About
Putana — Demoness Slain by the Infant Krishna
Putana · Ratnamala (in her previous birth)
Putana was a rakshasi sent by King Kamsa of Mathura to kill the infant Krishna by disguising herself as a beautiful woman and offering him poisoned milk from her breast. Instead, the infant Krishna drew out her life along with her milk, killing her, and her death is remembered as the first of the many demonic threats Krishna overcame in his infancy and childhood in Gokula. Despite her murderous intent, Putana is honored in Vaishnava tradition as one of Krishna's foster-mothers, since she gave him her breast milk, and her story, recounted in the Bhagavata Purana, the Harivamsha, the Vishnu Purana, and the Brahma Vaivarta Purana, is read as an example of how even an act performed with evil intent can bring spiritual liberation when directed, however unwillingly, toward God.
✦ The Name
Putana derives from a Sanskrit root associated with putrefaction or decay, a name fitting the poison and death she brought to countless infants before her own destruction. The Vishnu Purana associates her further with darkness and the absence of illuminating knowledge, describing her quivering earrings as a symbol of her inner instability.
✦ Lineage
- Father (in one tradition, as Ratnamala): the Daitya king Mahabali, son of Virochana and grandson of the celebrated Vishnu-devotee Prahlada, later dispossessed of his kingdom by Vishnu's Vamana avatar.
✦ Previous Birth as Ratnamala
The Brahma Vaivarta Purana relates that Putana, in an earlier existence, was Ratnamala, kinswoman of the Daitya king Mahabali, son of Virochana and grandson of Prahlada; the Brahma Vaivarta Purana itself describes her as Mahabali's younger sister, while the Garga Samhita instead calls her his daughter. Upon beholding Vamana, Vishnu's dwarf avatar who came to Mahabali's sacrificial assembly and would soon reclaim the three worlds from him, Ratnamala felt a sudden desire to have him as her own son and to nurse him at her breast. Vishnu, moved by her wish and by his regard for her devoted kinsman Mahabali, promised that her desire would be fulfilled. But when Vamana went on to strip Mahabali of his entire kingdom in his three cosmic strides, Ratnamala's affection turned to fury, and she resolved that if she ever did have him as her child, she would kill him rather than nurse him. Krishna, aware of both desires within her, is said to have permitted her, in her later birth as Putana, to fulfill each in turn: to suckle him as an infant, and to attempt to take his life.
✦ The Mission from Kamsa
After learning that the child destined to kill him had been born and hidden from him, Kamsa, ruler of Mathura, dispatched Putana to seek out and kill every infant under ten days old across his kingdom and its neighboring territories, in hopes of eliminating the prophesied child among them. Putana carried out this task ruthlessly across many villages before making her way to Gokula, the settlement of the cowherd chief Nanda, where the infant Krishna had been secretly brought for safekeeping.
✦ The Poisoned Milk
Disguising herself as a beautiful young woman, Putana entered Gokula, where her radiant appearance led the cowherds to mistake her for a manifestation of the goddess Lakshmi. She made her way to Nanda's house, and Krishna's foster-mother Yashoda, struck by the stranger's beauty and apparent gentleness, allowed her to take the infant into her lap and nurse him. Putana had smeared her breast with a deadly poison, intending to kill Krishna as he fed. Instead, the infant Krishna drew from her not only her milk but her very life force, clinging to her breast with such force that she cried out in agony, fled from the house still carrying him, and finally collapsed dead outside the village, her enormous true rakshasi form crushing trees for a considerable distance around her as she fell.
✦ Cremation and Liberation
The people of Gokula, discovering the monstrous body, cut it into pieces, burying the bones and feet and burning the flesh and skin. The fragrant smoke rising from this cremation was understood as a sign that Putana, despite her murderous intent, had been cleansed of her sins through the act of breastfeeding Krishna, and she is said to have attained the same heavenly abode granted to Yashoda herself, on account of having performed, however unwittingly, an act of maternal devotion toward the divine child.
✦ Theological Significance
Putana's episode is read in Vaishnava tradition as an illustration of the redemptive power of any contact with Krishna, however hostile in intent, and is frequently cited as assurance that even an act performed against God, if it engages him directly, can lead to liberation. The story has also been interpreted as symbolizing an infantile ailment overcome by the child, or as a psychological figure for the destructive aspect of the maternal image that must be confronted and set aside for healthy development, distinguishing this "bad mother" figure from the nurturing image represented by Yashoda.
✦ Connection to the Wider Genealogy
As one of several demons dispatched by Kamsa, Krishna's maternal uncle and the ruler of Mathura, Putana's episode is woven into the wider conflict between Krishna and Kamsa that runs through Krishna's childhood in Gokula and Vrindavana, the household of Nanda and Yashoda. Her identification, in the Brahma Vaivarta Purana, as the previous birth of Ratnamala, daughter of the asura king Bali, further connects her story back to the earlier cycle of Vishnu's Vamana avatar and his defeat of Bali.
✦ References
- Bhagavata Purana (Canto 10, chapter 6): principal primary source for Putana's mission, her death at Krishna's hands, and her cremation and liberation.
- Harivamsha: parallel primary account of the Putana episode within the wider Gokula narrative.
- Vishnu Purana: primary source for the symbolic reading of Putana as darkness and the absence of knowledge.
- Brahma Vaivarta Purana: primary source for Putana's previous birth as Ratnamala, daughter of Bali, and her earlier encounter with Vamana.
- Wikipedia, "Putana": secondary summary consolidating the textual accounts and scholarly interpretations of the episode.
- Britannica, "Putana": secondary confirmation of the core Bhagavata Purana narrative.