ARTI DHAND
University of Toronto arti.dhand@utoronto.ca
NEW GOD, OLD SHOES: KṚṢṆA IN THE UDYOGAPARVA OF THE MAHĀBHĀRATA Barring Kṛṣṇa’s self-revelation in the Kaurava court, Book V of the Mahābhārata is not the most dramatic of its many volumes, mostly absorbed in anxious deliberations and negotiations, initially for peace and ultimately for war. Its discursive character, however, belies a transition of a more momentous kind, in the Hindu conception of deity. Whereas Kṛṣṇa is widely billed in text and tradition as an embodiment of Viṣṇu, in the Udyogaparvan we see him out of Viṣṇu’s shadow, a distinctive figure at odds with the heritage of Viṣṇu. This paper will examine a critical boundary between Kṛṣṇa and Viṣṇu, one the Udyogaparvan complicates to introduce a new paradigm of God into Hinduism.