lpetrich

I will use the criteria I'd stated in my BC&A thread "Jesus Christ: Mythic Hero". Here is my score for Krishna; Hinduwoman, please feel free to correct me:

1. 0.5 - His mother Devaki had several children before having him; Devaki almost counts as royalty because her father Devaka was rich enough to afford a dowry of 400 elephants fully decorated with golden garlands, 15,000 decorated horses, 1800 chariots, and the hiring of 200 pretty young ladies to follow her.

2. 1 - His father Vasudeva was the son of King Surasena.

3. 0 - No hint of that.

4. 1 - Devaki learned that she was pregnant with someone special when she became pregnant with Krishna.

5. 1 - Krishna is considered an avatar of the great Hindu god Vishnu.

6. 1 - The wicked King Kamsa had imprisoned Vasudeva and Devaki, and had killed their previous offspring.

7. 1 - When he was born, he was switched with Yogamaya, daughter of Yasoda and Nanda (mother and father), thus frustrating Kamsa.

8. 1 - Yasoda and Nanda return to their home and raise Krishna there.

9. 0 - There are some childhood details, such as his learning to dance and his destroying some wicked demons.

10. 1 - King Kamsa invites Krishna and a friend to a wrestling match, hoping that Krishna will be defeated.

11. 1 - But Krishna wins, prompting Kamsa to order Krishna's foster father and several others murdered. Whereupon Krishna kills Kamsa.

12. 1 - Krishna marries some beautiful princesses.

13. 0.5 - Krishna helps make a certain Ugrusena king.

14. 0 - The Kurukshetra War counts against this; Krishna also fights more demons, plays his flute, and has some fun with his gopi groupies. Krishna's fun loving is a rarity among religious prophets; only Jesus Christ comes anywhere close with his turning of water into wine for a wedding party.

15. 1 - Krishna delivers the Bhagavad-Gita to Arjuna at the beginning of that war.

16. 0 - Doesn't seem to happen.

17. 0 - Doesn't seem to happen.

18. 1 - A guess on my part.

19. 0 - Not sure.

20. 1 - He had no successors.

21. 1 - He rose up into heaven.

22. 0 - Not sure.

Krishna scores 14, about as much as I score Moses, and lower than my scoring of Jesus Christ.

phaedrus

Why did you choose "krishna" ? The religion has got zillion gods. (and if you are going to say krishna seems to be the representative god of the hindu religion, i would say "come on mate, ask around and you will see there are more popular ones ")

lpetrich

OK, let's see your picks. I chose Krishna because he's a well-known personage with a human-like career, and because he has sometimes been compared to Jesus Christ.

phaedrus

There are more incarnations of Vishnu which had human-like career (btw vishnu has some more incarnations as well which include buddha as well, clever on the part of the old hindu authors yeah?). Maybe Krishna is well-know in the west due to the hare krishna movement and all the bohemian appeal ???

The popularity ratings go something like this in no particular order :

Rama, Durga (or Maa as they call in the northern part of the country), shiva, hanuman, Vinayaka/Ganapati, Venkatesha/Balaji...etc (Ofcourse each of the states and districts have their own local gods/dieties leading to a pantheon of zillion gods in India)

And unlike, JC and muhammad and buddha who started off new religions, krishna wasnt the originator of hindu religion. He was one of mythical figures and thats about it

hinduwoman

IP: 1. 0.5 - His mother Devaki had several children before having him; Devaki almost counts as royalty because her father Devaka was rich enough to afford a dowry of 400 elephants fully decorated with golden garlands, 15,000 decorated horses, 1800 chariots, and the hiring of 200 pretty young ladies to follow her.

HW: not a virgin. Definitely royalty, since she is the sister of the same wicked king kamsa.

IP: 2. 1 - His father Vasudeva was the son of King Surasena.
HW: well, Surasena is more on the lines of a powerful chieftain, a minor king, than a fullfledged king like kamsa.

3. 0 - No hint of that.

IP: 4. 1 - Devaki learned that she was pregnant with someone special when she became pregnant with Krishna.

HW: yes, but this was not a miraculous birth in the ordinary sense. There was intercourse, ninemonth pregnancy and a normal delivery.

5. 1 - Krishna is considered an avatar of the great Hindu god Vishnu.
6. 1 - The wicked King Kamsa had imprisoned Vasudeva and Devaki, and had killed their previous offspring.
7. 1 - When he was born, he was switched with Yogamaya, daughter of Yasoda and Nanda (mother and father), thus frustrating Kamsa.
8. 1 - Yasoda and Nanda return to their home and raise Krishna there.

IP:9. 0 - There are some childhood details, such as his learning to dance and his destroying some wicked demons.
HW: his frolic with the gopis also take place in his adoloscence while he was still unknown.

10. 1 - King Kamsa invites Krishna and a friend to a wrestling match, hoping that Krishna will be defeated.
11. 1 - But Krishna wins, prompting Kamsa to order Krishna's foster father and several others murdered. Whereupon Krishna kills Kamsa.
12. 1 - Krishna marries some beautiful princesses.

IP: 13. 0.5 - Krishna helps make a certain Ugrusena king.
HW: but then he becomes the king himself.

IP: 14. 0 - The Kurukshetra War counts against this; Krishna also fights more demons, plays his flute, and has some fun with his gopi groupies. Krishna's fun loving is a rarity among religious prophets; only Jesus Christ comes anywhere close with his turning of water into wine for a wedding party.

HW: no the gopis, as stated earlier belongs to his adoloscence period. Once he became king it was all business. He married princesses but never frolicked with them as he did with the gopis. That is why young Krishna is more popular.

15. 1 - Krishna delivers the Bhagavad-Gita to Arjuna at the beginning of that war.

IP:16. 0 - Doesn't seem to happen.
HW: well, his family behaves badly and so brings down destruction on themselves.

IP:17. 0 - Doesn't seem to happen.
HW: on the other hand, with his family destroyed and his kingdom torn apart by civil war, Krishna leaves the place to wander about by himself. He saw the destruction of his clan and kingdom.

IP: 18. 1 - A guess on my part.
HW: not very mysterious. He is shot in the foot (like Achilles) by a hunter. However the hunter's name is 'jara' or Old Age. Also Krishna's brother's death is mysterious: he is transformed into a snake and goes into the sea.

IP: 19. 0 - Not sure.
HW: dies in a forest by the seashore.

20. 1 - He had no successors.
21. 1 - He rose up into heaven.

IP: 22. 0 - Not sure.
HW: yes, several places consider themselves to be his last resting place, though more in the nature of he was wounded here, he rested here, his blood fell here etc. but they are all within a small area.

Actually several of the laterday religious teachers in hinduism also fit this profile more or less.

The other gods, except Rama, do not much fit the profile on account they never became human.
But I think you can fit Sita and Draupadi in it.

lpetrich

Thanx, Hinduwoman. I'll now re-score Krishna; parts revised with the help of her comments are in ()'s.

1. 0.5 - Devaki is clearly royalty. (HW)

2.1 - Vasudeva's father was not quite a king, but he'll do. (HW)

3. 0 - No relation.

4. 0.5 - Conception, pregnancy, and birth were normal; however, his mother learned that she was pregnant with someone very special. (HW)

5. 1 - Krishna is considered an avatar of Vishnu

6. 1 - King Kamsa followed in the footsteps of baby-killers Pharaoh, Herod, and Amulius, who came after Moses, Jesus Christ, and Romulus and Remus.

7. 1 - Baby Krishna was switched with another when he was born.

8. 1 - Was raised by the parents of the exchanged baby.

9. 0 - Fun with gopis, fighting some demons. (HW)

10. 1 - King Kamsa hopes that Krishna will lose a wrestling match.

11. 1 - Krishna kills Kamsa

12. 1 - Krishna marries some beautiful princesses.

13. 1 - Krishna not only helps a certain Ugrusena become king, he himself becomes king after a while. (HW)

14. 0 - Krishna fights demons and gets involved in the Kurukshetra War. (HW)

15. 1 - Krishna delivers the Bhagavad-Gita.

16. 1 - Krishna's family misbehaves, giving Krishna a bad name. (HW)

17. 1 - Krishna's family and clan are destroyed in a civil war, leaving him to wander around. (HW)

18. 0.5 - Krishna shot in the foot by a hunter named "Old Age" (jara); his brother turns into a snake and goes into the sea.

19. 0 - Krishna dies in a forest by the seashore.

20. 1 - He had no successors.

21. 1 - He rose up into heaven.

22. 1 - Several places are described as his last resting place. (HW)

Revised score: 16.5 -- more Mythic-Hero-like than Moses, but less so than Jesus Christ, at least by my reckoning.

And as Hinduwoman points out, some other Hindu religious prophets have Mythic-Hero-ish biographies.