Editing Krishna (section)

=== Versions and interpretations ===
{{multiple image
| align = right
| image1 =  Sri nathji.jpg
| total_width = 380
| image2 = Lord Jagannath Patachitra.jpg
| image3 = Syayambhuvithoba.jpg
| footer = Krishna iconography appears in many versions across India. For example (left to right): Srinath, Jagannath, Vithoba.
}}
There are numerous versions of Krishna's life story, of which three are most studied: the ''Harivamsa'', the ''Bhagavata Purana'', and the ''Vishnu Purana''.{{sfn|Matchett|2001|pp=9–14, 145–149}} They share the basic storyline but vary significantly in their specifics, details, and styles.<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=PA40 |year=1984|publisher=Motilal Banarsidass |isbn=978-0-89581-226-1|page=40}}, Quote: "Within a period of four or five centuries [around the start of the common era], we encounter our major sources of information, all in different versions. The Mahabharata, the Harivamsa, the Visnu Purana, the Ghata Jataka, and the Bala Carita all appear between the first and the fifth century AD, and each of them represents a tradition of a Krsna cycle different from the others".</ref> The most original composition, the ''Harivamsa'' is told in a realistic style that describes Krishna's life as a poor herder but weaves in poetic and [[Allusion|allusive]] fantasy. It ends on a triumphal note, not with the death of Krishna.{{sfn|Matchett|2001|pp=44–49, 63–64, 145}} Differing in some details, the fifth book of the ''Vishnu Purana'' moves away from ''Harivamsa'' realism and embeds Krishna in mystical terms and eulogies.{{sfn|Matchett|2001|pp=89–104, 146}} The ''Vishnu Purana'' manuscripts exist in many versions.{{sfn|Rocher|1986|pp=18, 245–249}}

The tenth and eleventh books of the ''Bhagavata Purana'' are widely considered to be a poetic masterpiece, full of imagination and metaphors, with no relation to the realism of pastoral life found in the ''Harivamsa''. Krishna's life is presented as a cosmic play (''Lila''), where his youth is set as a princely life with his foster father Nanda portrayed as a king.{{sfn|Matchett|2001|pp=108–115, 146–147}} Krishna's life is closer to that of a human being in ''Harivamsa'', but is a symbolic universe in the ''Bhagavata Purana'', where Krishna is within the universe and beyond it, as well as the universe itself, always.{{sfn|Matchett|2001|pp=145–149}} The ''Bhagavata Purana'' manuscripts also exist in many versions, in numerous Indian languages.{{sfn|Rocher|1986|pp=138–149}}{{sfn|Bryant|2007|p=112}}