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Course: Asian Art Museum > Unit 1
Lesson 2: Hinduism- Roots of Hinduism
- Beliefs of Hinduism
- Hinduism and the practice of faith
- Hindu temples
- Principal texts of Hinduism
- Principal deities of Hinduism
- The Hindu deity Shiva
- Hindu deity Shiva as destroyer of the three cities of the demons
- Hindu Deity Shiva in the Fierce form of Bhairava
- Hindu deity Vishnu
- The Hindu deities Vishnu and Krishna
- The Hindu deity Vishnu in the form of the man-lion Narasimha
- Festival of the Goddess Durga
- Hindu deity Durga victorious over the buffalo demon
- The Hindu deity Ganesha
- Brahmani
- Varanasi: sacred city
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The Hindu deities Vishnu and Krishna
Learn about the Hindu deity Vishnu and his avatar Krishna, and hear a story about Krishna defeating the serpent Kaliya. Learn more about Hindu deities on education.asianart.org.
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- Total novice here. The depictions in the above video show much dancing posture, however, I thought Lord Shiva was associated with this. Can any diety be depicted dancing?(7 votes)
- Most Gods are shown dancing, however Shivji is shown the most often, it depends actually on the statue maker, while any gods can be shown dancing(3 votes)
- How do you identify whether the subject of the art is supposed to be Krishna or somebody else, if Krishna/Vishnu keeps changing forms?(4 votes)
- well thing it that, Yeah they do keep changing shapes but there r some things that they have in particular with them like when lord vishnu is shown without any incarnation or in his true raw form he have a big rotation ring in his index finger(i do not remember which hand ).when he incarnated as krishna he is often shown to wield a flute or will be standing crossed legged and etc etc there are many things. his each form have one of unique characteristics .(4 votes)
- How do they make lines on stones? With only a pickeks?(5 votes)
- The stories they said are common in my place in India (Where I used to live).(3 votes)
- this shouldn't be restricted(1 vote)
- If someone's courage is boosted by a belif that someone is always behind you for your good then why you would restrict this(1 vote)
- The Krishna of India is similar depicted with snakes. Similarly , so is the Blessed mother pictured standing on top of snakes. Is the he the same as Harry Krishna of the nineteen sixties flower children? Just curious. CCL(1 vote)
- The Krishna of India is, indeed, the same as the Hari (not Harry) Krishna of traditional Hinduism which was picked up by flower children in the 60s in Europe and America. As for the blessed mother standing on snakes, that's based on a Bible verse or 2.(1 vote)
- This is good. But, they didn't talk about Vishnu's tongue... Or am I thinking about the wrong deity?(1 vote)
Video transcript
you you mission is traditional wall in Hinduism is as the preserver of the universe as a world passes through cycle after cycle he keeps an observant eye on what's going on and he assumes these avatars as a way to descend down to earth and intercede when there is a crisis Vishnu's incarnations include the popular forms of Rama and Krishna but they also include half-animal half-human forms such as varaha and not a simple the people still choose one deity that they feel are more comfortable and in my family it was Krishna which is the incarnation of Vishnu Krishna is easily represented by stories so you can see him playing flute and maybe he is also shown with cows and maybe the cowherd is Krishna's life story was a very popular subject for manuscripts in India and we see a number of painted versions of his life and many of these scenes will depict him demonstrating his strength and this is something that he demonstrates from the time he's an infant through adulthood Krishna and many of these paintings is blue in color is a reference to his name because Krishna means the dark one and this dark color is an aspect that's associated with Vishnu it represents infinity and eternity there was a snake serpent called Kalia and he had become very powerful and he used to hiss and frighten the people of who lived on the banks of the Yamuna River and the people were afraid to go for their bath in the river so Krishna was a mere boy at that time so he climbed a tree on the bank of the river and from there he jumped on the head of the serpent and performed a dance there subdued him and then this happened beg for mercy and the Serpent's wives came and pleaded with Krishna to let him go not destroy him so Krishna said well it's not very nice to frighten people like that go and live peacefully somewhere else do not bother us here you