Krishna A Sourcebook Oxford University Press p 97 Hopkins Washburn E 2020 1915 Date of Epic Poetry in E Washburn Hopkins Epic Mythology p 1 The Mahabharata has been increased by the late addition of the Harivamsha perhaps 200 A D Hopkins Washburn E 2020 1915 Date of Epic Poetry in E Washburn Hopkins Epic Mythology p 2 Northern version of the Mahabharata contains 84 126 verses which with the 16 375 526 verses of the Harivamsha make 100 501 651 verses It is therefore doubtful whether the attribution of a lakh of verses in the Mahabharata necessarily implies the existence as part of the lakh of the Harivamsha Yet on the whole this is probable owing to the fact that the expansion in the Southern recension appears for the most part to be due rather to the inclusion of new material than to the retention of old passages Hazra Rajendra Chandra 1975 1940 Studies in the Puraṇic Records on Hindu Rites and Customs Motilal Banarsidass p 55 V isnu p is earlier than the Bhagavata Harivamsa also being dated about 400 A D Thus the date of composition of the Bhagavata falls in the sixth century A D Bhattacharya Pradip May 27 2017 Review of Andre Couture Krsna in the Harivamsha Vol 1 2015 C outure conclude s that the Mathura described in the HV is evocative of cities of the Kushana era 1st to mid 3rd century CE and not of the end of the Dvapara Yuga Hein Norvin May 1986 A Revolution in Kṛṣṇaism The Cult of Gopala in History of Religions Vol 25 No 4 Religion and Change ASSR Anniversary Volume The University of Chicago Press p 296 Bhattacharya Pradip May 27 2017 Review of Andre Couture Krsna in the Harivamsha Vol 1 2015 Harivaṃsa 1969 71 785 XXX and 795 Translations of the HarivamsaReferences editBowker John The Oxford Dictionary of World Religions New York Oxford University Press 1997 p 410 Winternitz Maurice 1981 History of Indian Literature Vol I Delhi Motilal Banarsidass Ruben Walter 1941 The Krsnacarita in the Harivamsa and Certain Puranas Journal of the American Oriental Society Vol 61 No 3 pp 115 127 Lorenz Ekkehard 2007 The Harivamsa The Dynasty of Krishna in Edwin F Bryant ed Krishna A Source Book Oxford University Press Shastri Rajendra Muni Jaina Sahitya mein Sri Krishna Charita Jaipur Prakrit Bharati Akademi 1991 External links edit nbsp Wikimedia Commons has media related to Harivamsa Original Sanskrit text online with English translation Manmatha Nath Dutt Vishnu Purana English Translation of Book 2 of Harivamsa 1896 Alexandre Langlois Harivansa ou histoire de la famille de Hari French Translation of Harivamsa 1834 Discourse on Harvamsha by Dr Vyasanakere Prabhanjanacharya Retrieved from https en wikipedia org w index php title Harivamsa amp oldid 1213283853, wikipedia, wiki, book, 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