A house
The Yadu–Vrishni
Yadavas, Andhakas, Vrishnis: Krishna’s blood. The war is a Kuru war. The reins are Yadava.
The Yadu–Vrishni are Krishna’s house: Vasudeva and Devaki, Nanda and Yashoda as foster-parents, Balarama transferred to Rohini, Subhadra married into the Pandavas, Satyaki in Arjuna’s line of pupils, Kritavarma on the other side of the same clan.
Krishna will not lift a weapon at Kurukshetra. Balarama will not come at all. Satyaki fights. The clan splits the way a real clan splits, not the way a symbol does.
After the war Gandhari’s curse comes due. Mausala Parva takes Dvaraka in a drunken brawl and a pestle. The family tree does not end at the eighteenth day.
Named figures in this house
- YaduEldest of Yayati; refuses the old age. Krishna’s ancestor.
- SubhadraSister of Krishna and Balarama. Arjuna’s wife. Mother of Abhimanyu.
- VasudevaKunti’s brother. Father of Balarama, Krishna, Subhadra.
- DevakiKamsa’s sister. Mother of Krishna. Her first six children are slain.
- KamsaUsurper of Mathura. Krishna’s maternal uncle. Slays Devaki’s infants; Krishna slays him.
- BalaramaKrishna’s elder brother. Shesha born as a man. Teaches the mace to both Bhima and Duryodhana, then refuses the war.
- KrishnaVasudeva’s eighth child. Vishnu among the Vrishnis. Arjuna’s charioteer. The still centre of the war.
- PradyumnaSon of Krishna and Rukmini. Kama reborn. Father of Aniruddha.
- AniruddhaPradyumna’s son. Loves Usha, daughter of Bana. Grandfather of Vajra, who survives the Yadava end.
- SambaSon of Krishna and Jambavati. The iron pestle that ends the Yadavas is born from his joke.
- SatyakiVrishni warrior, Arjuna’s pupil. Slays Bhurishravas. Dies in the Yadava drunken brawl.
- KritavarmaAndhaka-Vrishni. Fights for Duryodhana. With Ashwatthama and Kripa in the night slaughter.
- YashodaKrishna’s foster-mother in Gokula.
- NandaCowherd chief. Krishna’s foster-father.