Kṛṣṇa the Magician: metapoesis and ambivalence in Faiḍī's Mahābhārat

• Published in: Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society 2024-04, Vol.34 (2), p.399-433
• Main Author: Smolin, Justin N.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Ambivalence; Ancient languages; Anniversaries; Ascription; Discomfort; God; Hell; Hindi language; Inconsistency; Islam; Literary characters; Manipulation; Persian literature; Poetry; Prose; Sanskrit; Sorcery; Theology; Writers
• ISSN: 1356-1863; 2051-2066; 1474-0591
• DOI: 10.1017/S1356186323000639

In this article, I discuss the vilification of Kṛṣṇa as a deceitful sorcerer in the Mughal poet-laureate Shaikh Abū'l Faiḍ bin Mubārak, or ‘Faiḍī's Mahābhārat and his correspondent apotheosis as the ‘essence of the True God' in the Shāriq al-maʿrifat, a treatise also ascribed to Faiḍī. As I argue, this inconsistency, or ambivalence, is a common and overlooked facet of the elite Islamicate engagement with religious diversity and difference in early modern Hindustan. In the case of the Mahābhārat, however, Faiḍī's portrayal of Kṛṣṇa as a deceitful illusionist reflects not only an Islamic discomfort with Vaishnavite theology, but Faiḍī's own performative insecurities as a Hindustani writer of Persian poetry and literary prose. Kṛṣṇa's so-called ‘magic’ lies in large part in his way with words: the verbal and social manipulation he uses to stoke the flames of conflict. The character thus becomes a kind of shadow or double of Faiḍī himself-a demiurgic author of the Mahābhārat upon which the poet can displace the classical Islamicate association of poetry with sorcery and deceit.