Balarama

Krishna’s older brother. According to
most estimations, Balarama is a partial
avatar, or incarnation, of Shesha, a serpent upon whom the god Vishnu
reclines as on a couch. Shesha takes
human form as Balarama, and Vishnu
takes human form as Krishna, to destroy
the evil king Kamsa. Kamsa has imprisoned their parents, Vasudeva and
Devaki, because on their wedding day a
disembodied voice has foretold that
Devaki’s eighth child will kill Kamsa.
Kamsa kills Devaki’s first six children at
birth by flinging them onto stones, but
Balarama is saved when the embryo in
Devaki’s womb is magically transplanted into the womb of Vasudeva’s second
wife, Rohini. Because of the unusual
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Balarama
circumstances surrounding his development in utero, Balarama is also known
as Sankarshana (“dragging away”).
Balarama is raised with Krishna in
Nanda and Yashoda’s household and
takes part in many of Krishna’s adventures, including the slaying of Kamsa.
Balarama is usually portrayed as having a fair complexion, whereas Krishna
is dark. According to one story, when the
gods approach Vishnu to take form on
earth, he plucks both a white hair and a
black hair from his head. The former is
born to Rohini as Balarama, the latter to
Devaki as Krishna.
Jayadeva’s Gitagovinda presents a
different picture of Balarama. Jayadeva
is closely linked to the Jagannath temple in Puri, whose presiding deity
(Jagannath) has been assimilated into
the pantheon as Krishna. For Jayadeva,
Jagannath/Krishna is not a form of
Vishnu but the Ultimate Reality from
whom all the avatars spring. Jayadeva
incorporates Balarama into the pantheon as the eighth avatar, to fill the
place left by Krishna’s promotion to
supreme god.