Krishna

Among the divine figures who animate Mahakavi Premanand's *Okhaharan*, Krishna stands at the very centre, radiating the dual splendour of cosmic lord and tender beloved. He is at once the supreme deity of Dwarka — sovereign, majestic, and worshipped — and the devoted uncle whose love for his nephew Aniruddha sets the entire narrative in motion. Premanand's genius lies in holding these registers together: Krishna commands armies and confounds demons, yet he also listens with a parent's anxious heart when news of Aniruddha's captivity reaches Dwarka's golden halls.

Throughout the poem, Premanand renders Krishna in the vivid, accessible idiom of medieval Gujarati bhakti, drawing on the Bhagavata Puranic tradition while infusing it with local warmth and dramatic energy. Krishna's interventions — whether in council, on the battlefield against Banasura, or in his charged encounters with Shiva — reveal a figure who is never merely ornamental. He is the pivot on which the poem's devotional, heroic, and lyrical strands all turn, making every canto in which he appears a study in the many faces of divine grace.