Krishna
Vanquishes Kaliya
 Krishna,
the eighth incarnation of Lord Vishnu, revealed even in his childhood,
his divine nature by vanquishing countless demons effortlessly and
in a playful manner. In the chapters 10, 15-17 of the Bhagvata-Purana,
there is an account of how Krishna as Kaliya-damana ("he who subdues
the cobra") forced the serpent demon into submission.
Kaliya had found refuge from the mythical
bird Garuda in a pond in the Yamuna river, and had polluted the water
with his poison. The cattle after drinking the water fell sick, the
trees around the pond dried up, and the birds were asphyxiated just
by the fumes rising out of the water. The fury and rage of the serpent
demon, made the pond boil and foam, but with childish lack of concern
Krishna jumped in it fearlessly, brought Kaliya to a state of exhaustion
in a violent battle, and finally started to dance on his head. Kaliya
submitted to Krishna's power, paid homage to him as the highest deity,
and agreed to return to the ocean.
The legend is set in the region of Mathura, the most significant
center of early Krishna worship. It seems that this legend points
to the suppression of the serpent cult that was very deeply rooted
in Mathura and was in evidence till as late as the Kushana and Gupta
periods, by the followers of Krishna (ref. Banerjea: 1956). Representations
of the Kaliya-damana myth are known from the Gupta era (Banerjee:
1978). The powerful narrative scenes depict the dramatic confrontation
between Krishna and the serpent demon. The iconographic model of
this sculpture was conceptualized relatively late in South India,
and enjoyed a certain popularity in Tamil Nadu from the 10th century
AD. Much more common, however, are images that depict the child
Krishna in the same dance pose, without, however, depicting the
cobra. In these images the young thief Krishna is seen dancing with
pleasure after successfully plundering the larder of his mother.
( ref: Pal)
It can be stated that the dance of Kaliya-damana does not,
in any way, express a dramatic, moving battle, nor actual joy. It
is, rather, a representation of a hieratic pose, on the head of
the cobra, which, in images, can easily freeze into an abstract,
static emblem. As already indicated, the dance pose itself is iconographically
defined. However, the artistic execution of these guidelines are
extremely varied - not just in purely formal aspects, but also with
regard to the fine details of the basic expression.
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