page_title: Megasthenes' Herakles
section_title: Megasthenes' Herakles as Baladeva
hierarchical_section_title: Megasthenes' Herakles / Megasthenes' Herakles as Baladeva
caption_attribution_description: 17th century mural of Balarama from a wall hanging in an Indian temple.
context_page_description: Megasthenes' Herakles is the conventional name of reference of an ancient Indian deity. Herakles was originally a classical Greek divinity. However, in the aftermath of Alexander the Great's conflicts in North-Western India, an Indian version of this classical Greek deity was identified by Megasthenes, who travelled to India as the ambassador of the Seleucids during the reign of Chandragupta Maurya. Upon visiting Mathurai of the Early Pandyan Kingdom, he described the kingdom as being named after Pandaea, Herakles' only daughter.
context_section_description: James Tod associated Herakles primarily with Baladeva, Krishna's older sibling, but also indicated that Herakles could be associated with both:
  How invaluable such remnants of ancient race of Harikula! How refreshing to the mind yet to discover, amidst the ruins on the Yamuna, Hercules (Baldeva, god of strength) retaining his club and lion's hide, standing on his pedestal at Baldeo, and yet worshipped by Suraseni! This was name given to a large tract of country round Mathura, or rather round Surpura, the ancient capital founded by Surasena, the grandfather of the Indian brother-deities, Krishna and Baldeva, Apollo and Hercules. The title would apply to either; though Baldeva has the attributes of 'god of strength'. Both are es (lords) of the race (kula) of Hari (Hari-kul-es), of which the Greeks might have made the compound Hercules.
  — James Tod, Annals and Antiquities of Rajasthan
caption: 17th-century Baladeva, literally meaning, 'god of strength'. He was the elder brother of Krishna. James Tod associated Megasthenes' Herakles with this ancient Indian deity.
exif: {}