BANGALORE: Myth or history? The question has always generated mixed reactions. We ask Dev Prasad what his book means to him and could mean to the readers of this generation.
When you first planned to visit Birj Bhoomi, you had no plans to write a book on Krishna. So what initiated you to write this book?
I made a trip with my family to Delhi, Agra, Mathura and so on. So before the visit, I wanted details of the places. But I hardly found any information on the net. Except for the Taj Mahal and a few such places, there wasn’t much information about places of interest in India. Call it sixth sense or divine intervention, when I visited the places in December 2005 I started taking down notes. It was only later that I thought of writing a book. I made a few more trips to other places where Krishna lived and started writing the book.
To a non-religious person, how would you describe Krishna?
Krishna is the only God in Hindu religion who is multifaceted. He has different wavelengths and styles. There is a human touch to Krishna that is hardly found in other Gods in Hinduism.
You are interested in the study of mythology. Where do you draw the line between myth and history?
That’s always a challenging thing. People say that Indian Gods are drawn from mythology. There are debates about it. About Krishna, if you go by history, the evidence is strong. But there are contradictions as well. Scriptures say that Krishna lived about 5,000 years ago. But archaeological evidence shows that he lived 3,500 ago. The variation here is as high as 1,500 years. But such variations are part of every religion.
So — Krishna — a myth or history?
I would describe him as part of history. When I visited Mathura, Vrindavan and Brij Bhoomi, the reverberation that I felt in the air was overpowering. I would say, ‘Believing is seeing’ and not the other way around.
Out of all the places you visited, was there one place that stood out?
It was the Shahji temple in Vrindavan. It was built by two wealthy merchants. They felt that the sand in Vrindavan is so powerful that they instructed people to drag their bodies through the place after their death. They even wanted their portraits on temple floor so that people would walk on them with their sand-covered feet.
Any other book in the making?
What I wrote encompasses the places Krishna visited in his physical form. Now I am planning to write a book on places where he is worshipped with great reverence. He has not been to places like Guruyavoor and Udupi, but he has many devotees there.
Join Dev Prasad for the book reading on February 26, 7 pm, at Crossword Bookstore, JP Nagar.
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