Page 5 - Sri Aurobindo on Sri Krishna

Sri Aurobindo on the Historicity of Sri Krishna

The Mahabharata is a poem and not history, but it is clearly a poem

founded on a great historical event, traditionally preserved in memory;

some of the figures connected with it, Dhritarashtra, Parikshit, for

instance, certainly existed and the story of the part played by Krishna as

leader, warrior and statesman can be accepted as probable in itself and to

all appearance founded on a tradition which can be given a historical

value and has not the air of a myth or a sheer poetical invention. That is as

much as can be positively said from the point of view of the theoretical

reason as to the historical figure of the man Krishna; but in my view there

is much more than that in it and I have always regarded the incarnation

as a fact and accepted the historicity of Krishna as I accept the historicity

of Christ.

(CWSA, 28: 483)