Sougataghosh at 20:50, 5 January 2026

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{{Short description|Unnamed junior wives of Hindu god Krishna}}
{{EngvarB|date=July 2015}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=July 2015}}
[[File:Krishna enters Pragjaothishyapura.jpg|thumb|The captive women of Narakasura greet Krishna (right).]]
Besides the [[Ashtabharya]] (Eight principal queens of Krishna),<ref name="Hudson2008">{{cite book|author=D Dennis Hudson|title=The Body of God : An Emperor's Palace for Krishna in Eighth-Century Kanchipuram: An Emperor's Palace for Krishna in Eighth-Century Kanchipuram |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=IMCxbOezDi4C&pg=PA264|accessdate=28 March 2013|date=27 August 2008|publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=978-0-19-970902-1|pages=263–4}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Pattanaik |first=Devdutt |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=rjL3ogbdJNkC&dq=Junior+wives+krishna&pg=PA101 |title=The Goddess in India: The Five Faces of the Eternal Feminine |date=September 2000 |publisher=Inner Traditions / Bear & Co |isbn=978-0-89281-807-5 |pages=101–102 |language=en}}</ref> [[Krishna]] is described to have married several thousand women whom he rescued from the demon [[Narakasura]]. The ''[[Bhagavata Purana]]'' and the ''[[Mahabharata]]'' state that 16,000 women were rescued, however the ''[[Vishnu Purana]]'' and the ''[[Harivamsa]]'' (appendix of the ''Mahabharata'') differ and set the number as 16,100.<ref name = "prabhupada">{{cite web |url=http://vedabase.net/sb/10/59/33/en |title=Bhagavata Purana 10.59.33 |author=Prabhupada |author-link=Prabhupada |publisher=[[Bhaktivedanta Book Trust]] |access-date=24 April 2013 |archive-date=20 September 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220920170628/http://vedabase.net/sb/10/59/33/en |url-status=dead }}</ref><ref name="vishnu">{{cite web|url=http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/vp/vp146.htm#page_582|title=Vishnu Purana|author = Horace Hayman Wilson|author-link = Horace Hayman Wilson|year=1840}}</ref><ref name="BulckePrasāda2010">{{cite book|author1=Camille Bulcke|author2=Dineśvara Prasāda|title=Rāmakathā and Other Essays|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=cvE4wF-cfX0C&pg=PA183|accessdate=24 April 2013|year=2010|publisher=Vani Prakashan|isbn=978-93-5000-107-3|page=183}}</ref><ref name="Williams2008"/> These 16,000 junior queens are all identified as manifestations of goddess [[Lakshmi]], the eternal consort of Krishna or [[Vishnu]].<ref>{{Cite book |last=Trobe |first=Kala |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=K_idDwAAQBAJ&pg=PT72&dq=sixteen+thousand+Krishna+Lakshmi&hl=en&newbks=1&newbks_redir=0&source=gb_mobile_search&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwi8uvCIovWRAxWVHTQIHSyPALQQ6AF6BAgPEAM#v=onepage&q=sixteen%20thousand%20Krishna%20Lakshmi&f=false |title=Invoke the Goddess: Connecting to the Hindu, Greek & Egyptian Deities |date=2019-07-08 |publisher=Llewellyn + Orm |isbn=978-0-7387-5964-7 |language=en}}</ref> Generally all of them are unnamed, however many commentators of the ''Bhagavata Purana'' regard [[Rohini (Krishna's wife)|Rohini]] to be their leader, though such an explicit mention is not found in the scripture.<ref name="vedabase.net">{{cite web|url=http://vedabase.net/sb/10/61/18/en |title=Bhagavata Purana 10.61.18 |author=Prabhupada |author-link=Prabhupada |publisher=[[Bhaktivedanta Book Trust]] |url-status=dead |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20140921163109/http://vedabase.net/sb/10/61/18/en |archivedate=21 September 2014 }}</ref><ref name="Venkatesananda(Swami.)1989">{{cite book|author1=Swami Venkatesananda|author2=Venkatesananda (Swami.)|title=The Concise Śrīmad Bhāgavataṁ |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=zLkrkjn1Yv0C&pg=PA301|accessdate=2 March 2013|year=1989|publisher=SUNY Press|isbn=978-1-4384-2283-1 |pages=301–}}</ref><ref name="ShastriKunst">{{cite book|author1=Jagdish Lal Shastri|author2=Arnold Kunst|title=Ancient Indian tradition & mythology|year=1970|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=n04IAQAAIAAJ|accessdate=2 March 2013|publisher=Motilal Banarsidass}}</ref>

==Before captivity by Narakasura==
The ''Bhagavata Purana'' mentions that the captive women are princesses. The ''Vishnu Purana'' says that they are daughters of gods, ''[[siddha|siddhas]]'' (saints), demons and kings. According to the ''[[Kalika Purana]]'' and the ''[[Adi Parva]]'' book of the Hindu epic ''Mahabharata'', they were ''[[apsara|apsaras]]'' (celestial female spirits).<ref name = "prabhupada"/><ref name="vishnu"/><ref name="Wilson1870">{{cite book|author=Horace Hayman Wilson|title=The Vishńu Puráńa: a system of Hindu mythology and tradition|url=https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_RO8oAAAAYAAJ|accessdate=21 February 2013|year=1870|publisher=Trübner|pages=[https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_RO8oAAAAYAAJ/page/n84 81]–3}}</ref> In the ''Dana Dharma'' chapter of the ''[[Shanti Parva]]'' book affixed centuries later, they are blessed by the goddess [[Bhudevi]] to be wives of Krishna.<ref name="Wilson1870"/>

Some legends narrate that events in their past life led to them being wives of Krishna. A king had 16,000 daughters. While the king was sitting in court with the princesses, Vishnu arrived disguised as a sage. The daughters flocked around Vishnu, making their father angry who cursed them. When the daughters cried and begged for forgiveness, the king blessed them that in their next birth, they would be wives of Vishnu. In other versions, the damsels plead to others for liberation from the curse. The creator-god [[Brahma]], on the advice of his son and divine sage [[Narada]] or the sage, himself give the princesses the boon to be wives of Vishnu.<ref name="Mani">{{cite book | last = Mani | first = Vettam | title = Puranic Encyclopaedia: a Comprehensive Dictionary with Special Reference to the Epic and Puranic Literature | url = https://archive.org/details/puranicencyclopa00maniuoft | publisher = Motilal Banarsidass Publishers | year = 1975  | isbn = 978-0-8426-0822-0 | author-link = Vettam Mani|page = [https://archive.org/details/puranicencyclopa00maniuoft/page/531 531]}}</ref>

==Captivity and release==
[[File: Krishna Cleaves the Demon Narakasura with his Discus.jpg|thumb|left|Krishna kills Narakasura.]]
Narakasura was the king of [[Pragjyotisha]]. He was the demon ([[asura]]) son of Vishnu's boar avatar [[Varaha]] and the earth-goddess [[Bhūmi|Bhumi]]. As the son of Bhumi, he was also called Bhauma or Bhaumasura (asura suffix appended). He conquered the three worlds: [[Svarga|heaven]], earth, and the [[Patala|underworld]]. On earth, he captured 16,000 princesses of defeated nations. In heaven, he stole the earrings of [[Aditi]], mother of [[Indra]] - the king of the [[Deva (Hinduism)|devas]] and heaven. In the underworld, he seized the imperial umbrella of [[Varuna]], the god of the waters.<ref name="Mani"/><ref name="Hudson2008b">{{cite book|author=D Dennis Hudson|title=The Body of God : An Emperor's Palace for Krishna in Eighth-Century Kanchipuram: An Emperor's Palace for Krishna in Eighth-Century Kanchipuram |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=IMCxbOezDi4C&pg=PA256|accessdate=10 March 2013|date=27 August 2008|publisher=Oxford University Press|isbn=978-0-19-970902-1|pages=256–7}}</ref>

The captive women were imprisoned at Audaka on the top of the mountain Maniparvata in his kingdom. Various demons including the five-headed Mura and his seven sons guarded the kingdom's gates. Narakasura's ten sons guarded the women.<ref name="Mani"/><ref name="Hudson2008b"/>

Indra comes to Krishna and pleads with him to save the universe from Narakasura's tyranny. Krishna and his third wife [[Satyabhama]] fly on their mount [[Garuda]] to Pragjyotisha. Krishna slays Mura, his sons, Narakasura's army, and finally the demon-king himself. Bhumi surrenders all stolen items, including the captive women to Krishna. When Krishna arrives in the palace of the captive women, each of them prays to Krishna to accept her as his wife. Krishna complies and sends them to his capital with Narakasura's plunder and four-tusked white elephants gifted by Bhumi. After returning Aditi's earrings to Indra in heaven, Krishna returns to Dvaraka and marries the rescued women, making them his wives, saving them from destitution and infamy.<ref name=" Hudson2008b"/><ref name="Pattanaik2000"/>

==Marital life==
The ''Bhagavata Purana'' describes the life of Krishna's wives after their marriage. Each of the junior wives was given a home, with hundreds of maid-servants. Krishna divides himself into several forms, one for each wife, and spends the night with each wife simultaneously. In the morning, all his forms unite into one body of Krishna when Krishna works as the king of Dvaraka.

In another story narrated in the ''Bhagavata Purana'', [[Narada]], Vishnu's devotee and wandering sage, was curious to find out how Krishna was managing to live with his 16,108 wives and came to Dvaraka to check. Krishna welcomed Narada with all the honors due to him being a sage. Narada then visited every one of the houses of Krishna's 16,108 wives and was surprised to see Krishna present in every house with his wife in an atmosphere of total domesticity, laughing and joking with his wife and taking care of his children, and helping his wife in household chores. Watching this phenomenon, Narada was convinced that it was divinity in the form of Krishna, a complete and manifold manifestation who had enjoyed the company of his 16,108 consorts at the same time. He also concluded that Krishna was a divine supreme being. Having satisfied himself of the divine powers of the deity himself, Narada embarked on his usual voyages around the world singing the praise of Krishna.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://vedabase.net/sb/10/69/en|title=Bhagavata Purana|work=Canto 10, Chapter 69 Nārada Muni Visits Lord Kṛṣṇa's Palaces in Dvārakā|accessdate=18 March 2013|publisher=Srimadbhagavatam.org|archive-date=17 March 2013|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130317051300/http://vedabase.net/sb/10/69/en|url-status=dead}}</ref> A variant tells that the mischief-maker sage Narada requested Krishna to gift him one of his many wives, as he was a bachelor. Krishna told him to win any wife for himself if he was not with her. Then Narada went round to each of the houses of Krishna's 16,108 wives but found Krishna in every house that he visited, and thus Narada had to remain a bachelor.<ref name=" Moor1810">{{cite book|author=Edward Moor|title=The Hindu Pantheon|url=https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.40087|accessdate=10 March 2013|year=1810|publisher=J. Johnson|pages=[https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.40087/page/n220 204]–}}</ref>

In the ''Bhagavata Purana'', Rohini and Krishna are described to have an unspecified number of sons, out of which only Diptiman and Tamratapta are named. The sons are said to represent all the children of the junior wives.<ref name="vedabase.net"/>

The ''[[Bhavishya Purana]]'', the ''[[Skanda Purana]]'' and the ''[[Varaha Purana]]'' narrate that some of Krishna's junior wives were infatuated with [[Samba (Krishna's son)|Samba]], the handsome, trouble-maker son of Krishna and one of his senior queens, [[Jambavati]]. One wife, Nandini, disguised herself as Samba's wife and embraced him. For this incest, Krishna cursed Samba to be inflicted with leprosy and his wives to be kidnapped by [[Abhira tribe|Abhira]] robbers after his death.<ref name="Mani b">{{cite book | last = Mani | first = Vettam | title = Puranic Encyclopaedia: a Comprehensive Dictionary with Special Reference to the Epic and Puranic Literature | url = https://archive.org/details/puranicencyclopa00maniuoft | publisher = Motilal Banarsidass Publishers | year = 1975  | isbn = 978-0-8426-0822-0 | author-link = Vettam Mani|page = [https://archive.org/details/puranicencyclopa00maniuoft/page/677 677]}}</ref><ref name="Pattanaik2000">{{cite book|author=Devdutt Pattanaik|title=The Goddess in India: The Five Faces of the Eternal Feminine|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=rjL3ogbdJNkC|accessdate=24 April 2013|date=1 September 2000|publisher=Inner Traditions / Bear & Co|isbn=978-0-89281-807-5|pages=101–2}}</ref>

The ''Bhagavata Purana'' records the wailing of Krishna's queens and their subsequent leap in Krishna's funeral pyre immolating themselves (see ''[[Sati (practice)|sati]]'').<ref>{{cite web|url=http://vedabase.net/sb/11/31/20/en|title=Bhagavata Purana 11.31.20|author=Prabhupada|author-link=Prabhupada|publisher=[[Bhaktivedanta Book Trust]]|access-date=24 April 2013|archive-date=13 June 2010|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100613194505/http://vedabase.net/sb/11/31/20/en|url-status=dead}}</ref> The ''[[Mausala Parva]]'' book of the ''Mahabharata'' which describes the death of Krishna and end of most of his race records only four of Krishna's wives, including Rohini, committing sati. Dvaraka submerges in the ocean and the rest of its inhabitants including Krishna's widows accompany Krishna's friend [[Arjuna]] to his capital [[Hastinapur]]a. On the way, [[Abhira tribe|Abhira]] robbers attack the entourage and plunder their wealth and kidnap some of Krishna's widows. Some of the widows burn themselves alive. When the entourage reaches Hastinapura, all other widows retire to the forest for austerities (''[[Tapas (Indian religions)|tapas]]'').<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m16/m16007.htm|title=Mahabharata|accessdate=18 March 2013|publisher=Sacred-texts.com|author=Kisari Mohan Ganguli|author-link=Kisari Mohan Ganguli}}</ref>

==Interpretations==
The [[Gopi]]s, milkmaids from the life of young Krishna - who was a herdsman, are sometimes called his 16,000 wives. This mythology of Krishna's love with gopis is also described theologically as devotional worship of Krishna. The gopis risked having a relationship with him. It is also said he assumed 16,000 forms at the same time to be with all of them for his love play.<ref name="Williams2008">{{cite book|author=George Mason Williams|title=Handbook of Hindu Mythology|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=N7LOZfwCDpEC&pg=PA188|accessdate=10 March 2013|date=18 June 2008|publisher=Oxford University Press|isbn=978-0-19-533261-2|pages=188, 222}}</ref>

Another theory relates the Krishna, who plays the flute and the lover of music, and his 16,000 wives to the 16,000 ''[[raga]]''s or musical modes or passions or affections of the mind in [[Indian classical music]], and their wives - the ''Ragini''s (female ''raga''). The ''Ragini''s selected one of these ''raga''s to which to modulate her strains for affecting and securing the heart of Krishna, the blissful and harmonious deity. Krishna who was devoted to music received and enjoyed every variety of modulation, multiplied to the number of 16,000, fancifully personified in the form of the women derived from ''Bhauma'' (a name of Narakasura), a five-stringed musical instrument.<ref name=" Moor1810"/>

==References==
{{Reflist|30em}}

{{Krishna}}

[[Category:Consorts of Krishna]]
[[Category:Characters in the Bhagavata Purana]]

Junior wives of Krishna - Revision history

Sougataghosh at 20:50, 5 January 2026