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Krishna

Krishna (Sanskrit: कृष्ण, )  is a major deity in Hinduism. He is worshipped as the eighth avatar of Vishnu and also as the Supreme God in his own right. He is the god of protection, compassion, tenderness, and love; and is widely revered among Hindu divinities. Krishna's birthday is celebrated every year by Hindus on Krishna Janmashtami according to the lunisolar Hindu calendar, which falls in late August or early September of the Gregorian calendar.

The anecdotes and narratives of Krishna's life are generally titled as Krishna Līlā. He is a central figure in the Mahabharata, the Bhagavata Purana, the Brahma Vaivarta Purana, and the Bhagavad Gita, and is mentioned in many Hindu philosophical, theological, and mythological texts. They portray him in various perspectives: as a god-child, a prankster, a model lover, a divine hero, and the universal supreme being. His iconography reflects these legends and shows him in different stages of his life, such as an infant eating butter, a young boy playing a flute, a young boy with Radha or surrounded by female devotees, or a friendly charioteer giving counsel to Arjuna.

The name and synonyms of Krishna have been traced to 1stmillenniumBCE literature and cults. In some sub-traditions, like Krishnaism, Krishna is worshipped as the Supreme God and Svayam Bhagavan (God Himself). These sub-traditions arose in the context of the medieval era Bhakti movement. Krishna-related literature has inspired numerous performance arts such as Bharatanatyam, Kathakali, Kuchipudi, Odissi, and Manipuri dance. He is a pan-Hindu god, but is particularly revered in some locations, such as Vrindavan in Uttar Pradesh, Dwarka and Junagadh in Gujarat; the Jagannatha aspect in Odisha, Mayapur in West Bengal; in the form of Vithoba in Pandharpur, Maharashtra, Shrinathji at Nathdwara in Rajasthan, Udupi Krishna in Karnataka, Parthasarathy in Tamil Nadu and in Aranmula, Kerala, and Guruvayoorappan in Guruvayoor in Kerala. Since the 1960s, the worship of Krishna has also spread to the Western world and to Africa, largely due to the work of the International Society for Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON).

Names and epithets
The name "Krishna" originates from the Sanskrit word , which is primarily an adjective meaning "black", "dark", or "dark blue". The waning moon is called Krishna Paksha, relating to the adjective meaning "darkening".

As a name of Vishnu, Krishna is listed as the 57th name in the Vishnu Sahasranama. Based on his name, Krishna is often depicted in idols as black- or blue-skinned. Krishna is also known by various other names, epithets, and titles that reflect his many associations and attributes. Among the most common names are Mohan "enchanter"; Govinda "chief herdsman", Keev "prankster", and Gopala "Protector of the 'Go'", which means "soul" or "the cows". Some names for Krishna hold regional importance; Jagannatha, found in the Puri Hindu temple, is a popular incarnation in Odisha state and nearby regions of eastern India.

Historical and literary sources
The tradition of Krishna appears to be an amalgamation of several independent deities of ancient India, the earliest to be attested being Vāsudeva. Vāsudeva was a hero-god of the tribe of the Vrishnis, belonging to the Vrishni heroes, whose worship is attested from the 5th–6th century BCE in the writings of Pāṇini, and from the 2nd century BCE in epigraphy with the Heliodorus pillar. At one point in time, it is thought that the tribe of the Vrishnis fused with the tribe of the Yadavas/Abhiras, whose own hero-god was named Krishna. Vāsudeva and Krishna fused to become a single deity, which appears in the Mahabharata, and they started to be identified with Vishnu in the Mahabharata and the Bhagavad Gita. Around the 4th century CE, another tradition, the cult of Gopala-Krishna of the Ābhīras, the protector of cattle, was also absorbed into the Krishna tradition.

Depiction in coinage (2nd century BCE)
Around 180 BCE, the Indo-Greek king Agathocles issued some coinage (discovered in Ai-Khanoum, Afghanistan) bearing images of deities that are now interpreted as being related to Vaisnava imagery in India. The deities displayed on the coins appear to be Saṃkarṣaṇa-Balarama with attributes consisting of the Gada mace and the plow, and Vāsudeva-Krishna with attributes of the Shankha (conch) and the Sudarshana Chakra wheel. According to Bopearachchi, the headdress of the deity is actually a misrepresentation of a shaft with a half-moon parasol on top (chattra).

Inscriptions
The Heliodorus Pillar, a stone pillar with a Brahmi script inscription, was discovered by colonial era archaeologists in Besnagar (Vidisha, in the central Indian state of Madhya Pradesh). Based on the internal evidence of the inscription, it has been dated to between 125 and 100BCE and is now known after Heliodorus – an Indo-Greek who served as an ambassador of the Greek king Antialcidas to a regional Indian king, Kasiputra Bhagabhadra. The Heliodorus pillar inscription is a private religious dedication of Heliodorus to "Vāsudeva", an early deity and another name for Krishna in the Indian tradition. It states that the column was constructed by "the Bhagavata Heliodorus" and that it is a "Garuda pillar" (both are Vishnu-Krishna-related terms). Additionally, the inscription includes a Krishna-related verse from chapter11.7 of the Mahabharata stating that the path to immortality and heaven is to correctly live a life of three virtues: self-temperance (damah), generosity (cagah or tyaga), and vigilance (apramadah). The Heliodorus pillar site was fully excavated by archaeologists in the 1960s. The effort revealed the brick foundations of a much larger ancient elliptical temple complex with a sanctum, mandapas, and seven additional pillars. The Heliodorus pillar inscriptions and the temple are among the earliest known evidence of Krishna-Vasudeva devotion and Vaishnavism in ancient India.

The Heliodorus inscription is not isolated evidence. The Hathibada Ghosundi Inscriptions, all located in the state of Rajasthan and dated by modern methodology to the 1stcenturyBCE, mention Saṃkarṣaṇa and Vāsudeva, also mention that the structure was built for their worship in association with the supreme deity Narayana. These four inscriptions are notable for being some of the oldest-known Sanskrit inscriptions.

A Mora stone slab found at the Mathura-Vrindavan archaeological site in Uttar Pradesh, held now in the Mathura Museum, has a Brahmi inscription. It is dated to the 1stcenturyCE and mentions the five Vrishni heroes, otherwise known as Saṃkarṣaṇa, Vāsudeva, Pradyumna, Aniruddha, and Samba.

The inscriptional record for Vāsudeva starts in the 2nd century BCE with the coinage of Agathocles and the Heliodorus pillar, but the name of Krishna appears rather later in epigraphy. At the Chilas II archaeological site dated to the first half of the 1st-century CE in northwest Pakistan, near the Afghanistan border, are engraved two males, along with many Buddhist images nearby. The larger of the two males held a plough and club in his two hands. The artwork also has an inscription with it in Kharosthi script, which has been deciphered by scholars as Rama-Krsna, and interpreted as an ancient depiction of the two brothers, Balarama and Krishna.

The first known depiction of the life of Krishna himself comes relatively late, with a relief found in Mathura, and dated to the 1st–2nd century CE. This fragment seems to show Vasudeva, Krishna's father, carrying baby Krishna in a basket across the Yamuna. The relief shows at one end a seven-hooded Naga crossing a river, where a makara crocodile is thrashing around, and at the other end a person seemingly holding a basket over his head.

Mahabharata
The earliest text containing detailed descriptions of Krishna as a personality is the epic Mahabharata, which depicts Krishna as an incarnation of Vishnu. Krishna is central to many of the main stories of the epic. The eighteen chapters of the sixth book (Bhishma Parva) of the epic that constitute the Bhagavad Gita contain the advice of Krishna to Arjuna on the battlefield.

During the ancient times that the Bhagavad Gita was composed in, Krishna was widely seen as an avatar of Vishnu rather than an individual deity, yet he was immensely powerful and almost everything in the universe other than Vishnu was "somehow present in the body of Krishna". Krishna had "no beginning or end", "fill[ed] space", and every god but Vishnu was seen as ultimately him, including Brahma, "storm gods, sun gods, bright gods", light gods, "and gods of ritual." Other forces also existed in his body, such as "hordes of varied creatures" that included "celestial serpents." He is also "the essence of humanity."

The Harivamsa, a later appendix to the Mahabharata, contains a detailed version of Krishna's childhood and youth.

Other sources
The Chandogya Upanishad (verse III.xvii.6) mentions Krishna in Krishnaya Devakiputraya as a student of the sage Ghora of the Angirasa family. Ghora is identified with Neminatha, the twenty-second tirthankara in Jainism, by some scholars. This phrase, which means "To Krishna the son of Devaki", has been mentioned by scholars such as Max Müller as a potential source of fables and Vedic lore about Krishna in the Mahabharata and other ancient literature – only potential because this verse could have been interpolated into the text, or the Krishna Devakiputra, could be different from the deity Krishna. These doubts are supported by the fact that the much later age Sandilya Bhakti Sutras, a treatise on Krishna, cites later age compilations such as the Narayana Upanishad but never cites this verse of the Chandogya Upanishad. Other scholars disagree that the Krishna mentioned along with Devaki in the ancient Upanishad is unrelated to the later Hindu god of the Bhagavad Gita fame. For example, Archer states that the coincidence of the two names appearing together in the same Upanishad verse cannot be dismissed easily.

Yāska's Nirukta, an etymological dictionary published around the 6thcenturyBCE, contains a reference to the Shyamantaka jewel in the possession of Akrura, a motif from the well-known Puranic story about Krishna. Shatapatha Brahmana and Aitareya-Aranyaka associate Krishna with his Vrishni origins.

In Ashṭādhyāyī, authored by the ancient grammarian Pāṇini (probably belonged to the 5th or 6thcenturyBCE), Vāsudeva and Arjuna, as recipients of worship, are referred to together in the same sutra. Megasthenes, a Greek ethnographer and an ambassador of Seleucus I to the court of Chandragupta Maurya towards the end of 4thcenturyBCE, made reference to Herakles in his famous work Indica. This text is now lost to history, but was quoted in secondary literature by later Greeks such as Arrian, Diodorus, and Strabo. According to these texts, Megasthenes mentioned that the Sourasenoi tribe of India, who worshipped Herakles, had two major cities named Methora and Kleisobora, and a navigable river named the Jobares. According to Edwin Bryant, a professor of Indian religions known for his publications on Krishna, "there is little doubt that the Sourasenoi refers to the Shurasenas, a branch of the Yadu dynasty to which Krishna belonged". The word Herakles, states Bryant, is likely a Greek phonetic equivalent of Hari-Krishna, as is Methora of Mathura, Kleisobora of Krishnapura, and the Jobares of Jamuna. Later, when Alexander the Great launched his campaign in the northwest Indian subcontinent, his associates recalled that the soldiers of Porus were carrying an image of Herakles.

The Buddhist Pali canon and the Ghata-Jâtaka (No. 454) polemically mention the devotees of Vâsudeva and Baladeva. These texts have many peculiarities and may be a garbled and confused version of the Krishna legends. The texts of Jainism mention these tales as well, also with many peculiarities and different versions, in their legends about Tirthankaras. This inclusion of Krishna-related legends in ancient Buddhist and Jaina literature suggests that Krishna theology was existent and important in the religious landscape observed by non-Hindu traditions of ancient India.

The ancient Sanskrit grammarian Patanjali in his Mahabhashya makes several references to Krishna and his associates found in later Indian texts. In his commentary on Pāṇini's verse 3.1.26, he also uses the word Kamsavadha or the "killing of Kamsa", an important part of the legends surrounding Krishna.

Puranas
Many Puranas tell Krishna's life story or some highlights from it. Two Puranas, the Bhagavata Purana and the Vishnu Purana, contain the most elaborate telling of Krishna's story, but the life stories of Krishna in these and other texts vary, and contain significant inconsistencies. The Bhagavata Purana consists of twelve books subdivided into 332chapters, with a cumulative total of between 16,000 and 18,000 verses depending on the version. The tenth book of the text, which contains about 4,000 verses (~25%) and is dedicated to legends about Krishna, has been the most popular and widely studied part of this text.

Iconography
Krishna is represented in the Indian traditions in many ways, but with some common features. His iconography typically depicts him with black, dark, or blue skin, like Vishnu. However, ancient and medieval reliefs and stone-based arts depict him in the natural color of the material out of which he is formed, both in India and in southeast Asia. In some texts, his skin is poetically described as the color of Jambul (Jamun, a purple-colored fruit).

Krishna is often depicted wearing a peacock-feather wreath or crown, and playing the bansuri (Indian flute). In this form, he is usually shown standing with one leg bent in front of the other in the Tribhanga posture. He is sometimes accompanied by cows or a calf, which symbolise the divine herdsman Govinda. Alternatively, he is shown as a romantic young boy with the gopis (milkmaids), often making music or playing pranks.

In other icons, he is a part of battlefield scenes of the epic Mahabharata. He is shown as a charioteer, notably when he is addressing the Pandava prince Arjuna, symbolically reflecting the events that led to the Bhagavad Gita – a scripture of Hinduism. In these popular depictions, Krishna appears in the front as the charioteer, either as a counsel listening to Arjuna or as the driver of the chariot while Arjuna aims his arrows in the battlefield of Kurukshetra.

Alternate icons of Krishna show him as a baby (Bala Krishna, the child Krishna), a toddler crawling on his hands and knees, a dancing child, or an innocent-looking child playfully stealing or consuming butter (Makkan Chor), holding Laddu in his hand (Laddu Gopal) or as a cosmic infant sucking his toe while floating on a banyan leaf during the Pralaya (the cosmic dissolution) observed by sage Markandeya. Regional variations in the iconography of Krishna are seen in his different forms, such as Jaganatha in Odisha, Vithoba in Maharashtra, Shrinathji in Rajasthan and Guruvayoorappan in Kerala.

Guidelines for the preparation of Krishna icons in design and architecture are described in medieval-era Sanskrit texts on Hindu temple arts such as Vaikhanasa agama, Vishnu dharmottara, Brihat samhita, and Agni Purana. Similarly, early medieval-era Tamil texts also contain guidelines for sculpting Krishna and Rukmini. Several statues made according to these guidelines are in the collections of the Government Museum, Chennai.

Krishna iconography forms an important element in the figural sculpture on 17th–19th century terracotta temples of Bengal. In many temples, the stories of Krishna are depicted on a long series of narrow panels along the base of the facade. In other temples, the important Krishnalila episodes are depicted on large brick panels above the entrance arches or on the walls surrounding the entrance.

Life and legends
This summary is an account based on literary details from the Mahābhārata, the Harivamsa, the Bhagavata Purana, and the Vishnu Purana. The scenes from the narrative are set in ancient India, mostly in the present states of Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Rajasthan, Haryana, Delhi, and Gujarat. The legends about Krishna's life are called Krishna charitas (IAST: Kṛṣṇacaritas).

Birth

In the Padma Purana, Vishnu states that he will be born among the Abhiras in his eighth incarnation.

In the Krishna Charitas, Krishna is born to Devaki and her husband, Vasudeva, of the Yadava clan in Mathura. Devaki's brother is a tyrant named Kamsa. At Devaki's wedding, according to Puranic legends, Kamsa is told by fortune tellers that a child of Devaki would kill him. Sometimes, it is depicted as an akashvani announcing Kamsa's death. Kamsa arranges to kill all of Devaki's children. When Krishna is born, Vasudeva secretly carries the infant Krishna away across the Yamuna, and exchanges him with Yashoda's daughter. When Kamsa tries to kill the newborn, the exchanged baby appears as the Hindu goddess Yogamaya, warning him that his death has arrived in his kingdom, and then disappears, according to the legends in the Puranas. Krishna grows up with Nanda and his wife, Yashoda, near modern-day Mathura. Two of Krishna's siblings also survive, namely Balarama and Subhadra, according to these legends. The day of the birth of Krishna is celebrated as Krishna Janmashtami.

Childhood and youth
The legends of Krishna's childhood and youth describe him as a cow-herder, a mischievous boy whose pranks earn him the nickname Makhan Chor (butter thief), and a protector who steals the hearts of the people in both Gokul and Vrindavana. The texts state, for example, that Krishna lifts the Govardhana hill to protect the inhabitants of Vrindavana from devastating rains and floods.

Other legends describe him as an enchanter and playful lover of the gopis (milkmaids) of Vrindavana, especially Radha. These metaphor-filled love stories are known as the Rasa lila and were romanticized in the poetry of Jayadeva, author of the Gita Govinda. They are also central to the development of the Krishna bhakti traditions worshiping Radha Krishna.

Krishna's childhood illustrates the Hindu concept of Lila, playing for fun and enjoyment and not for sport or gain. His interaction with the gopis at the rasa dance or Rasa-lila is an example. Krishna plays his flute and the gopis come immediately, from whatever they were doing, to the banks of the Yamuna River and join him in singing and dancing. Even those who could not physically be there join him through meditation. He is the spiritual essence and the love-eternal in existence, the gopis metaphorically represent the prakṛti matter and the impermanent body.

This Lila is a constant theme in the legends of Krishna's childhood and youth. Even when he is battling with a serpent to protect others, he is described in Hindu texts as if he were playing a game. This quality of playfulness in Krishna is celebrated during festivals as Rasa-Lila and Janmashtami, where Hindus in some regions such as Maharashtra playfully mimic his legends, such as by making human gymnastic pyramids to break open handis (clay pots) hung high in the air to "steal" butter or buttermilk, spilling it all over the group.

Adulthood
Krishna legends then describe his return to Mathura. He overthrows and kills the tyrant king, his maternal uncle Kamsa/Kansa after quelling several assassination attempts by Kamsa. He reinstates Kamsa's father, Ugrasena, as the king of the Yadavas and becomes a leading prince at the court. In one version of the Krishna story, as narrated by Shanta Rao, Krishna after Kamsa's death leads the Yadavas to the newly built city of Dwaraka. Thereafter Pandavas rise. Krishna befriends Arjuna and the other Pandava princes of the Kuru kingdom. Krishna plays a key role in the Mahabharata.

The Bhagavata Purana describes eight wives of Krishna that appear in sequence as Rukmini, Satyabhama, Jambavati, Kalindi, Mitravinda, Nagnajiti (also called Satya), Bhadra and Lakshmana (also called Madra). This has been interpreted as a metaphor where each of the eight wives signifies a different aspect of him. Vaishnava texts mention all Gopis as wives of Krishna, but this is understood as spiritual symbolism of devotional relationship and Krishna's complete loving devotion to each and everyone devoted to him.

In Krishna-related Hindu traditions, he is most commonly seen with Radha. All of his wives and his lover Radha are considered in the Hindu tradition to be the avatars of the goddess Lakshmi, the consort of Vishnu. Gopis are considered as Lakshmi's or Radha's manifestations.

Kurukshetra War and Bhagavad Gita
According to the epic poem Mahabharata, Krishna becomes Arjuna's charioteer for the Kurukshetra War, but on the condition that he personally will not raise any weapon. Upon arrival at the battlefield and seeing that the enemies are his family, his grandfather, and his cousins and loved ones, Arjuna is moved and says his heart will not allow him to fight and kill others. He would rather renounce the kingdom and put down his Gandiva (Arjuna's bow). Krishna then advises him about the nature of life, ethics, and morality when one is faced with a war between good and evil, the impermanence of matter, the permanence of the soul and the good, duties and responsibilities, the nature of true peace and bliss and the different types of yoga to reach this state of bliss and inner liberation. This conversation between Krishna and Arjuna is presented as a discourse called the Bhagavad Gita.

Death and ascension
It is stated in the Indian texts that the legendary Kurukshetra War led to the death of all the hundred sons of Gandhari. After Duryodhana's death, Krishna visits Gandhari to offer his condolences when Gandhari and Dhritarashtra visited Kurukshetra, as stated in Stree Parva. Feeling that Krishna deliberately did not put an end to the war, in a fit of rage and sorrow, Gandhari said, "Thou were indifferent to the Kurus and the Pandavas whilst they slew each other. Therefore, O Govinda, thou shalt be the slayer of thy own kinsmen!" According to the Mahabharata, a fight breaks out at a festival among the Yadavas, who end up killing each other. Mistaking the sleeping Krishna for a deer, a hunter named Jara shoots an arrow towards Krishna's foot that fatally injures him. Krishna forgives Jara and dies. The pilgrimage (tirtha) site of Bhalka in Gujarat marks the location where Krishna is believed to have died. It is also known as Dehotsarga, states Diana L. Eck, a term that literally means the place where Krishna "gave up his body". The Bhagavata Purana in Book 11, Chapter 31 states that after his death, Krishna returned to his transcendent abode directly because of his yogic concentration. Waiting gods such as Brahma and Indra were unable to trace the path Krishna took to leave his human incarnation and return to his abode.

Versions and interpretations
There are numerous versions of Krishna's life story, of which three are most studied: the Harivamsa, the Bhagavata Purana, and the Vishnu Purana. They share the basic storyline but vary significantly in their specifics, details, and styles. The most original composition, the Harivamsa is told in a realistic style that describes Krishna's life as a poor herder but weaves in poetic and allusive fantasy. It ends on a triumphal note, not with the death of Krishna. Differing in some details, the fifth book of the Vishnu Purana moves away from Harivamsa realism and embeds Krishna in mystical terms and eulogies. The Vishnu Purana manuscripts exist in many versions.

The tenth and eleventh books of the Bhagavata Purana are widely considered to be a poetic masterpiece, full of imagination and metaphors, with no relation to the realism of pastoral life found in the Harivamsa. Krishna's life is presented as a cosmic play (Lila), where his youth is set as a princely life with his foster father Nanda portrayed as a king. Krishna's life is closer to that of a human being in Harivamsa, but is a symbolic universe in the Bhagavata Purana, where Krishna is within the universe and beyond it, as well as the universe itself, always. The Bhagavata Purana manuscripts also exist in many versions, in numerous Indian languages.

Chaitanya Mahaprabhu is considered as the incarnation of Krishna in Gaudiya Vaishnavism and by the ISKCON community.

Proposed datings

The date of Krishna's birth is celebrated every year as Janmashtami.

According to Guy Beck, "most scholars of Hinduism and Indian history accept the historicity of Krishna – that he was a real male person, whether human or divine, who lived on Indian soil by at least 1000 BCE and interacted with many other historical persons within the cycles of the epic and puranic histories." Yet, Beck also notes that there is an "enormous number of contradictions and discrepancies surrounding the chronology of Krishna's life as depicted in the Sanskrit canon".

Philosophy and theology

A wide range of theological and philosophical ideas are presented through Krishna in Hindu texts. The teachings of the Bhagavad Gita can be considered, according to Friedhelm Hardy, as the first Krishnaite system of theology.

Ramanuja, a Hindu theologian and philosopher whose works were influential in Bhakti movement, presented him in terms of qualified monism, or nondualism (namely Vishishtadvaita school). Madhvacharya, a philosopher whose works led to the founding of Haridasa tradition of Vaishnavism, presented Krishna in the framework of dualism (Dvaita). Bhedabheda – a group of schools, which teaches that the individual self is both different and not different from the ultimate reality – predates the positions of monism and dualism. Among medieval Bhedabheda thinkers are Nimbarkacharya, who founded the Kumara Sampradaya (Dvaitadvaita philosophical school), and Jiva Goswami, a saint from Gaudiya Vaishnava school, who described Krishna theology in terms of Bhakti yoga and Achintya Bheda Abheda. Krishna theology is presented in a pure monism (Shuddhadvaita) framework by Vallabha Acharya, the founder of Pushti sect of Vaishnavism. Madhusudana Sarasvati, an India philosopher, presented Krishna theology in nondualism-monism framework (Advaita Vedanta), while Adi Shankara, credited with unifying and establishing the main currents of thought in Hinduism,  mentioned Krishna in his early eighth-century discussions on Panchayatana puja.

The Bhagavata Purana synthesizes an Advaita, Samkhya, and Yoga framework for Krishna, but it does so through loving devotion to Krishna. Bryant describes the synthesis of ideas in Bhagavata Purana as:

"The philosophy of the Bhagavata is a mixture of Vedanta terminology, Samkhyan metaphysics, and devotionalized Yoga praxis. (...) The tenth book promotes Krishna as the highest absolute personal aspect of godhead – the personality behind the term Ishvara and the ultimate aspect of Brahman."

While Sheridan and Pintchman both affirm Bryant's view, the latter adds that the Vedantic view emphasized in the Bhagavata is non-dualist with a difference. In conventional nondual Vedanta, all reality is interconnected and one, the Bhagavata posits that the reality is interconnected and plural.

Across the various theologies and philosophies, the common theme presents Krishna as the essence and symbol of divine love, with human life and love as a reflection of the divine. The longing and love-filled legends of Krishna and the gopis, his playful pranks as a baby, as well as his later dialogues with other figures, are philosophically treated as metaphors for the human longing for the divine and for meaning, and the play between the universals and the human soul. Krishna's lila is a theology of love-play. According to John Koller, "love is presented not simply as a means to salvation, it is the highest life". Human love is God's love.

Other texts that include Krishna such as the Bhagavad Gita have attracted numerous bhasya (commentaries) in the Hindu traditions. Though only a part of the Hindu epic Mahabharata, it has functioned as an independent spiritual guide. It allegorically raises the ethical and moral dilemmas of human life through Krishna and Arjuna. It then presents a spectrum of answers, addressing the ideological questions on human freedoms, choices, and responsibilities towards self and others. This Krishna dialogue has attracted numerous interpretations, from being a metaphor for inner human struggle that teaches non-violence to being a metaphor for outer human struggle that advocates a rejection of quietism and persecution.

Madhusudana Sarasvati, known for his contributions to classical Advaita Vedanta, was also a devout follower of Krishna and expressed his devotion in various verses within his works, notably in his Bhagavad Gita commentary, Bhagavad Gita Gudarthadipika. In his works, Krishna is often interpreted as representing nirguna Brahman, leading to a transtheistic understanding of deity, where Krishna symbolizes the nondual Self, embodying Being, Consciousness, and Bliss, and the pure Existence underlying all.

Vaishnavism
The worship of Krishna is part of Vaishnavism, a major tradition within Hinduism. Krishna is considered a full avatar of Vishnu, or one with Vishnu himself. However, the exact relationship between Krishna and Vishnu is complex and diverse, with Krishna of Krishnaite sampradayas considered an independent deity and supreme. Vaishnavas accept many incarnations of Vishnu, but Krishna is particularly important. Their theologies are generally centered either on Vishnu or an avatar such as Krishna as supreme. The terms Krishnaism and Vishnuism have sometimes been used to distinguish the two, the former implying that Krishna is the transcendent Supreme Being. Some scholars, as Friedhelm Hardy, do not define Krishnaism as a sub-order or offshoot of Vaishnavism, considering it a parallel and no less ancient current of Hinduism.

All Vaishnava traditions recognise Krishna as the eighth avatar of Vishnu; others identify Krishna with Vishnu, while Krishnaite traditions such as Gaudiya Vaishnavism, Ekasarana Dharma, Mahanam Sampraday, Nimbarka Sampradaya and the Vallabha Sampradaya regard Krishna as the Svayam Bhagavan, the original form of Lord or the same as the concept of Brahman in Hinduism. Gitagovinda of Jayadeva considers Krishna to be the supreme lord while the ten incarnations are his forms. Swaminarayan, the founder of the Swaminarayan Sampradaya, also worshipped Krishna as God himself. "Greater Krishnaism" corresponds to the second and dominant phase of Vaishnavism, revolving around the cults of the Vasudeva, Krishna, and Gopala of the late Vedic period. Today the faith has a significant following outside of India as well.

Early traditions
The deity Krishna-Vasudeva ( "Krishna, the son of Vasudeva Anakadundubhi") is historically one of the earliest forms of worship in Krishnaism and Vaishnavism. It is believed to be a significant tradition of the early history of Krishna religion in antiquity. Thereafter, there was an amalgamation of various similar traditions. These include ancient Bhagavatism, the cult of Gopala, of "Krishna Govinda" (cow-finding Krishna), of Balakrishna (baby Krishna) and of "Krishna Gopivallabha " (Krishna the lover). According to Andre Couture, the Harivamsa contributed to the synthesis of various figures as aspects of Krishna.

Already in the early Middle Ages, Jagannathism (a.k.a. Odia Vaishnavism) originated as the cult of the god Jagannath (lit. Lord of the Universe) – an abstract form of Krishna. Jagannathism was a regional temple-centered version of Krishnaism, where Jagannath is understood as a principal god, Purushottama and Para Brahman, but can also be regarded as a non-sectarian syncretic Vaishnavite and all-Hindu cult. According to the Vishnudharma Purana (c. 4th century), Krishna is woshipped in the form of Purushottama in Odia (Odisha). The notable Jagannath temple in Puri, Odisha has been particularly significant within the tradition since about 800 CE.

Bhakti tradition
The use of the term bhakti, meaning devotion, is not confined to any one deity. However, Krishna is an important and popular focus of the devotionalism tradition within Hinduism, particularly among the Vaishnava Krishnaite sects. Devotees of Krishna subscribe to the concept of lila, meaning 'divine play', as the central principle of the universe. It is a form of bhakti yoga, one of three types of yoga discussed by Krishna in the Bhagavad Gita.

Indian subcontinent
The bhakti movements devoted to Krishna became prominent in southern India in the 7th to 9thcenturies CE. The earliest works included those of the Alvar saints of Tamil Nadu. A major collection of their works is the Divya Prabandham. Alvar Andal's popular collection of songs Tiruppavai, in which she conceives of herself as a gopi, is the most famous of the oldest works in this genre.

The movement originated in South India during the 7th century CE, spreading northwards from Tamil Nadu through Karnataka and Maharashtra; by the 15thcentury, it was established in Bengal and northern India. Early Krishnaite Bhakti pioneers included Nimbarkacharya (12th or 13thcentury CE), but most emerged later, including Vallabhacharya (15thcentury CE) and Chaitanya Mahaprabhu. They started their own schools, namely Nimbarka Sampradaya, Vallabha Sampradaya, and Gaudiya Vaishnavism, with Krishna and Radha as the supreme gods. In addition, since the 15th century, flourished Tantric variety of Krishnaism, Vaishnava-Sahajiya, is linked to the Bengali poet Chandidas.

In the Deccan, particularly in Maharashtra, saint poets of the Warkari sect such as Dnyaneshwar, Namdev, Janabai, Eknath, and Tukaram promoted the worship of Vithoba, a local form of Krishna, from the 13th to 18th century. Before the Warkari tradition, Krishna devotion became well established in Maharashtra due to the rise of the Mahanubhava Sampradaya founded by Sarvajna Chakradhara. The Pranami Sampradaya emerged in the 17th century in Gujarat, based on the Krishna-focussed syncretist Hindu-Islamic teachings of Devchandra Maharaj and his famous successor, Mahamati Prannath. In southern India, Purandara Dasa and Kanakadasa of Karnataka composed songs devoted to the Krishna image of Udupi. Rupa Goswami of Gaudiya Vaishnavism has compiled a comprehensive summary of bhakti called Bhakti-rasamrita-sindhu.

In South India, the acharyas of the Sri Sampradaya have written reverently about Krishna in most of their works, including the Tiruppavai by Andal and Gopalavimshati by Vedanta Desika.

Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, and Kerala states have many major Krishna temples, and Janmashtami is one of the widely celebrated festivals in South India.

Outside Asia
By 1965, the Krishna-bhakti movement had spread outside India after Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada (as instructed by his guru, Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakura) travelled from his homeland in West Bengal to New York City. A year later, in 1966, after gaining many followers, he was able to form the International Society for Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON), popularly known as the Hare Krishna movement. The purpose of this movement was to write about Krishna in English and to share the Gaudiya Vaishnava philosophy with people in the Western world by spreading the teachings of Chaitanya Mahaprabhu. In the biographies of Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, the mantra he received when he was given diksha or initiation in Gaya was the six-word verse of the Kali-Santarana Upanishad, namely "Hare Krishna Hare Krishna, Krishna Krishna Hare Hare; Hare Rama Hare Rama, Rama Rama Hare Hare". In the Gaudiya tradition, it is the maha-mantra, or great mantra, about Krishna bhakti. Its chanting was known as hari-nama sankirtana.

The maha-mantra gained the attention of George Harrison and John Lennon of the Beatles fame, and Harrison produced a 1969 recording of the mantra by devotees from the London Radha Krishna Temple. Titled "Hare Krishna Mantra", the song reached the top twenty on the UK music charts and was also successful in West Germany and Czechoslovakia. The mantra of the Upanishad thus helped bring Bhaktivedanta and ISKCON ideas about Krishna into the West. ISKCON has built many Krishna temples in the West, as well as other locations such as South Africa.

Southeast Asia
Krishna is found in Southeast Asian history and art, but to a far lesser extent than Shiva, Durga, Nandi, Agastya, and Buddha. In temples (candi) of the archaeological sites in hilly volcanic Java, Indonesia, temple reliefs do not portray his pastoral life or his role as the erotic lover, nor do the historic Javanese Hindu texts. Rather, either his childhood or the life as a king and Arjuna's companion have been more favored. The most elaborate temple arts of Krishna is found in a series of Krsnayana reliefs in the Prambanan Hindu temple complex near Yogyakarta. These are dated to the 9thcentury CE. Krishna remained a part of the Javanese cultural and theological fabric through the 14thcentury, as evidenced by the 14th-century Penataran reliefs along with those of the Hindu god Rama in east Java, before Islam replaced Buddhism and Hinduism on the island.

The medieval era arts of Vietnam and Cambodia feature Krishna. The earliest surviving sculptures and reliefs are from the 6th and 7thcenturies, and these include Vaishnavism iconography. According to John Guy, the curator and director of Southeast Asian arts at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Krishna Govardhana art from 6th/7th-century Vietnam at Danang, and 7th-century Cambodia at Phnom Da cave in Angkor Borei, are some of the most sophisticated of this era.

Krishna's iconography has also been found in Thailand, along with those of Surya and Vishnu. For example, a large number of sculptures and icons have been found in the SiThep and Klangnai sites in the Phetchabun region of northern Thailand. These are dated to about the 7th and 8thcenturies, from both the Funan and Zhenla period archaeological sites.

Performance arts
Indian dance and music theatre traces its origins and techniques to the ancient Sama Veda and Natyasastra texts. The stories enacted and the numerous choreographic themes are inspired by the legends in Hindu texts, including Krishna-related literature such as Harivamsa and Bhagavata Purana.

The Krishna stories have played a key role in the history of Indian theatre, music, and dance, particularly through the tradition of Rasaleela. These are dramatic enactments of Krishna's childhood, adolescence, and adulthood. One common scene involves Krishna playing flute in Rasa Leela, only to be heard by certain gopis (cowherd maidens), which is theologically supposed to represent divine call only heard by certain enlightened beings. Some of the text's legends have inspired secondary theatre literature such as the eroticism in Gita Govinda.

Krishna-related literature such as the Bhagavata Purana accords a metaphysical significance to the performances and treats them as a religious ritual, infusing daily life with spiritual meaning, thus representing a good, honest, happy life. Similarly, Krishna-inspired performances aim to cleanse the hearts of faithful actors and listeners. Singing, dancing, and performing any part of Krishna Lila is an act of remembering the dharma in the text, as a form of para bhakti (supreme devotion). To remember Krishna at any time and in any art, asserts the text, is to worship the good and the divine.

Classical dance styles such as Kathak, Odissi, Manipuri, Kuchipudi and Bharatanatyam in particular are known for their Krishna-related performances. Krisnattam (Krishnattam) traces its origins to Krishna legends, and is linked to another major classical Indian dance form called Kathakali. Bryant summarizes the influence of Krishna stories in the Bhagavata Purana as, "[it] has inspired more derivative literature, poetry, drama, dance, theatre and art than any other text in the history of Sanskrit literature, with the possible exception of the Ramayana.

The Palliyodam, a type of large boat built and used by Aranmula Parthasarathy Temple in Kerala for the annual water processions of Uthrattathi Jalamela and Valla Sadhya has the legend that it was designed by Krishna and were made to look like Sheshanaga, the serpent on which Vishnu rests.

Major temples

 * Ambalappuzha Sree Krishna Swamy Temple
 * Banke Bihari Temple, Vrindavan
 * Dwarkadhish Temple, Dwarka
 * Govind Dev Ji Temple, Jaipur
 * Guruvayur Temple, Kerala
 * ISKCON Temples
 * Hare Krishna Golden Temple
 * ISKCON Temple, Bangalore
 * ISKCON Temple, Chennai
 * ISKCON Temple, Delhi
 * ISKCON Temple, Pune
 * ISKCON Temple, Vrindavan
 * New Vrindaban, West Virginia
 * Vrindavan Chandrodaya Temple
 * Jagannath Temple, Puri
 * Kantajew Temple, Bangladesh
 * Krishna Janmasthan Temple Complex, Mathura
 * Madan Mohan Temple, Karauli
 * Parthasarathy Temple, Chennai
 * Prem Mandir, Vrindavan
 * Pushtimarg Haveli-Temples
 * Dwarkadhish Kankroli
 * Dwarkadhish Temple, Mathura
 * Shrinathji Temple, Nathdwara
 * Vraj Hindu Temple, Pennsylvania
 * Radha Damodar Temple, Junagadh
 * Radha Damodar Temple, Vrindavan
 * Radha Krishna Vivah Sthali, Bhandirvan
 * Radha Madan Mohan Temple, Vrindavan
 * Radha Madhab Temple, Bishnupur
 * Radha Raman Temple, Vrindavan
 * Radha Vallabh Temple, Vrindavan
 * Rajagopalaswamy Temple, Mannargudi
 * Ranchodrai Temple, Dakor
 * Shree Govindajee Temple, Imphal
 * Sri Kunj Bihari Temple, Malaysia
 * Swaminarayan Temples
 * Shri Swaminarayan Mandir, Dholera
 * Swaminarayan Mandir, Gadhada
 * Trichambaram Temple, Thaliparamba
 * Udupi Sri Krishna Matha
 * Vithoba Temple, Pandarpur

Jainism
The Jainism tradition lists 63 Śalākāpuruṣa or notable figures which, amongst others, includes the twenty-four Tirthankaras (spiritual teachers) and nine sets of triads. One of these triads is Krishna as the Vasudeva, Balarama as the Baladeva, and Jarasandha as the Prati-Vasudeva. In each age of the Jain cyclic time is born a Vasudeva with an elder brother termed the Baladeva. Between the triads, Baladeva upholds the principle of non-violence, a central idea of Jainism. The villain is the Prati-vasudeva, who attempts to destroy the world. To save the world, Vasudeva-Krishna has to forsake the non-violence principle and kill the Prati-Vasudeva. The stories of these triads can be found in the Harivamsa Purana (8thcentury CE) of Jinasena (not be confused with its namesake, the addendum to Mahābhārata) and the Trishashti-shalakapurusha-charita of Hemachandra.

The story of Krishna's life in the Puranas of Jainism follows the same general outline as those in the Hindu texts, but in details, they are very different: they include Jain Tirthankaras as figures in the story, and generally are polemically critical of Krishna, unlike the versions found in the Mahabharata, the Bhagavata Purana, and the Vishnu Purana. For example, Krishna loses battles in the Jain versions, and his gopis and his clan of Yadavas die in a fire created by an ascetic named Dvaipayana. Similarly, after dying from the hunter Jara's arrow, the Jaina texts state Krishna goes to the third hell in Jain cosmology, while his brother is said to go to the sixth heaven.

Vimalasuri is attributed to be the author of the Jain version of the Harivamsa Purana, but no manuscripts have been found that confirm this. It is likely that later Jain scholars, probably Jinasena of the 8thcentury, wrote a complete version of Krishna legends in the Jain tradition and credited it to the ancient Vimalasuri. Partial and older versions of the Krishna story are available in Jain literature, such as in the Antagata Dasao of the Svetambara Agama tradition.

In other Jain texts, Krishna is stated to be a cousin of the twenty-second Tirthankara, Neminatha. The Jain texts state that Neminatha taught Krishna all the wisdom that he later gave to Arjuna in the Bhagavad Gita. According to Jeffery D. Long, a professor of religion known for his publications on Jainism, this connection between Krishna and Neminatha has been a historic reason for Jains to accept, read, and cite the Bhagavad Gita as a spiritually important text, celebrate Krishna-related festivals, and intermingle with Hindus as spiritual cousins.

Buddhism
The story of Krishna occurs in the Jataka tales in Buddhism. The Vidhurapandita Jataka mentions Madhura (Sanskrit: Mathura), the Ghata Jataka mentions Kamsa, Devagabbha (Sk: Devaki), Upasagara or Vasudeva, Govaddhana (Sk: Govardhana), Baladeva (Balarama), and Kanha or Kesava (Sk: Krishna, Keshava).

Like the Jain versions of the Krishna legends, the Buddhist versions such as one in Ghata Jataka follow the general outline of the story, but are different from the Hindu versions as well. For example, the Buddhist legend describes Devagabbha (Devaki) to have been isolated in a palace built upon a pole after she is born, so no future husband could reach her. Krishna's father similarly is described as a powerful king, but who meets up with Devagabbha anyway, and to whom Kamsa gives away his sister Devagabbha in marriage. The siblings of Krishna are not killed by Kamsa, though he tries. In the Buddhist version of the legend, all of Krishna's siblings grow to maturity.

Krishna and his siblings' capital becomes Dvaravati. The Arjuna and Krishna interaction is missing in the Jataka version. A new legend is included, wherein Krishna laments in uncontrollable sorrow when his son dies, and a Ghatapandita feigns madness to teach Krishna a lesson. The Jataka tale also includes internecine destruction among his siblings after they all get drunk. Krishna also dies in the Buddhist legend by the hand of a hunter named Jara, but while he is traveling to a frontier city. Mistaking Krishna for a pig, Jara throws a spear that fatally pierces his feet, causing Krishna great pain and then his death.

At the end of this Ghata-Jataka discourse, the Buddhist text declares that Sariputta, one of the revered disciples of the Buddha in the Buddhist tradition, was incarnated as Krishna in his previous life to learn lessons on grief from the Buddha in his prior rebirth:

"Then he [Master] declared the Truths and identified the Birth: 'At that time, Ananda was Rohineyya, Sariputta was Vasudeva [Krishna], the followers of the Buddha were the other persons, and I myself was Ghatapandita.'"

While the Buddhist Jataka texts co-opt Krishna-Vasudeva and make him a student of the Buddha in his previous life, the Hindu texts co-opt the Buddha and make him an avatar of Vishnu. In Chinese Buddhism, Taoism and Chinese folk religion, the figure of Krishna has been amalgamated and merged with that of Nalakuvara to influence the formation of the god Nezha, who has taken on iconographic characteristics of Krishna such as being presented as a divine god-child and slaying a nāga in his youth.

Other
Krishna's life is written about in "Krishna Avtar" of the Chaubis Avtar, a composition in Dasam Granth traditionally and historically attributed to Sikh Guru Gobind Singh.

Within the Sikh-derived 19th-century Radha Soami movement, the followers of its founder Shiv Dayal Singh used to consider him the Living Master and incarnation of God (Krishna/Vishnu).

Baháʼís believe that Krishna was a "Manifestation of God", or one in a line of prophets who have revealed the Word of God progressively for a gradually maturing humanity. In this way, Krishna shares an exalted station with Abraham, Moses, Zoroaster, Buddha, Muhammad, Jesus, the Báb, and the founder of the Baháʼí Faith, Bahá'u'lláh.

Ahmadiyya, a 20th-century Islamic movement, consider Krishna as one of their ancient prophets. Ghulam Ahmad stated that he was himself a prophet in the likeness of prophets such as Krishna, Jesus, and Muhammad, who had come to earth as a latter-day reviver of religion and morality.

Krishna worship or reverence has been adopted by several new religious movements since the 19thcentury, and he is sometimes a member of an eclectic pantheon in occult texts, along with Greek, Buddhist, biblical, and even historical figures. For instance, Édouard Schuré, an influential figure in perennial philosophy and occult movements, considered Krishna a Great Initiate, while Theosophists regard Krishna as an incarnation of Maitreya (one of the Masters of the Ancient Wisdom), the most important spiritual teacher for humanity along with Buddha.

Krishna was canonised by Aleister Crowley and is recognised as a saint of Ecclesia Gnostica Catholica in the Gnostic Mass of Ordo Templi Orientis.

title: Krishna


text:
Amiga demos

Amiga demos are demos created for the Amiga home computer.

A "demo" is a demonstration of the multimedia capabilities of a computer (or more to the point, a demonstration of the skill of the demo's constructors). There was intense rivalry during the 1990s among the best programmers, graphic artists and computer musicians to continually outdo each other's demos. Since the Amiga's hardware was more or less fixed (unlike today's PC industry, where arbitrary combinations of hardware can be put together), there was competition to test the limits of that hardware and perform theoretically "impossible" feats by refactoring the problem at hand. In Europe the Amiga was the undisputed leader of mainstream multimedia computing in the late 1980s and early 1990s, though it was eventually overtaken by PC architecture.

Some Amiga demos, such as the RSI Megademo, Kefrens Megademo VIII or Crionics & The Silents "Hardwired" are considered seminal works in the demo field. New Amiga demos are released even today, although the demo scene has firmly moved onto PC hardware. Many Amiga game developers were active in the demo scene.

The demo scene spearheaded development in multimedia programming techniques for the Amiga, such that it was de rigueur for the latest visual tricks, soundtrackers and 3D algorithms from the demo scene to end up being used in computer game development.

Demo software
Most demos were written in 68000 assembly language, although a few were written in C and other languages. To utilize full hardware performance, Amiga demos were optimized and written entirely for one purpose in assembly (avoiding generic and portable code). Additional performance was achieved by utilizing several coprocessors, including a blitter, in parallel with the 68000. Most demos bypassed the operating system and addressed the hardware directly.

First bigger demos were released in 1987, one of them was "Tech Tech" by Sodan & Magician 42, it was released in November 1987 and is considered a classic by many.

Eric Schwartz produced a series of animated demos that ran with MoviePlayer, an animation software package similar to Toon Boom. The animated demos drew heavily on the whimsy and graphic style of comic strips.

Red Sector Incorporated produced a piece of software called the RSI Demomaker, which allowed users to script their own demos, replete with scrolltext, vectorballs, plasma screens, etc.

Full demos range from under 128 KB to several megabytes. There have been several thousand demos produced in many countries. Some active demo countries were Denmark, Finland, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Norway, Sweden, UK, Poland and others.

Intros
Smaller demos are often known as intros. They are typically limited to between 4 and 64KB in size. Intros were originally used as tags by cracking groups on computer games and other software. The purpose of the intro was to advertise cracking and distribution skill of a particular group. Later it developed into a stand-alone art form. Many demo and intro groups disassociated themselves from the cracking and copying scene, although the same people could still be involved in it.

Ripping
The Amiga thrived on public domain, freeware and other not-for-profit development. The architecture provided no substantial mechanism for protecting software from inspection. In order to read the memory one simply performed a hot reset (which preserved the contents of RAM) and then booted to a dedicated floppy disk that could inspect and dump the memory's contents. It was therefore common for developers and hackers to "rip" music, graphics and code and then reuse it in their own productions. This led to intense competition in certain fields, for example, in the development of sound tracking software and Tetris clones, with each group of developers trying to outdo the current state of the art. In fact, some demos even featured their source code as part of the executable to save hackers the trouble of disassembly, though it came strewn with incendiary comments for those who would seek to improve on it.

Amiga demo groups

 * Equinox
 * Fairlight / Virtual Dreams
 * Phenomena
 * Tristar and Red Sector Incorporated

license: Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/

title: Amiga demos


text:
Talk:Biologist

Additional work
This article has been marked as needing additional work since 2009. I think it's fair to say that it's been improved as much as it's going to be due to that notice, and I think that having that notice on what is otherwise a fairly adequate article looks bad. Would anyone object to its deletion? Mwenechanga (talk) 22:06, 21 May 2013 (UTC)

 * It may have improved since 2008 (I confess I haven't followed it over that whole time span) but the fact is that the article is still a fairly poor and amateurish account of what a biologist is and does in today's world. The article paints a dusty, outdated picture of botanists, zoologists etc., traditional, 19th and 20th century partitions of biology that are so broad today that they have long ago been subdivided and, paradoxically, the fragments often re-merged again into new disciplines such as molecular biology (now already an ageing term), genomics, proteomics, structural biology and systems biology, to name but a few.  These cutting edge topics of modern biology are not mentioned, despite having their own WP articles, and the radical evolution of the subject, which has taken place in little more than the past 25 years is hardly reflected in the article.  And there is still only a single citation.  Much more work to be done I'm afraid. Plantsurfer (talk) 22:55, 21 May 2013 (UTC)

 * The article could use some statistical pictures providing factual information about life as a biologists in a visual format rather than portraits of different biologists. --Bailey.goley (talk) 20:30, 29 August 2020 (UTC)

 * This article looks so great! Very excited to be back here some 8 years after my last contribution and see how this has improved so much. Go team, you did it! Mwenechanga (talk) 23:34, 8 June 2021 (UTC)

Article intro
Hi guys. I've just attempted to expand and improve the intro of the article to more accurately reflect what biologists do and study. I was mainly wondering about the distinction between "basic" (I changed this to "fundamental") and "applied" research. Is there such a significant difference between them that they need to be mentioned separately? I was under the impression that there was less of a distinction, as any "basic" research can often be somewhat applied anyway. I've left it in for now, as it was part of the previous version. Thanks! Cmastris (talk) 22:33, 10 May 2014 (UTC)

Specialists section
It's already been noted that the "Specialists" section is quite outdated and really not very comprehensive at all. I'm proposing that the entire section as it currently stands is deleted and re-done. Instead, I would suggest that there is a relatively short paragraph describing some of the range/types of specialism (e.g. animals, microbes, ecology etc.), but with a clear link (maybe "See also:" at the top) to Biology. Not only would that means that the list doesn't need to be updated, but the main Biology page is also likely to be updated more frequently than this one.

If anyone has any objections/alternative ideas then please let me know, otherwise I'll probably re-format the section as described above within a week or so. Thanks. Cmastris (talk) 18:28, 18 May 2014 (UTC)

Research Pictures
The recent pictures at the top of the article are a nice touch, but seeing as how they show biologists in labs conducting research and whatnot, would it be better to move them to the Research or even Working Conditions section? Thanks. Spotted RoboDinosaur (talk) 16:20, 23 February 2017 (UTC)

What is hormone ? Enlist its important properties. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 59.95.18.59 (talk) 09:36, 13 March 2018 (UTC)

title: Talk:Biologist


text:
USS Tang

Three submarines of the United States Navy have been named USS Tang, after the tang, or surgeonfish, especially of the several West Indian species. May refer to:
 * USS Tang (SS-306), a Balao-class submarine sunk by her own torpedo during World War II
 * USS Tang (SS-563), the lead boat of her class, served through the first half of the Cold War
 * USS Tang (SSN-805), a planned Virginia-class submarine

title: USS Tang


text:
Talk:Connected space

Shouldn't a topic like this, where the English word has a meaning, for 99% of the people reading Wikipedia, different from the meaning discussed in the article, live at a page that makes it a little clearer what the topic is? So, instead of "connectedness," how about connectedness (topology) or connectedness (mathematics) or connectedness (math)?

Here's a rule to consider (I should probably put it on the rules page...). If Google does not list any website concerning your topic, on the first page of a search for your proposed topic title (see, e.g., ) then you need to make your title more precise.

 * Soon, there will be a link to the mathematical concept of connectedness on the first Google results page :-)

 * But seriously: are we ever going to have an article about "connectedness" in the English sense? I guess whe should never say never, but I don't see the need to disambiguate the title before there's another article that it needs to be disambiguated from.

 * I just searched for "connectedness" in EB: 8 results, and the results number 1, 3, 4, 7 and 8 refer to the mathematical concept. AxelBoldt

By the way, I think it is great that we have people like Axel Boldt writing meaty articles on technical topics. I hope that never changes! By no means is this any sort of criticism of him. --Larry_Sanger

 * Actually, Zundark wrote all of this; I only contributed by adding some false statements which he fixed. AxelBoldt

-
 * connected if it cannot be divided into two disjoint nonempty open sets

"Two or more" surely? - Khendon

If you have 2 or more, then you take one of them and call it A, and take the union of all the others and call it B. Since the union of open sets is open, anything that satisfies your definition (of "unconnected") will satisfy the article's definition. — Toby 07:59 Sep 18, 2002 (UTC)

Ah, of course. Thanks. - Khendon

I think Toby is wrong here. Because the definition says "...if it IS the union of..." not "...if it can be written as the union of... ". Also, it is much better to use the notation $$(X,\tau)$$ to denote a topological space in a formal definition instead of $$X$$ merely. I would say the following definition is better than the current one:

$$(X,\tau)$$ is a connected topological space if and only if $$\tau$$ has only two subsets that are both open and closed (clopen) which are the $$\emptyset$$ and the entire X.

- The present definition is restricted to topological spaces. As far as I can see, this makes non-open subsets like [0,1] in R, or the unit disk in RxR, non-connected. Is this intentional? Am I just missing the connection? rp

 * You are misunderstanding something, although I'm not sure what. [0,1] and the unit disk are both connected. What makes you think otherwise? --Zundark 15:33 Nov 28, 2002 (UTC)

 * I think the misunderstanding stems from the fact that rp doesn't realize that any subset of a topological space is a topological space in its own right, with the subspace topology. I've made that clearer in the first paragraph. AxelBoldt 13:57, 2 Aug 2004 (UTC)

I redirected Path-connected topological space here, since there's more info on that subject here than there. The articles could be separated again, but that would take more work to do the separation properly, and I don't think that it's necessary now. -- Toby 01:34 Apr 24, 2003 (UTC)

merge
I think Connected component's content should be merged herein. I've written as much at Talk:Connected component; please keep discussion there.  —msh210 15:44, 5 Dec 2004 (UTC)

hmm
Just found out that G.E. Bredon (ISBN 0-387-97926-3) defines "arcwise connected" exactly as is done here for path-connected. Namely, "a topological space X is said to be "arcwise connected" if for any two points p and q there exists a map $$\lambda \colon [0,1] \to X $$ with λ(0)=p and λ(1)=q". [p.12] (A map was earlier defined to be a continuous function). Mistake or different uses in different disciplines? Or should I assume path-connected = arcwise connected != arc-connected? \Mike(z) 18:00, 15 May 2005 (UTC)

 * Different authors may give different meanings to the term arc-connected (or arcwise connected), but I think the one given in the article is the usual one. Part of the problem is that some authors are only really concerned about Hausdorff spaces, so for them there is no real difference between path-connected and arc-connected anyway. --Zundark 13:51, 20 May 2005 (UTC)

 * Can anyone point me to a book with a proof that path-connected = arc-connected in Hausdorf spaces? --Ucio (talk) 18:00, 22 June 2009 (UTC)

"Formal" definition
It seems to me that the definition in the lead paragraph is better than the one given in the section "Formal definition". Specifically, the lead paragraph refers (by linkage) to Disjoint union (topology), while the "Formal definition" only refers to set-theoretic notions of disjointness and union. There might be other ways of equipping the set-theoretic disjoint union with a topological structure than the canonical one. --Lambiam Talk 07:56, 16 May 2006 (UTC)

Wish
I'd like to have the ability to have a cross reference button to search for antonyms or opposites of words.
 * —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 192.35.35.35 (talk • contribs) 01:52, July 24, 2006 (UTC).
 * Like "What links here"? --Lambiam Talk 11:04, 24 July 2006 (UTC)

This already exists on our sister project, Wiktionary; see wikt:Wiktionary:Wikisaurus. However, at the time of this writing, it's not very complete, especially if what you're interested in is mathematical terminology. Another good, free resource for antonyms of word is WordNet, but again, it's not terribly useful for mathematical (or otherwise specialist) terminology. —Caesura(t) 12:45, 6 May 2011 (UTC)

Every path-connected space is connected!?
Is this true?

Take the real line R with lower limit topology, then R is not connected, but path connected.

Take the real line R with finite complement topology, then R is connected, but not path connected.

Jesusonfire 04:56, 15 November 2007 (UTC)

 * You have those the wrong way around: R with the lower limit topology isn't path-connected, but R with the cofinite topology is. The fact that path-connected spaces are connected follows from the connectedness of [0,1], together with the preservation of connectedness under continuous images. --Zundark 08:18, 15 November 2007 (UTC)

What is a connected set?
Connected set redirects to this article, which, however, does not define the notion. The MathWorld article referred to gives a definition ("cannot be partitioned into two nonempty subsets which are open in the relative topology induced on the set"), but I don't think that is right. Any subset S of a topological space X is open in the induced relative topology, because, by definition, X is open, and so S ∩ X = S is an open set of the relative topology (which should be obvious because the construction turns S into a topological space). That makes any set whose cardinality exceeds 1 non-connected. I can make up a definition myself, but does anyone have a citable source for a good definition? --Lambiam 20:23, 7 January 2008 (UTC)

I see now that this is not a problem; while the set being partitioned is open, the parts it gets partitioned into should use the relative topology for the whole. --Lambiam 20:52, 7 January 2008 (UTC)

Graphs
In the last paragraph, how can an edge be "homeomorphic" to a line? An edge of a graph is just a pair of vertices, without a topology; it cannot be homeomorphic to anything. What is probably meant is that there is a topological subspace of Euclidean space such that the connected subsets of the graph correspond to (several) connected subsets of the space that include the "vertices". —Preceding unsigned comment added by 81.210.250.14 (talk) 09:27, 26 June 2008 (UTC)
 * The statement in the article about Euclidean space was not true (for graphs of sufficiently large cardinality) and in any case a red herring. The right way to view graphs as topological spaces is described at topological graph theory. Algebraist 13:35, 21 April 2009 (UTC)

Merge discussion

 * Propose that Connected space/Proofs be merged here. This follows a discussion on Wikiproject Mathematics. Itsmejudith (talk) 01:08, 23 February 2009 (UTC)

 * Oppose in that the statements proven are already present in this article. The proofs add no value: they are inconsistent in style and content with what is already present here; including them would give undue weight to two relatively elementary and minor technical facts; these facts are standard and uncontroversial, so don't require explicit sourcing; writing our own proofs isn't an acceptable method of sourcing anyway; and including the proofs in a showcase capacity (as opposed to as justifications) seems contrary to the fact that Wikipedia is not a how-to-do-proofs-with-connected-spaces manual.  (Summary of my comments at the WPM talk page.)  The /Proofs article should go straight to deletion. Ryan Reich (talk) 03:35, 23 February 2009 (UTC)
 * Comment I mostly agree with Ryan Reich, except with "writing our own proofs isn't an acceptable method of sourcing anyway" (as long of course as "our own" proofs are trivial variants of proofs available in mainstream mathematic litterature). As concerns "undue weight", we can get around the problem using footnotes or collapsing boxes. Once I have said that, I must agree that these proofs are very trivial and of little value for the article proper, so my conclusion is something like a weak oppose. Since everybody was less lenient than myself towards these poor proofs when they were discussed at Wikipedia talk:WikiProject Mathematics, consensus for deletion is very likely ahead -and I shall certainly not oppose to such conclusion. French Tourist (talk) 07:30, 23 February 2009 (UTC)
 * Comment I can't think of a reason why a professional mathematician would read this article (connected space). The only people who read such basic articles (at least 80%) are people who are learning the concept for the first time (like it or not, that's the reality I'm afraid). Currently the only section that appeals to me in the article is the section on Graphs; the rest of the article is really basic material and I don't think that a professional mathematician will gain anything from it. There are people who want to read proofs and I see nothing wrong in having a different article on them. Merging the proofs here would go off the topic since the proofs are far too basic for research purposes. But I see nothing wrong in having another article on them (may I stress). Sorry to be so blunt but this is another instance where we are wasting time on WP and to be quite honest, I have not seen anything productive going on in the math project since the failed FA nomination of vector space. Oppose but Don't Delete the proofs. -- PS T  07:56, 23 February 2009 (UTC)

I changed the /Proofs page to a redirect to Locally connected space which outlines the basic ideas given there. The actual details are mostly trivial and including them on Wikipedia seems to be a violation of WP:NOTTEXTBOOK. The consensus here seems to be that the proofs shouldn't be included in this article and the /Proofs article does not have content which is notable on it's own, so changing to a redirect seems like the best option.--RDBury (talk) 18:26, 1 January 2010 (UTC)

Totally Disconnected Example
I don't see why the example given at the end of the Disconnected Spaces subsection is totally disconnected. In particular, how does one show that the two element set containing both the zeros is not a connected component? Does anyone have a reference for this example?

Thanks, John MacQ 82.28.178.242 (talk) 22:57, 20 December 2009 (UTC)
 * That two-point set is disconnected, as each zero is closed in the whole space and hence also in the two-point subspace. Algebraist 13:08, 21 December 2009 (UTC)

Perhaps I'm missing something, but this can't be enough on its own. If your argument shows that the set is disconnected, doesn't it also show (for instance) that any Hausdorff space is totally disconnected? John MacQ 82.28.178.242 (talk) 19:36, 21 December 2009 (UTC)
 * No. It shows that any two-point set in any Hausdorff space is disconnected. This is a necessary but not sufficient condition for a space to be totally disconnected. Algebraist 19:46, 21 December 2009 (UTC)

Ah okay I see the difference. So for a Hausdorff space the components have size either 1 or infinity. The reason I'm finding this so confusing is that people seem frequently to give the definition of Totally Disconnected as being the definition of Totally Separated given in this article. I have a reference that says the definitions agree on spaces that are in addition compact. But I can (I think) modify the example given here so that the space is compact and totally disconnected but not Hausdorff (take the subspace consisting of the zeros and the elements 1/n for each natural number n). John MacQ —Preceding unsigned comment added by 82.28.178.242 (talk) 20:27, 21 December 2009 (UTC)

First line in the article
"In topology and related branches of mathematics, a connected space is a topological space which cannot be represented as the union of two or more disjoint nonempty open subsets." Is this actually rigorous? I can express any set connected set as a union of disjointed subsets if I partition it right...Say the interval [0,1] is clearly connected. I can write it: [0,0.5) union [0.5,1] which are disjoint sets, contradicting the first line in the article. Or perhaps I am missing something - thoughts anyone?  —Preceding unsigned comment added by 69.196.185.126 (talk) 00:54, 17 May 2010 (UTC)

 * Notice that it says "open". --Zundark (talk) 08:01, 17 May 2010 (UTC)

Captions don't currently match pictures
The captions at the top right don't match the pictures - for example the orange space D is connected, though the caption implies it is not. (It is however not simply connected). Rfs2 (talk) 13:05, 5 May 2011 (UTC)
 * I'm not sure what you mean. The caption says "The pink space C at top and the orange space D are both connected; however C is also simply connected whereas D is not" (emphasis added). This seems to agree with what you are saying, yes? (Of course, a separate question is whether the second picture really adds anything here or simply confuses the issue. Personally, I preferred the illustration before the second picture was added, and I think that the content in the caption about "simply connected" is not really germane to the topic of this article. We have a separate article on simply connected spaces, and I'm not sure that examples and discussion of simple connectedness are really helpful on the main picture in this article here.) —Caesura(t) 14:59, 5 May 2011 (UTC)

 * I suspect your puzzledness, and especially mine, are due to this being the first time I've tried to do anything but reading in Wikipedia. Specifically, at the time I put my comment on the talk page, the captions to the two pictures both referred to both the coloured sets and their complements, made no reference to simply-connectedness, and were wrong. I had no desire to start referring to simply-connectedness, just to get somebody who knew what they were doing to fix the wrongness. Within five minutes (literally) of my posting my comment on the talk page, somebody had changed the captions to being correct (though now also referring to simply-connectedness). However, on viewing the history of the main page, I now cannot see any evidence of the version to which I commented. If somebody else had just put the wrong captions in before I posted my comment, and another person then rolled-back their edits, would the history of the two events then be removed ? (I suspect this discussion should be happening elsewhere - if you read this and know what you are doing, please remove this whole thread of discussion from here and answer my questions in the right place, which may perhaps be my user page ??)  —Preceding unsigned comment added by Rfs2 (talk • contribs) 11:35, 6 May 2011 (UTC)
 * There was a version that is exactly as you described, but the wording was fixed on April 22—nearly two weeks before you made your comment. I'm not sure why you would have seen an April 21 version of the article on May 5, unless you were browsing around the article's history and got confused, or maybe there was some weird caching thing going on with your browser. (And to answer your question, standard rollback would show up in the page history. It is possible in principle for the revision history to be suppressed but this is extremely rare and probably not what happened here. The suppression tool is available only to a small number of Wikipedians and is used only for the purpose of expunging seriously problematic content, like phone numbers of anonymous contributors. Under normal circumstances, all editing activity, including rollback, is visible in the page history. And this talk page is a fine place for this thread; despite this derail, it's chiefly a discussion of the article.) Anyway, welcome to Wikipedia! —Caesura(t) 12:39, 6 May 2011 (UTC)

I note the point above that this article may not be the place to discuss simple connectedness, but whether or not simple connectedness ought to be on the page, it is, but I'm not sure it is accurately stated. Barnsley's "Fractals Everywhere" p 28 gives an example of a metric space with a single "hole" in it similar to pink example 'C' in the sidebar. He says that this is not simply connected because paths that go around the 'hole' in one direction cannot be "continuously deformed" into paths that go in the other direction. In other words 'C' is multiply, not simply, connected. I am not trained in topology, so can't be certain I am reading him correctly, but it looks to me like this image contradicts Barnsley. Baon (talk) 18:26, 24 January 2013 (UTC)

 * The image is very misleading, but it shows a black line coming out of the right side of the hole. This line is meant to be a thin gap in the pink area (which is clearer if you click through to the larger version of the image), meaning that it's impossible to have a path going all the way around the hole. --Zundark (talk) 18:42, 24 January 2013 (UTC)

 * I see. I guess I thought that was just a pointer without a label... Thanks for clearing that up. Baon (talk) 20:04, 24 January 2013 (UTC)

 * I got tricked by the image also. I almost deleted it before this conversation revealed to me that the line wasn't meant to be of finite length. I suggest removal of the "C is also simply connected" stuff A.) because the image is ambiguous regarding the pink region's simply-connectedness B.) because it is unnecessary to mention simple-connectivity on the main image of the page and C.) because explaining the technicality that makes the pink region simply connected would add confusing details irrelevant to the fundamental subject of the page. 72.44.12.209 (talk) 21:38, 30 July 2013 (UTC)

Disjoint disks need not be open for union to be disconnected
Regarding "Other examples of disconnected spaces (that is, spaces which are not connected) include...the union of two disjoint open disks in two-dimensional Euclidean space." I think this is misleading since the disjoint disks need not be open (in $$\mathbb{R}^{2}$$) in order for the their union to be open as a subspace (i.e. in the subspace topology).

Quinn (talk) 17:37, 27 December 2011 (UTC)

 * It's not true that the union of any two disjoint disks is connected, though; a closed disc and open disk that are tangent will have a connected union. So we can't just remove the word "open". We could try to expand the text to precisely characterize when the union would be disconnected, but that would take a lot of space and distract from the point of just giving an example. So it's easier to just leave in the hypothesis. The sentence does not say "if and only if", after all, so it's not wrong. — Carl (CBM · talk) 22:08, 27 December 2011 (UTC)

is the definiton correct?
It seems like words "relative topology" are missing from the definition. Without this specification the definition seems to be wrong. Consider an open interval $math$(0;1)$math$ and a point ${3}$. Single point in metric space is a closed set, thus you can never divide $math$(0;1) \Cup {3} $math$ into two open subsets in the original topology and should consider it connected. That is, obviously, a nonsence.

article formatting
I realize the guidelines of the Wikipedia math group don’t require it, but I have standardized the display of all mathematical symbols and expressions in the article to LaTeX. It was previously a mixture of the three typical fonts. The exception is the headers and captions of the images which I left unchanged, as some of the current fonts there were consistent with those within the image, which I cannot change — and the relative positioning of captions is tricky enough as it is. It is my feeling that consistency of font enhances readability and LaTeX is my personal preference — and what I know. But I am not especially invested in the matter, so anyone should feel free to revert any of it. Jmcclaskey54 (talk) 01:15, 9 June 2022 (UTC)

Open sets should redirect to https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Open_set#Notes_and_cautions
Definition 1 : X "is connected, that is, it cannot be divided into two disjoint non-empty open sets." This has a abuse of notation where instead of open topological spaces it says open sets. This has not been clarified so it should redirect to notes and caution in open sets. I don't know how to make this edit. This is why i am posting this in talk so someone else might. A topological space can be both open and closed.

This should also apply to first paragraph of the article 14.139.123.36 (talk) 06:19, 14 March 2023 (UTC)

"Locally path-connected space" listed at Redirects for discussion
The redirect [//en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Locally_path-connected_space&redirect=no Locally path-connected space] has been listed at redirects for discussion to determine whether its use and function meets the redirect guidelines. Readers of this page are welcome to comment on this redirect at  until a consensus is reached. 1234qwer1234qwer4 19:20, 4 November 2023 (UTC)

Arc connectedness issues
It seems that you added most of the contents for the section. It seems that a big part of it seems WP:OR, which as you know is not acceptable in Wikipedia. Do you have any specific references that can be used? In particular, referring to the condition that we care only about topologically distinguishable points. Also some of the statements mentioning an equivalence relation are mathematically incorrect. Looking forward to your comments. PatrickR2 (talk) 22:17, 3 February 2024 (UTC)

 * @PatrickR2 Well, there is no arc from a point to itself, so even if we restrict to T0 spaces, then the definition must at least say "there exists an arc between distinct points". The topological distinguishability generalizes distinctness to non-T0-spaces. Perhaps it is just my own extension. In that case it is possible to revert to assuming T0, and hence avoid WP:OR. Again, feel free to modify as you wish. Which statements are incorrect? Kaba3 (talk) 23:04, 3 February 2024 (UTC)
 * @Kaba3 Arc connectedness is usually defined as there exists an arc between any two points, where the case of two equal points is handled by the convention that a constant path is also an arc to make that work. That is used for example in Steen & Seebach.  Which is the same as "there exists an arc between distinct points", like you said.  Anyway, that's minor difference in presenting things.  But no need to assume T0.  From the definition, T0 spaces will not be arc connected.  That's perfectly fine.
 * On the other hand, (even with the convention above about constant paths) the relation "x and y are joined by an arc" is reflexive and symmetric, but is not  an equivalence relation. So much of what you wrote regarding that is not correct.  Does the notion of arc-component even make sense?  Please let me know what you think.
 * In any case, Wikipedia should only reflect well accepted sources and not have original material, even when that extra material is not incorrect. And all (most?) statements should ideally be backed by reliable sources.  So if you have good sources for any of that, we should definitely add them.  Otherwise, we can clean up some things. PatrickR2 (talk) 20:53, 5 February 2024 (UTC)
 * @PatrickR2 The relation corresponding to "there are arcs between indistinguishable points" would be "for points x and y, either x and y are indistinguishable, or there is an arc from x to y". But now that you mention it, I don't know whether it is always an equivalence relation. For $\Delta$-Hausdorff spaces, I believe it is by https://arxiv.org/pdf/2207.07242.pdf, because then path-connectedness and arc-connectedness coincide through loop-deletion. And in that case "arc-components" would be the path-components. Anyway, I agree that beyond those spaces the arc-connectedness section is currently on a shaky ground, and should be reverted to something citable. Kaba3 (talk) 21:26, 5 February 2024 (UTC)
 * Come to think of it, if the union of two arcs can be shown to be $\Delta$-Hausdorff, then that would prove the equivalence since the cited paper can be applied in the subspace of the union of the arcs. Kaba3 (talk) 21:55, 5 February 2024 (UTC)
 * For a simple example where the relation of joined by an arc is not transitive: Non-Hausdorff manifold. It is T1, but not Delta-Hausdorff. And the union of two arcs in not Delta-Hausdorff in that space.  PatrickR2 (talk) 00:24, 6 February 2024 (UTC)
 * @PatrickR2 Yes, when I had time to think it that's what I also came up with the exact same reasoning. Kaba3 (talk) 02:03, 6 February 2024 (UTC)
 * Thanks for the feedback. When I get some time, I'll edit a few things then and add references. PatrickR2 (talk) 03:20, 6 February 2024 (UTC)

title: Talk:Connected space


text:
The Best Years of Our Lives

The Best Years of Our Lives (also known as Glory for Me and Home Again) is a 1946 American drama film directed by William Wyler and starring Myrna Loy, Fredric March, Dana Andrews, Teresa Wright, Virginia Mayo and Harold Russell. The film is about three United States servicemen re-adjusting to societal changes and civilian life after coming home from World War II. The three men come from different services with different ranks that do not correspond with their civilian social class backgrounds. It is one of the earliest films to address issues encountered by returning veterans in the post World War II era.

The film was a critical and commercial success. It won seven Academy Awards: Best Picture, Best Director (William Wyler), Best Actor (Fredric March), Best Supporting Actor (Harold Russell), Best Film Editing (Daniel Mandell), Best Adapted Screenplay (Robert E. Sherwood), and Best Original Score (Hugo Friedhofer).

In addition, Russell was also awarded an honorary Academy Award, the only time in history that two such awards were given for a single performance.

It was the highest-grossing film in both the United States and United Kingdom since the release of Gone with the Wind, and is the sixth most-attended film of all time in the United Kingdom, with over 20 million tickets sold.

In 1989, The Best Years of Our Lives was one of the first 25 films selected by the Library of Congress for preservation in the United States National Film Registry for being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant".

Plot
Three returning World War II veterans meet on a flight to their midwestern hometown of Boone City: USAAF bombardier captain Fred Derry, U.S. Navy petty officer Homer Parrish, and U.S. Army sergeant Al Stephenson. Each had left a very different life behind:

Fred Derry was a drug store soda jerk who lived with his parents on the wrong side of the tracks. Before shipping out, Fred married a gold-digger named Marie after a whirlwind romance. Marie has since been working in a nightclub to fill her time (and her nightlife) in spite of Fred’s generous combat pay as an Air Force officer.

Al Stephenson was an executive at a bank and lived in an luxury apartment with his wife, Millie, and their teenage children, Peggy and Rob.

Homer Parrish was a star high school athlete living with his middle-class parents and younger sister. Homer had also been dating his next-door neighbor Wilma, whom he intended to marry upon his return from the war.

Each man faces challenges integrating back into civilian life. Homer lost both hands in the war and though he has become functional in the use of his mechanical hooks, he cannot believe that Wilma will still want to marry him. Al, tired and jaded from the war, returns to the bank and is given a promotion, but wrestles with alcohol. Though highly decorated, Fred suffers from PTSD flashbacks by night.

Fred arrives home and cannot locate his party girl wife, who does not expect him. The Stephensons and their daughter Peggy invite Fred along with them for the evening, bar hopping in celebration of Al’s return. An inebriated Fred keeps asking Peggy who she is, and she keeps reminding him that she is “Al’s daughter.”

Although proficient in managing the challenges of his disability, Homer is frustrated by his loss of independence and adjusting to his relationship with Wilma. Concerned that Wilma does not fully understand the difficulties of being married to him with his disabilities, Homer demonstrates to her how she will need to assist him at bedtime when he removes his harness with his prosthetic hands, leaving him helpless. Wilma believes she can commit herself to him for life.

Al continues to struggle with re-entry into normal life. Widely respected by the bank's senior management for his past business acumen, Al is criticized after approving an unsecured loan to a farmer and fellow veteran who wants it to buy forty acres, but has no collateral for the purchase. With inhibitions lowered by excessive drinking, Al gives a speech at a banquet that satirizes requiring a veteran to provide collateral before risking his life to take a hill in battle.

Unable to find a better job than soda jerk, Fred returns to the same drug store. Fred and Peggy develop an attraction for each other, which puts the married Fred at odds with Al. When Homer visits Fred at the drug store, another customer criticizes US involvement in the war, telling Homer his injuries were unnecessary. Homer responds angrily, and Fred intervenes on his behalf, punching the customer and consequently being fired. Meanwhile, Marie, frustrated with his lack of financial success and missing her past nightlife, decides to get a divorce. Bitter, and seeing no future in Boone City, particularly with Al telling Fred to stay away from Peggy, Fred decides to catch the next plane out. While waiting at the airport, Fred walks into an aircraft boneyard, climbing into a decommissioned B-17 bomber. Sitting in the bombardier's seat, Fred has another flashback. He is roused out of his stressful memories by a work crew foreman, who reveals that the planes are being demolished for use in the growing prefab housing industry. Fred asks if they need any help in the budding business and is hired.

Al, Millie, and Peggy attend Homer and Wilma's wedding, where Fred is best man. Now divorced, Fred reunites with Peggy after the ceremony. Fred expresses his love but says things may be financially difficult if she stays with him. Peggy's smile expresses her joy.

Cast
Casting brought together established stars as well as character actors and relative unknowns. The jazz drummer Gene Krupa was seen in archival footage, while Tennessee Ernie Ford, later a television star, appeared as an uncredited "hillbilly singer" (in the first of his only three film appearances). Blake Edwards, later a film producer and director, appeared fleetingly as an uncredited "Corporal". Wyler's daughters, Catherine and Judy, were cast as uncredited customers seen in the drug store where Fred Derry works. Sean Penn's father, Leo, played the uncredited part of the soldier working as the scheduling clerk in the Air Transport Command Office at the beginning of the film.

Teresa Wright was only thirteen years younger than her on-screen mother, played by Myrna Loy. Michael Hall (1926-2020), at the time of his death the last surviving credited cast member, with his role as Fredric March's on-screen son, is absent after the first third of the film. The reason was that Hall's contract with Goldwyn ended during filming, but the producer was reluctant to pay extra money to rehire him.

Production
Samuel Goldwyn was inspired to produce a film about veterans after reading an August 7, 1944, article in Time about the difficulties experienced by men returning to civilian life. Goldwyn hired former war correspondent MacKinlay Kantor to write a screenplay. His work was first published as a novella, Glory for Me, which Kantor wrote in blank verse. Robert E. Sherwood then adapted the novella as a screenplay.

Director Wyler had flown combat missions over Europe in filming Memphis Belle (1944), and worked hard to get accurate depictions of the combat veterans he had encountered. Wyler changed the original casting, which had featured a veteran suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder, and sought out Harold Russell, a non-actor, to take on the exacting role of Homer Parrish.

For The Best Years of Our Lives, he asked the principal actors to purchase their own clothes, in order to connect with daily life and produce an authentic feeling. Other Wyler touches included constructing life-size sets, which went against the standard larger sets that were more suited to camera positions. The impact for the audience was immediate, as each scene played out in a realistic, natural way.

Recounting the interrelated story of three veterans right after the end of World War II, The Best Years of Our Lives began filming just over seven months after the war's end, starting on April 15, 1946, at a variety of locations, including the Los Angeles County Arboretum and Botanic Garden, Ontario International Airport in Ontario, California, Raleigh Studios in Hollywood, and the Samuel Goldwyn/Warner Hollywood Studios.

In The Best Years of Our Lives cinematographer Gregg Toland used deep focus photography, in which objects both close to and distant from the camera are in sharp focus. For the passage of Fred Derry's reliving a combat mission while sitting in the remains of a former bomber, Wyler used "zoom" effects to simulate Derry's subjective state.

The fictional Boone City was patterned after Cincinnati, Ohio. The "Jackson High" football stadium seen early in aerial footage of the bomber flying over the Boone City, is Corcoran Stadium located at Xavier University in Cincinnati. A few seconds later Walnut Hills High School with its dome and football field can be seen along with the downtown Cincinnati skyline (Carew Tower and Fourth and Vine Tower) in the background.

After the war, the combat aircraft featured in the film were being destroyed and disassembled for reuse as scrap material. The scene of Derry's walking among aircraft ruins was filmed at the Ontario Army Air Field in Ontario, California. The former training facility had been converted into a scrap yard, housing nearly 2,000 former combat aircraft in various states of disassembly and reclamation.

Critical response
Upon its release, The Best Years of Our Lives received extremely positive reviews from critics. Shortly after its premiere at the Astor Theater, New York, Bosley Crowther, film critic for The New York Times, hailed the film as a masterpiece. He wrote, "It is seldom that there comes a motion picture which can be wholly and enthusiastically endorsed not only as superlative entertainment, but as food for quiet and humanizing thought... In working out their solutions, Mr. Sherwood and Mr. Wyler have achieved some of the most beautiful and inspiring demonstrations of human fortitude that we have had in films.' He also said the ensemble casting gave the ''best' performance in this best film this year from Hollywood'."

French film critic André Bazin used examples of Toland's and Wyler's deep-focus visual style to illuminate his theory of realism in filmgoing into detail about the scene in which Fred uses the phone booth in the far background while Homer and Butch play piano in the foreground. Bazin explains how deep focus functions in this scene: "The action in the foreground is secondary, although interesting and peculiar enough to require our keen attention since it occupies a privileged place and surface on the screen. Paradoxically, the true action, the one that constitutes at this precise moment a turning point in the story, develops almost clandestinely in a tiny rectangle at the back of the roomin the left corner of the screen.... Thus the viewer is induced actively to participate in the drama planned by the director."

Professor and author Gabriel Miller discusses briefly the use of deep-focus in both the bar scene and the wedding scene at the end of the picture in an article written for the National Film Preservation Board.

Several decades later, film critic David Thomson offered tempered praise: "I would concede that Best Years is decent and humane... acutely observed, despite being so meticulous a package. It would have taken uncommon genius and daring at that time to sneak a view of an untidy or unresolved America past Goldwyn or the public."

The Best Years of Our Lives has a 97% "Fresh" rating at Rotten Tomatoes, with an average rating of 8.9/10, based on 97 reviews. The critical consensus states: "An engrossing look at the triumphs and travails of war veterans, The Best Years of Our Lives is concerned specifically with the aftermath of World War II, but its messages speak to the overall American experience." On Metacritic, the film holds a weighted average score of 93 out of 100 based on 17 critics, indicating "universal acclaim".

Chicago Sun-Times film critic Roger Ebert put the film on his "Great Movies" list in 2007, calling it "... modern, lean, and honest".

Popular response
The Best Years of Our Lives was a massive commercial success, not only becoming the highest-grossing film of 1946 but the entire 1940s decade.

It opened to the public at the Astor Theatre in New York City on November 22, 1947, and grossed $52,236 in its first week. Its length restricted the film to six shows a day, cutting down on total ticket sales, and initially suffered by having a top midweek ticket price of $2.40, reducing gross revenue. It opened at the Woods Theatre in Chicago on December 18 before a roadshow theatrical release in Boston and Los Angeles, starting on the evening of Christmas Day. After 12 weeks at the Astor, the film had grossed $584,000 and at that point had grossed $1.37 million from 6 theatres in five cities from 45 play weeks.

the picture earned an estimated $10 million in theatrical rentals at the U.S. and Canadian box office during its initial theatrical run, ultimately benefiting from much larger admission prices (reflecting its exceptional length) than the majority of films released that year, which accounted for almost 70% of its earnings. When box office figures are adjusted for inflation, it remains one of the top 100 grossing films in U.S. history.

Among films released before 1950, only Gone With the Wind, The Bells of St. Mary's, The Big Parade and four Disney titles have done more total business, in part due to later re-releases. (Reliable box office figures for certain early films such as The Birth of a Nation and Charlie Chaplin's comedies are unavailable.)

However, because of the distribution arrangement RKO had with Goldwyn, RKO recorded a loss of $660,000 on the film.

Russell Academy Award
In spite of his moving performance, Harold Russell was not a professional actor. As the Academy Board of Governors considered him a long shot to win the Best Supporting Actor Oscar he had been nominated for, they gave him an Academy Honorary Award "for bringing hope and courage to his fellow veterans through his appearance". When Russell in fact won as supporting actor there was an enthusiastic response. He is the only actor to have received two Academy Awards for the same performance. In 1992, Russell sold his Best Supporting Actor statuette at auction for $60,500 ($ today), to pay his wife's medical bills.

In 1989, the film was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant".

American Film Institute included the film as number 37 in its 1998 AFI's 100 Years...100 Movies, as number 11 in its 2006 AFI's 100 Years...100 Cheers, and as number 37 in its 2007 AFI's 100 Years...100 Movies (10th Anniversary Edition).

Radio adaptations
The picture received four half-hour radio adaptations during 1947 and 1949: on Hedda Hopper's This Is Hollywood, The Screen Guild Theater (two) and Screen Directors Playhouse. In each case various actors reprised their film roles.

title: The Best Years of Our Lives