The Snake in the River

A poisonous serpent was killing the river. Krishna was just a boy. He jumped in anyway.

A giant poisonous serpent named Kaliya has poisoned a bend of the Yamuna river near Vrindavan. The water is black, the fish are dying, and even birds flying overhead drop from the sky. Little Krishna jumps in alone, tames the serpent by dancing on his hoods, and sends him away so the river can live again.

A River Going Quiet

In the village of Vrindavan, on a hot afternoon, something was wrong with the Yamuna.

The boys had taken the cows down to drink, the way they did every day. But today the cows would not bend their heads. They sniffed the water and stepped back. They mooed unhappily.

Krishna's friend Sridama looked closer at the river. He went pale.

The water was black.

Not dirty black. Not muddy black. A strange, oily black, with a smell that made the boys cover their noses. Dead fish floated on the top. A little further upstream, a bird had fallen out of the sky, just from flying over.

"What is happening to our river?" the boys whispered.

Little Krishna stood at the edge of the bank. He had peacock feathers in his hair. He had butter on his fingers from breakfast. He was about as tall as your shoulder.

He looked into the dark water and his face went very serious.

The Serpent in the Pool

The villagers came running. The mothers, the cowherds, the old grandfathers. They all gathered on the banks. And slowly, the elders explained.

Deep in this part of the Yamuna, in a pool so deep it had no bottom, there lived a great naga named Kaliya.

Kaliya had many heads. Each one as wide as a cot. Each one full of poison. He had come here long ago to hide from Garuda, the great eagle who hunted serpents. And ever since he had moved into the river, his poison had been seeping out, drop by drop, until the whole bend of the Yamuna had turned bitter.

"Nobody can go near him," said an old man. "Even the air above the pool is poisoned. Birds drop from the sky."

"What will we do?" cried the women. "Our cows cannot drink. Our children cannot bathe. The fish are all gone."