Editing Balarama (section)

==History==
{{Vaishnavism}}
[[File:Balarama - Early Mediaeval Period - Maholi - ACCN 18-1515 - Government Museum - Mathura 2013-02-23 5791.JPG|thumb|left|upright=0.85|Balarama from [[Mathura]], [[Medieval India|Early Medieval period]] (8th–13th century CE).]]
Balarama is an ancient deity, a prominent one by the epics era of Indian history as evidenced by archeological and numismatic evidence. His iconography appears with [[Nāga]] (many-headed serpent), a plough and other farm artifacts such as a watering pot, possibly indicating his origins in a bucolic, agricultural culture.<ref>{{cite book|author=Kenneth W. Morgan|title=The Religion of the Hindus|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ulz9mO9cK54C |year=1987|publisher=Motilal Banarsidass |isbn=978-81-208-0387-9|page=57}}</ref> 

===Texts===
Narratives of Balarama are found in ''[[Mahabharata]]'', ''[[Harivamsha]]'', ''[[Bhagavata Purana]],'' and other [[Puranas]]. He is identified with the [[vyuha]] avatar of [[Saṃkarṣaṇa|Sankarshana]], along with the deities of [[Shesha]] and [[Lakshmana]].<ref>{{cite book|title=Srimad-Bhagavatam: Bhagavata Purana|isbn=0892132507|author=A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada|author-link=A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada|editor=Bhaktivedanta Book Trust|year=1987}}<!--|access-date=29 July 2013--></ref> The legend of Balarama as the avatar of Shesha, the demigod-serpent Vishnu rests upon, reflects his role and association with Vishnu.<ref name=" JonesRyan2006p65"/> However, Balarama's mythology and his association with the ten avatars of Vishnu is relatively younger and post-Vedic, because it is not found in the Vedic texts.<ref>Padmanabh S. Jaini (1977), [https://www.jstor.org/stable/615287 Jina Ṛṣabha as an "Avatāra" of Viṣṇu], ''Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies'', Cambridge University Press, Vol. 40, No. 2 (1977), pp. 321–337</ref>

Balarama's legend appears in many ''Parva'' (books) of the ''[[Mahabharata]]''. Book Three ([[Vana Parva]]) states about Krishna and him that Balarama is an avatar of Vishnu, while Krishna is the source of all avatars and existence. In some art works of the [[Vijayanagara Empire]], temples of Gujarat and elsewhere, for example, Baladeva is the eighth avatar of Vishnu, prior to the [[Buddha]] (Buddhism) or [[Arihant (Jainism)|Arihant]] (Jainism).<ref>{{cite book|author=Roshen Dalal|title=Hinduism: An Alphabetical Guide|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=DH0vmD8ghdMC |year=2010|publisher=Penguin |isbn=978-0-14-341421-6 |page=112}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|author=Kenneth W. Morgan|title=The Religion of the Hindus|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ulz9mO9cK54C&pg=PA55| year=1987|publisher =Motilal Banarsidass |isbn= 978-81-208-0387-9|page=55}}</ref>

Balarama finds a mention in Kautilya's [[Arthashastra]] (4th to 2nd century BCE), where according to Hudson, his followers are described as "ascetic worshippers" with shaved heads or braided hair.<ref name="Hudson2008p99"/>

Balarama, as Baladewa, is an important character in the 11th-century Javanese text ''[[Kakawin Bhāratayuddha]]'', the Kakawin poem based on the ''Mahabharata''.<ref>{{cite book|author=Helen Creese|title=Women of the Kakawin World: Marriage and Sexuality in the Indic Courts of Java and Bali|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=RZ1sBgAAQBAJ |year=2015|publisher=Routledge|isbn=978-1-317-45179-2|pages=93, 104–105, 110}}</ref>

===Archeology, coins, arts, and epigraphy===
{{multiple image|perrow=2|total_width=300|caption_align=center
| align    = right
| direction =horizontal
| header=Balarama on punch-marked coins<br>
<small>(2nd century BCE)</small>
| image1   = MauryanBalaramaCoin3rd-2ndCenturyCE.jpg
| image2   = Mauryan Balarama Coin 3rd-2nd Century CE (detail).jpg
| footer_align = center
| footer=Possible depiction of Balarama on late, post-[[Mauryan Empire|Mauryan]], [[punch-marked coins]].<ref name="MHA"/><ref>{{cite book |last1=Mishra |first1=Susan Verma |last2=Ray |first2=Himanshu Prabha |title=The Archaeology of Sacred Spaces: The temple in western India, 2nd century BCE–8th century CE |date=2016 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-1-317-19374-6 |page=6 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=CtDLDAAAQBAJ&pg=PA6 |language=en}}</ref> He is shown wielding a mace and a plough.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Bopearachchi |first1=Osmund |title=Emergence of Viṣṇu and Śiva Images in India: Numismatic and Sculptural Evidence |url=https://www.academia.edu/25807197 |language=en}}</ref><ref name="MHA">"Post-Mauryan punch-marked coin" {{cite book |last1=Srinivasan |first1=Doris |title=Many Heads, Arms, and Eyes: Origin, Meaning, and Form of Multiplicity in Indian Art |date=1997 |publisher=BRILL |isbn=978-90-04-10758-8 |page=215 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=vZheP9dIX9wC&pg=PA215 |language=en}}</ref>
}}
{{main|Saṃkarṣaṇa}}

Balarama was anciently a powerful local deity named [[Samkarshana]], associated with the local cult of the [[Vrishni heroes]] in [[Mathura]] from around the 4th century BCE.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Rosenfield |first1=John M. |title=The Dynastic Arts of the Kushans |date=1967 |publisher=University of California Press |pages=151–152 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=udnBkQhzHH4C&pg=PA152 |language=en}}</ref><ref name="US438">{{cite book |last1=Singh |first1=Upinder |title=A History of Ancient and Early Medieval India: From the Stone Age to the 12th Century |date=2008 |publisher=Pearson Education India |isbn=978-81-317-1677-9 |page=438 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Pq2iCwAAQBAJ&pg=PA438 |language=en}}</ref> The concept of the avatars of Vishnu formed during the [[Kushan Empire|Kushan]] period in the 3rd to 2nd century CE.<ref name="US439">{{cite book |last1=Singh |first1=Upinder |title=A History of Ancient and Early Medieval India: From the Stone Age to the 12th Century |date=2008 |publisher=Pearson Education India |isbn=978-81-317-1677-9 |page=439 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Pq2iCwAAQBAJ&pg=PA439 |language=en}}</ref>

Coins dated to about 185-170 BCE belonging to the Indo-Greek King [[Agathocles of Bactria|Agathocles]] show Balarama's iconography and Greek inscriptions. Balarama-Samkarshana is typically shown standing with a gada in his right hand and holding a plough in his left. On the other side of these coins is [[Vāsudeva-Krishna]] holding the conch and chakra.

[[File:Rama Krishna at Chilas.jpg|thumb|left|upright|(Bala)rama and Krishna with their attributes at [[Chilas]]. The [[Kharoshthi]] inscription nearby reads ''Rama [kri]ṣa''. 1st century CE.<ref name="DS215">{{cite book |last1=Srinivasan |first1=Doris |title=Many Heads, Arms, and Eyes: Origin, Meaning, and Form of Multiplicity in Indian Art |date=1997 |publisher=BRILL |isbn=978-90-04-10758-8 |page=215 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=vZheP9dIX9wC&pg=PA215 |language=en}}</ref>]]
{{multiple image|perrow=2|total_width=300|caption_align=center
| align    = right
| direction =horizontal
| header=Balarama on Indo-Greek coins<br>
<small>(190-180 BCE)</small>
| image1   = Coin of the Bactrian King Agathokles.jpg
| footer_align = center
| footer=Coin of [[Agathocles of Bactria]] with depiction of Balarama, 190-180 BCE.<ref name="books.google.com">Iconography of Balarāma, Nilakanth Purushottam Joshi, Abhinav Publications, 1979, p.22 [https://books.google.com/books?id=5vd-lKzyFg0C&pg=PA22]</ref><ref name="Bopearachchi">[[Osmund Bopearachchi]], 2016, [https://www.academia.edu/25807197/Emergence_of_Vi%E1%B9%A3%E1%B9%87u_and_%C5%9Aiva_Images_in_India_Numismatic_and_Sculptural_Evidence Emergence of Viṣṇu and Śiva Images in India: Numismatic and Sculptural Evidence]</ref> This is "the earliest unambiguous image" of the two deities.<ref name="DS215"/><br>'''Obv''' Balarama-[[Samkarshana]] with Greek legend: ΒΑΣΙΛΕΩΣ ΑΓΑΘΟΚΛΕΟΥΣ "King Agathocles".<ref>{{cite book|author=Benjamín Preciado-Solís|title=The Kṛṣṇa Cycle in the Purāṇas: Themes and Motifs in a Heroic Saga|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=JvCaWvjGDVEC&pg=PA155 |year=1984|publisher=Motilal Banarsidass |isbn=978-0-89581-226-1|pages=155, see Plate 2}}</ref><br>'''Rev''' [[Vāsudeva-Krishna]] with [[Brahmi]] legend ''Rajane Agathukleyasasa'' "King Agathocles".
}}
At [[Chilas]] II archeological site dated to the first half of 1st-century CE in northwest Pakistan, near Afghanistan border, are engraved two males along with many Buddhist images nearby. The larger of the two males hold a plough and club in his two hands. The artwork also has an inscription with it in Kharosthi script, which has been deciphered by scholars as ''Rama-Krsna'', and interpreted as an ancient depiction of the two brothers Balarama and Krishna.<ref>{{cite book|author=Doris Srinivasan|title=Many Heads, Arms, and Eyes: Origin, Meaning, and Form of Multiplicity in Indian Art|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=vZheP9dIX9wC |year=1997|publisher=BRILL Academic|isbn=90-04-10758-4|pages=214–215 with footnotes}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|author=Jason Neelis|title=Early Buddhist Transmission and Trade Networks: Mobility and Exchange Within and Beyond the Northwestern Borderlands of South Asia|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=GB-JV2eOr2UC |year=2010|publisher=BRILL Academic|isbn=978-90-04-18159-5|pages=271–272}}</ref> The early Balarama images found in Jansuti (Mathura, Uttar Pradesh) and two at Tumain (Ashoknagar, Madhya Pradesh) are dated to 2nd/1st-century BCE and these show Balarama holding a ''Hala'' (plough) and a ''musala'' (pestle) in his two hands.<ref>{{cite book|author=Julia Shaw|title=Buddhist Landscapes in Central India: Sanchi Hill and Archaeologies of Religious and Social Change, c. Third Century BC to Fifth Century AD|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=IUbUDAAAQBAJ |year=2016|publisher=Taylor & Francis|isbn=978-1-315-43263-2|page=lxxix}}</ref>

In all of these early depictions, Balarama-Samkarsana seems to hold a senior position over Vāsudeva-Krishna.<ref name=" DS215"/> On the coins of [[Agathocles of Bactria]], Balarama is on the front of the coin (the side with a legend in Greek), whereas Vāsudeva-Krishna is on the reverse ([[Brahmi]] side).<ref name=" DS215"/> At Chilas, Balarama is shown taller and bigger than Vāsudeva-Krishna.<ref name=" DS215"/> The same relationship is also visible in the hierarchy of the Vrishni heroes.<ref name="DS215"/>

In some Indian ancient arts and texts, Balarama (Sankarsana) and Krishna (Vasudeva) are two of the five heroes (''Pancaviras of the Vrishnis'').<ref name="upinder437">{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=H3lUIIYxWkEC|title=A History of Ancient and Early Medieval India: From the Stone Age to the 12th Century|author=Upinder Singh|publisher=Pearson|year=2008|isbn=978-81-317-1120-0|pages=437}}</ref> The other three differ by the text. In some those are "Pradyumna, Samba and Aniruddha",<ref>{{cite book|author=T. Richard Blurton|title=Hindu Art|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=xJ-lzU_nj_MC&pg=PA50 |year=1993|publisher=Harvard University Press|isbn=978-0-674-39189-5|page=50}}</ref> in others "Anadhrsti, Sarana and Viduratha".<ref>{{cite book|author=Parmanand Gupta|title=Geography from Ancient Indian Coins & Seals|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=LzHpZ5N5MhcC |year=1989|publisher=Concept |isbn=978-81-7022-248-4|pages=57–59}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|author=Lavanya Vemsani |title=Krishna in History, Thought, and Culture: An Encyclopedia of the Hindu Lord of Many Names |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=4fw2DAAAQBAJ&pg=PA11|year=2016|publisher=ABC-CLIO|isbn=978-1-61069-211-3|pages=11, 203, 239}}</ref> The 1st-century [[Mora well inscription]] near Mathura, dated between 10 and 25 CE, mention the installation of five Vrishni heroes in a stone temple.<ref>{{cite book|author=Edwin F. Bryant|title=Krishna: A Sourcebook|url= https://books.google.com/books?id=HVDqCkW1WpUC |year=2007 |publisher= Oxford University Press|isbn= 978-0-19-972431-4|pages=18 note 19}}</ref>

[[File:Balarama Avatar on a brass chariot of Searsole Rajbari, West Bengal, India.jpg|thumb|Balarama Avatar on a brass chariot of Searsole Rajbari, West Bengal, India]]
The earliest surviving southeast Asian artwork related to Balarama is from the Phnom Da collection, near Angkor Borei in [[Cambodia]]'s lower [[Mekong Delta]] region.<ref>Nancy Dowling (1999), [http://hl-128-171-57-22.library.manoa.hawaii.edu/bitstream/10125/17119/1/AP-v38n1-51-61.pdf A new date for the Phnom Da images and its implications for early Cambodia] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190331191949/http://hl-128-171-57-22.library.manoa.hawaii.edu/bitstream/10125/17119/1/AP-v38n1-51-61.pdf |date=31 March 2019 }}, ''Asian Perspectives'', University of Hawaii Press, Volume 38, Number 1, pages 54–57</ref><ref>{{cite book|author1=John Guy|author2=Pierre Baptiste|author3=Lawrence Becker|display-authors=et al|title=Lost Kingdoms: Hindu-Buddhist Sculpture of Early Southeast Asia |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=gCw_AwAAQBAJ  |year=2014|publisher=Yale University Press|isbn=978-0-300-20437-7|pages=146–148}}</ref>