In Hindu mythology

Hindu mythology

Hindu religious literature is the large body of traditional narratives related to Hinduism, notably as contained in Sanskrit literature, such as the Sanskrit epics and the Puranas. As such, it is a subset of Nepali and Indian culture...

, Putana (Sanskrit

Sanskrit

Sanskrit , is a historical Indo-Aryan language and the primary liturgical language of Hinduism, Jainism and Buddhism.Buddhism: besides Pali, see Buddhist Hybrid Sanskrit Today, it is listed as one of the 22 scheduled languages of India and is an official language of the state of Uttarakhand...

: Pūtanā, lit. "putrefaction") is a Rakshasi

Rakshasa

A Rakshasa or alternatively rakshas, is a race of mythological humanoid beings or unrighteous spirit in Hindu and Buddhist religion...

 (demoness), who is killed by the infant-god Krishna

Krishna

Krishna is a central figure of Hinduism and is traditionally attributed the authorship of the Bhagavad Gita. He is the supreme Being and considered in some monotheistic traditions as an Avatar of Vishnu...

. Putana is also considered as a foster-mother of Krishna as she breast-fed him, though it was with the motive of killing Krishna by poisoned milk. By offering her milk, Putana had performed "the supreme act of maternal devotion", in the shadow of her evil motives. The myth is told and retold in Hindu scriptures and some Indian books, which portray her variously as an evil hag or a demoness who surrendered herself to Krishna, though she initially came with evil motives.

Putana is interpreted as an infantile disease or bird, symbolizing danger to an infant or desire respectively, and even as a symbolic bad mother. She is included in a group of malevolent Hindu mother goddesses called the Matrikas

Matrikas

Matrikas , also called Matara and Matris , are a group of Hindu goddesses who are always depicted together. Since they are usually depicted as a heptad, they are called Saptamatrikas : Brahmani, Vaishnavi, Maheshvari, Indrani, Kaumari, Varahi and Chamunda or Narasimhi...

 and also in the group of Yogini

Yogini

Yogini is the complete form source word of the masculine yogi- and neutral/plural "yogin." Far from being merely a gender tag to the all things yogi, "Yogini" represents both a female master practitioner of Yoga, and a formal term of respect for a category of modern female spiritual teachers in...

s and Grahinis (Seizers). Ancient Indian medical texts prescribe her worship to protect children from diseases. A group of multiple Putanas is mentioned in ancient Indian texts.

Etymology

The word "Pūtanā", broken as "Pūt" (virtue) and "nā" (no) means "devoid of virtue". Another explanation derives "Pūtanā" from "Pūta" (purifying), thus meaning "she who purifies". Herbert theorizes "Pūtanā" is derived from "Put", a hell in Hindu mythology, associated with parents and children. Thus, Herbert proposes, on basis of the etymology and her association with the Matrikas, Putana is closely linked to motherhood. White translated Putana as "stinky", and relates it to pustulant sores, the eruption of which is a symptom of chicken pox. Putana is also the name of the weapon of or a form of the goddess of small pox, Sitala

Shitala Devi

Shitala , also called Sitala , is a Hindu goddess widely worshipped in North India, West Bengal, Nepal, Bangladesh and Pakistan as the pox-goddess. Shitala Devi literally means the cold Goddess.-Name and variants:...

.

Legend

The legend of Putana and Krishna is narrated in many Hindu texts: Bhagavata Purana

Bhagavata purana

The Bhāgavata Purāṇa is one of the "Maha" Puranic texts of Hindu literature, with its primary focus on bhakti to the incarnations of Vishnu, particularly Krishna...

, Harivamsa

Harivamsa

The Harivamsha is an important work of Sanskrit literature, containing 16,374 verses, mostly in metre. The text is also known as . This text is believed as a khila to the Mahabharata and is traditionally ascribed to Krishna Dvaipayana Veda Vyasa...

 (part of Mahabharata

Mahabharata

The Mahabharata is one of the two major Sanskrit epics of ancient India and Nepal, the other being the Ramayana. The epic is part of itihasa....

), Brahma Vaivarta Purana

Brahma Vaivarta Purana

Brahma Vaivarta Purana, one of the major eighteen Puranas, a Hindu religious text, is divided into four parts. First part describes the creation of the universe and all beings, the second part relates to description and histories of different goddesses...

, Vishnu Purana

Vishnu Purana

The Vishnu Purana is a religious Hindu text and one of the eighteen Mahapuranas. It is considered one of the most important Puranas and has been given the name Puranaratna...

, Garga Samhita

Garga Samhita

Garga Samhita is a book written by the sage Garga and deals with the life of Krishna. This Garga Samhita is different from the astrological treatise with the same name Garga Samhita. Only fragments of the astrological text with the name Garga samhita is available; but the whole of the devotional...

 and Prem Sagar.

Putana(also called as poothani), the "killer of infants", was sent by Krishna's evil uncle Kamsa

Kamsa

In Hinduism, Kamsa or Kansa , often known as Kans in Hindi, is the brother of Devaki, and ruler of the Vrishni kingdom with its capital at Mathura. His father was King Ugrasena and mother was Queen Padmavati...

 to kill Krishna. Putana assumed the disguise of a young, beautiful woman and came to Gokul

Gokul

-In Vedic Scripture:-Geography:Gokul is located at . It has an average elevation of 163 metres .-Demographics: India census, Gokul had a population of 4041. Males constitute 55% of the population and females 45%. Gokul has an average literacy rate of 60%, higher than the national average of...

 (Vraj) - Krishna's home-town. Her beauty resulted in her being mistaken by gopas (cowherds) as a manifestation of goddess Lakshmi

Lakshmi

Lakshmi or Lakumi is the Hindu goddess of wealth, prosperity , light, wisdom, fortune, fertility, generosity and courage; and the embodiment of beauty, grace and charm. Representations of Lakshmi are also found in Jain monuments...

. Stunned by her beauty, Krishna's foster-mother Yashoda allowed Putana to take the infant Krishna in her lap and suckle him. Putana had smeared her breast with an mandana, an intoxicant, to kill Krishna. However, Krishna squeezed her breasts and sucked her life (prana

Prana

Prana is the Sanskrit word for "vital life" .It is one of the five organs of vitality or sensation, viz. prana "breath", vac "speech", chakshus "sight", shrotra "hearing", and manas "thought" Prana is the Sanskrit word for "vital life" (from the root "to fill", cognate to Latin plenus...

), as well as her milk. In pain, Putana screamed, pleading for her release, but in vain. She ran out of the town with Krishna still clinging to her and finally fell dead. She then assumed her real demonic form, turning trees to the distance of three gavyuti (a unit of distance equivalent totally to 12 miles) to dust. The people of Vraj cut Putana's body, burying her bones and feet and burning the flesh and skin. The fragrant smoke rose out of the flames, as Putana was cleansed of all sin by breast-feeding Krishna and she attained the same heaven that Yashoda acquired. Thus, Putana, like Yashodha, is also considered as a foster-mother of Krishna as she breast-fed him.

In later versions of the myth, the intoxicant smearing on Putana's breast is replaced with poison or the milk itself is said to be poisoned. Another version of the tale portrays Putana as stealing Krishna at night, when everyone else is asleep.

K. M. Munshi had a totally different take on the myth in his Krishnavatara series. Though Putana came with evil intentions, she is portrayed as being happy to see Krishna and her maternal instinct rises, telling her "Take this lovely boy to your breast. You are wicked and miserable woman. You have never seen joy before, joy which thrills your whole body and mind with mad delight." Overjoyed and forgetful of her poisoned breasts, she took Krishna in her lap and suckled him. In the process, she surrenders to Krishna saying "I give you all, my beloved child... I am yours." Further, Putana is purified and liberated from her mortal body by Krishna.

Previous birth

Garga Samhita

Garga Samhita

Garga Samhita is a book written by the sage Garga and deals with the life of Krishna. This Garga Samhita is different from the astrological treatise with the same name Garga Samhita. Only fragments of the astrological text with the name Garga samhita is available; but the whole of the devotional...

 and Brahma Vaivarta Purana further tell of the previous birth of Putana as Ratnamala, the daughter of demon king Bali

Mahabali

Mahabali , also known as Bali or Māveli was a benevolent Asura King, and the grandson of Prahlada. The festival of Onam commemorates his yearly homecoming after being sent down to the underworld by Vamana, the fifth avatar of Vishnu.-Conquest of the Universe and banishment:Bali, an asura, was the...

. When she saw Vamana

Vamana

Vamana is described in the Puranic texts of Hinduism as the Fifth Avatar of Vishnu, and the first incarnation of the Second Age, or the Treta yuga. Also he is the first Avatar of Vishnu which appears with a completely human form, though it was that of a dwarf brahmin. He is also sometimes known as...

, the previous incarnation

Incarnation

Incarnation literally means embodied in flesh or taking on flesh. It refers to the conception and birth of a sentient creature who is the material manifestation of an entity, god or force whose original nature is immaterial....

 of Krishna as a dwarf, she felt a desire to have him as her son and suckle him. She soon changed her mind and decided to kill Vamana, after he acquired all possessions of Bali. Krishna knew her desires and allowed her to fulfil both of them - to suckle him and to attempt to take his life.

Symbolism

One theory interprets Putana being the first foe faced by Krishna (further numerous demons are sent by Kamsa to kill Krishna) or as the first obstacle of possessive maternal instinct faced by yogi

Yogi

A Yogi is a practitioner of Yoga. The word is also used to refer to ascetic practitioners of meditation in a number of South Asian Religions including Jainism, Buddhism, and Hinduism.-Etymology:...

s. The legend assures a devotee liberation if they treats god as their own son. Another theory interprets Putana as an infantile disease that Krishna survived, which can be cured by forcefully suckling the child affected. Further, the theory relates to Krishna's later life when he fights a demon called Jvara (fever).

In Vishnu Purana, it is explicitly stated that Putana should work in the dark, symbolizing the lack of illumination of knowledge. Her ear-rings are described not as radiant, but as quivering, signifying her unstable nature. Agrawal equates Putana to Varuna

Varuna

In Vedic religion, Varuna is a god of the sky, of water and of the celestial ocean, as well as a god of law and of the underworld...

, the Vedic

Vedic

Vedic may refer to:* the Vedas, the oldest preserved Indic texts** Vedic Sanskrit, the language of these texts** Vedic period, during which these texts were produced** Vedic pantheon of gods mentioned in Vedas/vedic period...

 god of darkness and chaos in the water. As Varuna pollutes life-giving water, Putana mixed her breast milk with poison. Thus, Putana stands for death and darkness. O'Flaherty says:

The myth of Pūtanā is significant not merely for the image it presents ... but for the intensity with which the image is depicted and the frequency with which the myth itself is told in India

India

India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...

.

Kakar further adds:

The secret fantasy of poisoned milk, of nourishment that kills, originates early in life when the decisive separation between child and mother takes place. The elevation of this fantasy,..., to the status of myth for a whole culture indicates the intensity of (this) inner conflict... in the Indian setting.

According to Kakar, Putana may represent a dangerous schizophrenic mother, who has trapped her child in an emotional net, of which he cannot let go. He interprets Krishna clinging to Putana's breast as not only the infant's excitement and anger, but also a form of "incestuous intercourse", as in the killing of other maternal demons. By killing the "bad mother", the son kills "sexually ravenous maternal images in his psyche", leaving the protective images unhurt, and thus emerges as an adult, drawing boundaries between her and him.

Textual descriptions

Putana is defined as yātudhānī at the beginning and the end of Bhagavata Purana

Bhagavata purana

The Bhāgavata Purāṇa is one of the "Maha" Puranic texts of Hindu literature, with its primary focus on bhakti to the incarnations of Vishnu, particularly Krishna...

. Though the word yātudhānī is rarely used, yātudhāna - the masculine form - is frequently used in Hindu scriptures to mean an evil spirit. In the text Rigveda

Rigveda

The Rigveda is an ancient Indian sacred collection of Vedic Sanskrit hymns...

, yātudhānas are to be killed, their body broken and their flesh eaten, just as Putana was treated. The Bhagavata Purana further tells of a milkmaid

Gopi

Gopi is a word of Sanskrit origin meaning 'cow-herd girl'. In Hinduism specifically the name gopi is used more commonly to refer to the group of cow herding girls famous within Vaishnava Theology for their unconditional devotion to Krishna as described in the stories of Bhagavata Purana and...

 narrating a hymn for protection from evil spirits including the Matrikas and Putana, even though Putana is dead. In another instance in the Purana, it is said that Putana and "her tribe" still had access to Krishna. Finally, the whole chapter is called "Deliverance of Putana", and not "Killing of Putana". Both incidences enforce the view that though Putana's mortal body is killed by Krishna, she lives on in the world as a spirit.

In the Mahabharata

Mahabharata

The Mahabharata is one of the two major Sanskrit epics of ancient India and Nepal, the other being the Ramayana. The epic is part of itihasa....

, when mentioned with the Matrikas

Matrikas

Matrikas , also called Matara and Matris , are a group of Hindu goddesses who are always depicted together. Since they are usually depicted as a heptad, they are called Saptamatrikas : Brahmani, Vaishnavi, Maheshvari, Indrani, Kaumari, Varahi and Chamunda or Narasimhi...

 (Mothers) and the war-god Skanda

Murugan

Murugan also called Kartikeya, Skanda and Subrahmanya, is a popular Hindu deity especially among Tamil Hindus, worshipped primarily in areas with Tamil influences, especially South India, Singapore, Sri Lanka, Malaysia, Mauritius and Reunion Island. His six most important shrines in India are the...

, Putana is mentioned as a Protectress Rakshasi, a Grahini (female seizer), as well as a Matrika and Yogini

Yogini

Yogini is the complete form source word of the masculine yogi- and neutral/plural "yogin." Far from being merely a gender tag to the all things yogi, "Yogini" represents both a female master practitioner of Yoga, and a formal term of respect for a category of modern female spiritual teachers in...

. In Harivamsa

Harivamsa

The Harivamsha is an important work of Sanskrit literature, containing 16,374 verses, mostly in metre. The text is also known as . This text is believed as a khila to the Mahabharata and is traditionally ascribed to Krishna Dvaipayana Veda Vyasa...

, an appendix to Mahabharata, she is listed as a Grahini, with a prayer to protect the child at the end. In Agni Purana

Agni Purana

The Agni Purana, one of the 18 Mahapuranas, a genre of Hindu religious texts, contains descriptions and details of various incarnations of Vishnu. It also has details account about Rama, Krishna, Prithvi, and the stars...

, she is mentioned as a Grahini and also a Yogini.

Group of Putanas

The medical text Balatantra mentions Putana as the common name of 16 sisters of the demon king Ravana

Ravana

' is the primary antagonist character of the Hindu legend, the Ramayana; who is the great king of Lanka. In the classic text, he is mainly depicted negatively, kidnapping Rama's wife Sita, to claim vengeance on Rama and his brother Lakshmana for having cut off the nose of his sister...

, who are permitted to eat the flesh of infants. The Buddhist text, Saddharmapundarika Sutra

Lotus Sutra

The Lotus Sūtra is one of the most popular and influential Mahāyāna sūtras, and the basis on which the Tiantai and Nichiren sects of Buddhism were established.-Title:...

 and the 1131 CE encyclopedia Manasollasa by Western Chalukya king Somesvara III

Somesvara III

Somesvara III was a Western Chalukya king and son of Vikramaditya VI and Queen Chandaladevi. A king more inclined towards literature, Someshvara III had to face the invasion of the Hoysala Vishnuvardhana but was able to suppress him...

 lists multiple demons, including a group of Putanas. The Brahmanda Purana

Brahmanda Purana

The Brahmanda Purana is one of the eighteen Mahapuranas, a genre of eighteen Hindu religious texts and has been assigned the eighteenth place in almost all the lists of the Puranas.Brahma in Sanskrit means "the biggest", anda/andam means globe...

 and Harita Samhita mention Putanas as a sub-group of Matrikas and Grahinis, whose individual names include Kali

Kali

' , also known as ' , is the Hindu goddess associated with power, shakti. The name Kali comes from kāla, which means black, time, death, lord of death, Shiva. Kali means "the black one". Since Shiva is called Kāla - the eternal time, Kālī, his consort, also means "Time" or "Death" . Hence, Kāli is...

 and Dakini

Dakini

A dakini is a tantric deity described as a female embodiment of enlightened energy. In the Tibetan language, dakini is rendered khandroma which means 'she who traverses the sky' or 'she who moves in space'. Sometimes the term is translated poetically as 'sky dancer' or 'sky walker'. The dakini, in...

.

In Ayurvedic medicine

The Ayurvedic

Ayurveda

Ayurveda or ayurvedic medicine is a system of traditional medicine native to India and a form of alternative medicine. In Sanskrit, words , meaning "longevity", and , meaning "knowledge" or "science". The earliest literature on Indian medical practice appeared during the Vedic period in India,...

 medical text Sustum Samhita describes Putana as "black in colour, with a gaping mouth and projecting teeth and disheveled hair, clad in filthy garments, very smelly, and dwelling in empty broken-down buildings." It further prescribes an offering of crow dung, fish, a rice dish, ground sesame and alcohol to Putana and recitation of hymns to Putana, urging her to protect the baby, along with other treatments. Kumaratantra ("Rituals related to childhood"), a branch of Ayurveda, specifically mentions that it aims to heal diseases that arise from "empoisoned milk of Seizers" (Grahini), Putana being one. As per Kumaratantra, all childhood diseases falling on third day, the third month, or the third year of a child's life are attributed to Putana, regardless of the disease's symptoms.

Depiction as a bird

Putana is portrayed as a bird in sculpture and myth. Kushan images of Putana as a bird are found in Mathura, Deogarh

Deogarh, Uttar Pradesh

Deogarh is a small farming village near the town of Lalitpur in Lalitpur district, in the state of Uttar Pradesh, India. Located at the border with the former princely state of Gwalior, which is now part of Madhya Pradesh, it is known for its Gupta monuments, located on and near the hill fort on...

 and Mandor. In a third century version of Harivamsa

Harivamsa

The Harivamsha is an important work of Sanskrit literature, containing 16,374 verses, mostly in metre. The text is also known as . This text is believed as a khila to the Mahabharata and is traditionally ascribed to Krishna Dvaipayana Veda Vyasa...

, Putana is called the "nurse of Kamsa

Kamsa

In Hinduism, Kamsa or Kansa , often known as Kans in Hindi, is the brother of Devaki, and ruler of the Vrishni kingdom with its capital at Mathura. His father was King Ugrasena and mother was Queen Padmavati...

", who comes to a child as a female bird (shakuni), and is one of many birdlike female divinities mentioned in Harivamsa. Putana's bird form symbolizes desire of materialistic objectives. In some texts, Putana is described as a Vaki, a female crane, thus a symbol of crookedness and hypocrisy.