Putana

Character Overview

Putana is a rakshasi (demonic woman) who appears in the childhood-lila (divine play) of Krishna. She took the form of a beautiful nurse and came to Gokul with the intention of poisoning the baby Krishna by offering him her milk. The Bhagavata Purana and other Puranic retellings describe her as powerful, deceptive, and skilled in sorcery, yet also touched by a strange yearning to come close to the Lord. Her story is brief but theologically rich: it raises questions about intention, grace, and the transforming power of divine contact.

Relationship with Krishna

Putana's relationship with Krishna is paradoxical. On the surface she is an enemy who seeks the child's life. Yet, when she nurses the infant, Krishna draws out her life together with the poisonous milk. In that act Krishna simultaneously removes the poison and liberates the rakshasi from her demonic bondage. Many devotional commentators note that her desire to nurse the Divine, however perverse in motive, carried a hidden thread of longing that Krishna answered with mercy. Thus she is remembered not only as a defeated adversary but also as one who received the Lord's grace at the moment of death.

Notable Conversations and Incidents

• The Arrival: Putana arrives in Gokul disguised as a loving nurse, carrying gifts and milk to gain access to the infant. Her disguise and offerings enable her to approach Krishna without immediate suspicion.
• The Poisoned Offering: She nurses Krishna intending to poison him. The scriptures describe the milk as laced with her venom and curse, a weapon meant to end the child's life.
• The Divine Response: Krishna draws the milk and, with it, the life of Putana. In some commentaries she cries out and realizes that the child is no ordinary baby. Her death is described as simultaneous destruction and purification—her demonic form falls away and she attains a form of liberation.
• Aftermath and Liberation: Textual traditions report that because her act included the physical contact of nursing the Divine, a germ of devotional longing led to her deliverance. This incident is often cited in theological reflection on how contact with God can transform even a hostile soul.

Interesting Facts and Nuances

• Name meaning: Some traditional etymologies link her name to the idea of purification (from roots suggesting cleansing), creating a layered irony: the one who brought poison becomes purified by the Lord.
• Ambiguous moral teaching: Putana's story is used in devotional literature to show that even wrongful acts can be a means of encountering divine grace when the heart contains some yearning for the Lord.
• Iconography and folk memory: In popular retellings and folk art, Putana is often shown as a fearsome demon beside the laughing child-Krishna, emphasizing the contrast between malice and divine innocence.
• Textual restraint: The core details—her disguise, the poisoned milk, Krishna's drawing out her life, and her subsequent release—are consistently presented in Purāṇic sources. Care is taken here not to elaborate beyond those scriptural points.

Legacy and Lessons

Putana's episode is a compact teaching: the Lord's mercy is such that even a hostile being may be uplifted by contact with the Divine. Devotional readers find in her story a reminder of Krishna's power to purify and to see deeper roots of intention. Teachers often point to Putana when speaking of transformation—evil is not merely punished, it can also be redeemed. Her memory in the Krishna tradition invites both caution (about hidden dangers) and hope (for the universality of divine compassion).