It is a common misconception among many that Lord Krishna had multiple wives, more than 16,000 of them and anti- Hindu miscreants use it to demean Hindiusm. Many people just take it as a free pass to abuse Lord Krishna and question his character. However, these miscreants don’t speak of the complete story and just emphasize over the “16,000” wives. The actual story sheds light on the true character of Lord Krishna as a savior of the masses, one who cared about all as opposed to the image anti- Hindus try to portray.
The actual story is inscribed in the Bhagvata Purana and the Harivamsa (the appendix of Mahabharata). According to it, there was a demon king named ‘Narakasura‘ who ruled in Pragjyotisha (an early state in Assam). He was the son of Vishnu’s boar avatar Varaha and the Earth Goddess Bhumi and was also called as Bhauma or Bhaumasura. He had conquered all the three realms that constitute the universe- earth, heaven, and the under water world, and caused great havoc and chaos. On Earth, he’d abducted 16,000 princesses who belonged to all the kingdoms he’d defeated, in heaven he stole ornaments from Aditi (Lord Indra’s mother) and in the under water world, he layed his hands on Lord Varuna’s (the God of waters) imperial umbrella.
Seeing this tyranny, the King of Gods Lord Indra rushed to Lord Krishna and pleaded him to save the universe from the ongoing reign of terror unleashed by Naraka. At once, Lord Krishna along with his second wife Satyabhama fly on their mount the eagle-man Garuda to Pragjyotisha. Naraka had imprisoned the princesses and kept them hostage at Audaka on the top of the mountain Maniparvata in his kingdom. The kingdom’s entrance was guarded by many terrifying demons including the five-headed Mura and his seven sons. The women were guarded by Naraka’s ten sons.
As Lord Krishna reaches Pragjyotisha, he fights a fierce battle against the powerful demons and slays Mura, his sons, Narakasura’s army and ultimately the demon-king himself, after which he collects all the divine instruments that Naraka stole from the different realms to return them and also liberates the 16,000 princesses. However, when Lord Krishna asked them to return to their homes, they expressed to him that they weren’t in a position to go back due to the prevailing societal norms of that age. They were aware that society would not take back those who were taken by another man and thus they were left with only two choices either to become a prostitute or to commit suicide as they’d become profane due to their capturing by the demon.
Puzzled with what to do to help the princesses, the Lord on the advice of the princesses finally decided to marry all of them by assuming multiple forms in order to give them the status of a married woman and thus enabling them to live in the society with honor and respect. He built them each a flamboyant place with large radiant gardens full of colorful flowers. Further, since it wasn’t possible for him to live with each one of them, he created more than 16,000 forms of himself, one for each princess so that he could treat all of them in the same way as his eight wives.
Hence, Lord Krishna did not actually have 16,000 wives because he wished to do so, but to save them for societal exploitation. Over the years, I’ve heard many so-called ‘liberals’ or ‘woke’ abuse Lord Krishna without even knowing the entire story. It’s a shame that they know nothing about their roots.
