Sri Krishna - Vedic Avatar In The Age Of Puranas 

The second one is from Marxist historian Suvira Jaiswal. The similarity between the two quotes is too striking to be ignored.

Bentley in true Christian spirit of Archbishop Ussher calculating the exact date and time of creation of the universe, also calculated the date of the birth of Krishna as ‘coincident with the 7th of August in the year of Our Lord 600’. The Christian bias led Bentley to draw scholarly conclusions that would make JNU scholars of this day proud, like Varahamihira was the contemporary of Akbar and that Bhaskaracharya’s time was after that of Akbar. Jaiswal like all Marxist historians colonised in their minds, is also animated by a deep Hinduphobia. As an expert witness for the Islamist side in the Ayodhya case, she ended up admitting that she was “giving statement on oath regarding Babri Mosque without any probe and not on the basis of my knowledge; rather I am giving the statement on the basis of my opinion”.

The discovery that the Heliodorus Column (second century BCE) dedicated to Vasudeva worship, with Garuda as his symbol, clearly demolished the idea of the Krishna ‘cult’ being derived from the Jesus cult that would emerge in distant Rome centuries later.

According to both the colonial schools, Marxism and evangelical Indology, disparate local and tribal deities simply got assimilated artificially into the Vedic Vishnu by scheming Brahmins. Even well-meaning Indic scholars like Radhakrishnan seemed to have fallen into this trap. However, a deeper study points out that it is not so.

Indologist Prof Benjamin Preciado-Solis in his detailed study points out to 'gratuitous presuppositions … contributed by Suvira Jaiswal herself’ in creating a divide between a non-Aryan Krishna and the Vedic deities. (Prof Preciado-Solis himself believes in Aryan invasion theory.) The conclusion of the Mexican Indologist in his study of the Vedic antecedents of Krishna shows a deeper connectivity and continuity between the Vedic spiritual realm and avataric Krishna:

This conclusion of Prof Preciado-Solis is prefigured and well presented in the Tamil epic Silapadikaram (3rd century CE), where the cosmic nature of the Vedic deity and the avataric- ‘folk-loric’ nature of Krishna are repeatedly shown as the fundamental mystery of maya. Incidentally, in Tamil tradition, Krishna is associated with the name ‘Mayoon’.

With the Northern Mountain as churn-rod
And the Vasuki serpent as churn-rope
Ocean-hued One churned the very ocean womb;
Those very hands that churned the ocean cosmic
Are the same hands that Yasoda tied with ropes domestic
Oh One with lotus (of creation) emerging from the navel
The paradox of (your) Maya is indeed beyond comprehension

Devas gather in large groups to venerate Your feet
With your two strides you removed
The three worlds from the dark chaos
With the same feet You walked on this land
As emissary of peace for Pandavas
Oh You who took the form of the Lion ferocious
The paradox of (your) Maya is indeed beyond comprehension

Similarly. the Vasudeva (to whom Heliodorous Column was dedicated) was also not a separate ‘deity’ that was later ‘seized upon’ by scheming Brahmins. Dr K R van Kooij, professor of South Asian art history at Leiden University points out that the column “has the same symbolic content as the Vedic sacrificial post' as it expresses the 'cosmic totality' of the three parts 'symbolic of earth, intermediate space and heaven, the whole expressing the idea of heavenly ascension'. He further states that this column presented 'an aniconic symbol of Vasudeva, who as the supreme deity, impersonates cosmic totality":

The three layered worldview needless to say is essentially a vedic one.

In ancient Tamil Sangam literature too, one finds the Krishna-Vishnu-Vedic continuity aesthetically well expressed at different levels. Far from suggesting any antipathy to Vedas, we see the ancient Tamil literature (3rd century CE) describing Garuda-mounted form of Vishnu as the very form of the vedic yagna:

You who have as your mast the fiery Garuda
The Vedic chant becomes your form
You have as your food the animal tied to the ritual mast
With musical chanting of Brahmins and
Through proper means as the fire increases,
It is You who manifests there.
Witnessing this even deniars, experience You. (Paripadal 2:60-68)

With flame like sprouts and shade giving branches
Stand the banyan and the Kadampa trees
You have your abode;
In the lonely mountain tops with no movement of wind even
In the islets in the middle of running rivers
Your presence abides;
In different places You reside
Names differ, yet they all call You;
You fulfill the wishes of the folded hands;
You are the servant of Your devotees;
You are the protector of their deeds virtuous. (Paripadal 4:66-73

Note that the verses link the so-called nature worship with the presence of Vishnu and echoes the very famous ‘Ekam Sat Vibra Bahuta Vathanthi’. Neither the Brahmins nor the Sangam Tamil bards ‘seized’ the nature worship and appropriated it into ‘Aryan Vishnu’ worship. The poem mentions the divine as the servant of his devotee. Almost 1,700 years after, Tamil poet Subramania Bharathi wrote a complete poetry in which he visualised Krishna as a faithful servant.

So beyond the partial and faulty frameworks of Marxism and colonialism, India needs fresh approaches to discover her own treasures. The truth is the vedic matrix has an extraordinary ability to resonate with and nurture the theo-diversity of this land. Sri Krishna simply embodies in him that perfection of the vedic culture. Perhaps, the best, holistic appraisal of the emergence of Sri Krishna as avataric phenomenon in Indian culture and history comes from Sri Aurobindo.