Khila · Supplement to the 18 Books · The Mahabharata

Harivamsa

हरिवंश

Harivaṁśa

The Lineage of Hari - the Supplement (Khila)

What is the Harivamsa?

The Harivamsa (हरिवंश) is the khila, the traditional supplement to the eighteen books of the Mahabharata. Its name means “Lineage of Hari - the Supplement (Khila)”, and this site tells 18 stories drawn from it.

Harivamsa Summary

The Mahabharata closes its eighteen books and then keeps talking: the Harivamsa is the epic's own appendix, recited at the same snake sacrifice, tracing the ancestry of Krishna through the line of Yadu and telling in full what the main epic only glances at - the tyranny of Kamsa, the cowherd childhood in Vraja, the flight from Mathura before Jarasandha's armies, and the building of the impregnable sea-city of Dwaraka. It follows the Vrishnis through Krishna's reign, the wars and wonders of the city in the sea, and closes with prophecies of the ages to come. Without the Harivamsa the Mahabharata tells the war; with it, the epic tells the god.

What This Book Is About

  • lineage
  • Krishna
  • Dwaraka
  • the Yadavas
  • supplement

Sub-Books (Upaparvas) of the Harivamsa

The Mahabharata divides itself into one hundred upaparvas; 2 of them belong to this book.

  1. Harivamsa ParvaThe lineage of HariSub-book 99 of 100
  2. Bhavishya ParvaThat which is to comeSub-book 100 of 100

Stories from the Harivamsa

18 stories on this site are told inside this book, in canonical reading order.

  1. The Line of YaduHow the Harivamsa Traces Krishna's Ancestry
  2. The Flight to DwarakaThe City Built in the Sea
  3. The City of DoorsDwaraka Described
  4. Hamsa and DimbhakaThe Two Who Could Not Be Killed
  5. The Second Theft of the SyamantakaShatadhanva's Ride
  6. The Eight Queens of DwarakaThe Marriages of Krishna
  7. The Demon of a Thousand IllusionsThe Fall of Nikumbha
  8. The Actor Spies of DwarakaPradyumna and Prabhavati
  9. The False VasudevaPaundraka, the King Who Dressed as God
  10. The Parijata TreeSatyabhama and the Flower of Heaven
  11. Samba and the Dragged CityBalarama's Plough at the Walls of Hastinapura
  12. The Ape at the GatesBalarama and Dvivida
  13. Balarama and the YamunaThe River Dragged by the Plough
  14. The Hunter Called Old AgeWho Jara Was
  15. Devaki and the Six Who Came BeforeA mother's arms filled for one evening
  16. Yashoda's Second FarewellThe mother of the heart at Syamantapanchaka
  17. Mathura, Cradle of KrishnaThe city of the prison and the festival
  18. Eklavya, King of the NishadasWhat the excluded do with their exclusion

Where This Book Sits

The Harivamsa is book 19 of the eighteen parvas. It follows the Svargarohana Parva, the book of the ascent to heaven. It closes the epic.

See all eighteen parvas of the MahabharataFollow the epic as a timeline