[42] 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.

Additionally, the inscription includes a Krishna-related verse from chapter 11.7 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).

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.

[71] Yāska's Nirukta, an etymological dictionary published around the 6th century BCE, contains a reference to the Shyamantaka jewel in the possession of Akrura, a motif from the well-known Puranic story about Krishna.

[74][75][76]Megasthenes, a Greek ethnographer and an ambassador of Seleucus I to the court of Chandragupta Maurya towards the end of 4th century BCE, made reference to Herakles in his famous work Indica.

[77] 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.

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.

[106] 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.

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.

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.

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.

[135] 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.

[138] 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.

[146] Some scholars believe that, among others, the detailed description of Krishna's peace mission in the 5th Book of the Mahabharata (Udyogaparvan) is likely to be based on real events.

van Buitenen in this context assumes “that there was some degree of verisimilitude in the Mahabharata’s depictions of life.”[147] A wide range of theological and philosophical ideas are presented through Krishna in Hindu texts.

[23] Ramanuja, a Hindu theologian and philosopher whose works were influential in Bhakti movement,[148] presented him in terms of qualified monism, or nondualism (namely Vishishtadvaita school).

[207] 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,[104] a local form of Krishna, from the 13th to 18th century.

[208] 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.

[197] In South India, the acharyas of the Sri Sampradaya have written reverently about Krishna in most of their works, including the Tiruppavai by Andal[210] and Gopalavimshati by Vedanta Desika.

[211] 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.

[212] 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.

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.

[217] Titled "Hare Krishna Mantra", the song reached the top twenty on the UK music charts and was also successful in West Germany and Czechoslovakia.

[222][223][224] Krishna remained a part of the Javanese cultural and theological fabric through the 14th century, 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.

[227][228] 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.

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).

[25][235] 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.

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.

In this way, Krishna shares an exalted station with Abraham, Moses, Zoroaster, Buddha, Jesus, Muhammad, the Báb, and the founder of the Baháʼí Faith, Bahá'u'lláh.

Krishna worship or reverence has been adopted by several new religious movements since the 19th century, and he is sometimes a member of an eclectic pantheon in occult texts, along with Greek, Buddhist, biblical, and even historical figures.