as God, he has already been loved as a boy and a young man. In the later
story, this early charm is missing. Krishna is frequently recognized to
be God and is continually revered and respected as a man. His conduct is
invariably resolute but there is a kind of statesmanlike formality about
his actions. He is respectful towards ritual, formal observances and
Brahmans while in comparison with his encounters with the cowgirls his
relations with women have an air of slightly stagnant luxury. His wives
and consorts lavish on him their devotion but the very fact that they are
married removes the romantic element from their relationship.

Such vital differences are only partially resolved in the _Bhagavata
Purana_. Representing as they do two different conceptions of Krishna's
character, it is inevitable that the resulting account should be slightly
biased in one direction or the other. The _Bhagavata Purana_ records both
phases in careful detail blending them into a single organic whole. But
there can be little doubt that its Brahman authors were in the main more
favourably inclined towards the hero prince than towards the cowherd
lover. There is a tendency for the older Krishna to disparage the younger.
Krishna the prince's subsequent meetings with the cowgirls are shown as
very different from his rapturous encounters with them in the forest and
the fact that his later career involves so sharp a separation from them
indicates that the whole episode was somewhat frowned upon. This is
especially evident from the manner in which Krishna addresses the cowgirls
when they meet him during the eclipse of the sun. By this time he has
become an ardent husband constantly satisfying his many wives. He is very
far from having abjured the delights of the flesh. Yet for all his former
loves who long for him so passionately he has only one message. They must
meditate upon him in their minds. No dismissal could be colder, no
treatment more calculatingly callous. And even the accounts of Krishna's
love-making reflects this bias. The physical charms of the cowgirls are
minimized and it is only the beauty of Rukmini which is stressed. It is
clear, in fact, that however much the one tradition involved a break with
morals, the second tradition shrank from countenancing adultery and it was
this latter tradition which commanded the authors' approval. Finally, on
one important issue, the _Purana_ as a whole is in no doubt. Krishna's
true consort is Ru