> [[mcgrath]]. *Heroic Kṛṣṇa: Friendship in Epic Mahābhārata*. [[chs]], 2013. > [hup.harvard.edu](https://www.hup.harvard.edu/catalog.php?isbn=9780674073333) > [pdf](a/mcgrath2013.pdf) ## Abstract > _Heroic Kṛṣṇa_ is a portrait of a pre-Hindu and pre-classical figure of a superhuman hero who in time became the divinity Krsna, an incarnation of Visnu. This is a picture, drawn from the epic _Mahābhārata_, of an archaic warrior who excelled as a charioteer; in fact this is the best depiction that we presently possess in any epic _corpus_ of a charioteer type. Krsna is also described in his role of moral instructor, as poet and ambassador, and in the office of dual kingship with the _dharmaraja_ Yudhisthira. There is no other representation of a complex friendship in the poem apart from what exists between Krsna and Arjuna, and this profound amity is completely founded on the activity of a charioteer and his hero. Cultural and poetic continuities from the Bronze Age Vedic world are shown to exist in this model of duality. Krsna is also an adept of the _speech-act_, for—apart from his charioteering—he accomplishes little in the epic except via the causality of speech: he is a master of “doing things with words.” This book illustrates a heroic life which pre-exists the divine status of one of the most popular Indian deities of today.