Krishna 23209/042017 1 KRISHNA'S LONG JOURNEY: From Sacred Text to the Popular Arts Jawhar Sircar VMH, April 2017 1. Krishna represents a fascinating and complex personality that generations of scholars have struggled to understand. Some have tried to understand the reasons behind his unparalleled popularity among the people of India and later among numerous devotees beyond these shores as well, while others attempted to unravel distinct facets of this attractive divinity. It is difficult to state whether Shiva or Krishna or even Vishnu or the ‘devi’ is worshipped more by the Hindus, but it may not be too difficult to state that where both the visual and the performing arts are concerned, it is a close call between the first two. The submission of this paper is that where Krishna’s present popularity at the mass level, as distinct from the scriptural and elite level, is a development that appeared in India only in the 15th century and arrived in full colour in the 16th century. In other words, it is incorrect to assume that the same Krishna was as much of a favourite from, say, the Vedic age or the Gupta period.