KrishnaAndKaliya Veeraswamy Krishnaraj |
Kāliya was a poisonous snake in the Yamuna river. Fear of Garuda the
snake eater drove the snake to the Yamuna river and it poisoned it. No
bird could eat the fish from the poisoned waters of Yamuna. No beast can
drink the water. There were no trees in the banks of the river except
for Kadamba (Neolamarckia cadamba = burflower-tree).
Kāliya
was the princely son of Kadrū the
daughter of Dakṣa and the wife of Kaśyapa coming from the Krodhavāsa
tribe. (Kadrū went by another name Grahi (Seizer). She can assume a
subtle form, enter the womb of a pregnant woman and transform the embryo
into a snake. (The west is of the opinion the Nāgas of India are the
indigenous Non-Āryan tribe.) Ṛṣi Kaśyapa had a thousand children with
Kadrū and two children with Vinatā. These women did not bear live
infants of human kind. They laid eggs. Kadrū’s eggs yielded 1000 tiny
snakes. One of them was Śeṣa and the other was Vāsuki.
Śeṣa (= Remainder) the bed of Vishnu was a thousand-headed cosmic
serpent, also named Ananta, the Endless or ‘Infinite One’. Vāsuki
supports the world on its heads. The earthquakes occur when he moved his
head or heads.
Vinata’s eggs did not hatch, so she opened them. The first one was the
deformed Aruṇa, the reddish one. The second one was a beautiful youth
with rudimentary nubs or absent feet. He was Garuda.
Krishna and the cowherd boys played ball by the river. No man, animal or
bird dared to drink the water or eat the river fish because of
contamination of the river with snake poison. The cows that drank the
water fell ill and Krishna revived them. No one dunked in the river.
The ball fell in the poisonous waters of river Yamuna. The timorous boys
were afraid to retrieve the ball. Krishna, unafraid, jumped into the
waters. A hood popped up. Krishna ignored it. Then, one by one, other
heads pierced through the surface of the water.
Where is Krishna? The gopis, the boys and herders came running to
the river edge. The 110-hooded Kāliya wrapped its body around Krishna in
the depths of the river. Krishna was a child (youth). What was he going
to do? The coils of the snake squeezed his life breath away. Krishna’s
brother Balarāma unconcerned watched him from the banks of the river and
asked Krishna to use his divine power to defeat Kālia. None knew the
divine nature of Krishna except his brother Balarāma.
Krishna transformed into an incredible hulk. The 'Incredible Hulk' TV
series (1962-2013) in the US might have taken an inspiration from
Krishna.) The snake could not stand the stretch and loosened its coiled
grip. Krishna rose from the depths of Yamuna river and jumped on
Kāliya's head. To keep the snake down he assumed the weight of the whole
world and danced on its head (Nāg Nritya = Kālinga Nartana). The anxious
spectators on the river bank were happy to see the dance of Krishna on
the middle hood of the snake. The snake was spitting blood. The wives of
Kāliya (Nāginis) were afraid they would become widows. They begged
Krishna for mercy and spare the life of their husband. Krishna took pity
of Kāliya and told him to leave the river forever and move to an Island
Ramanaka Dwipa, now known as the Island of Fiji. Another version says
that Krishna asked Kālia and his kind to leave the river for the ocean.
Since Krishna subdued Kālia, he was called Kāliyadamna (tamer of Kālia). |