behaving with an easy naturalness of manner and obtaining from them an
intense devotion. This devotion is excited by everything he does and
whether as a baby crying for the breast, a little boy pilfering butter or
a young man teasing the married girls, he exerts a magnetic charm. At no
time does he neglect his prime duty of killing demons but this is
subordinated to his innocent delight in living. He is shown as impatient
with old and stereotyped forms of worship, as scorning ordinary morality
and treating love as paramount. Although he acts continually with princely
dignity and is always aware of his true character as Vishnu, his impact on
others is based more on the understanding of their needs than on their
recognition of him as God. When, at times, Krishna the cowherd is adored
as God, he has already been loved as a boy and a young man. In the later
story, this early charm is missing. Krishna is frequently recognized to
be God and is continually revered and respected as a man. His conduct is
invariably resolute but there is a kind of statesmanlike formality about
his actions. He is respectful towards ritual, formal observances and
Brahmans while in comparison with his encounters with the cowgirls his
relations with women have an air of slightly stagnant luxury. His wives
and consorts lavish on him their devotion but the very fact that they are
married removes the romantic element from their relationship.

Such vital differences are only partially resolved in the _Bhagavata
Purana_. Representing as they do two different conceptions of Krishna's
character, it is inevitable that the resulting account should be slightly
biased in one direction or the other. The _Bhagavata Purana_ records both
phases in careful detail blending them into a single organic whole. But
there can be little doubt that its Brahman authors were in the main more
favourably inclined towards the hero prince than towards the cowherd
lover. There is a tendency for the older Krishna to disparage the younger.
Krishna the prince's subsequent meetings with the cowgirls are shown as