circumstances surrounding his develop-
ment in utero, Balarama is also known
as Sankarshana (“dragging away”).
Balarama is raised with Krishna in
Nandaand Yashoda’s household and
takes part in many of Krishna’s adven-
tures, including the slaying of Kamsa.
Balarama is usually portrayed as hav-
ing a fair complexion, whereas Krishna
is dark. According to one story, when the
gods approach Vishnu to take form on
earth, he plucks both a white hairand a
black hair from his head. The former is
born to Rohini as Balarama, the latter to
Devaki as Krishna.
Jayadeva’s Gitagovindapresents a
different picture of Balarama. Jayadeva
is closely linked to the Jagannathtem-
ple in Puri, whose presiding deity
( Jagannath) has been assimilated into
the pantheon as Krishna. For Jayadeva,
Jagannath/Krishna is not a form of
Vishnu but the Ultimate Reality from
whom all the avatars spring. Jayadeva
incorporates Balarama into the pan-
theon as the eighth avatar, to fill the
place left by Krishna’s promotion to
supreme god.Bali
In Hindu mythology Bali is a demon
who is tricked by Vishnuinto granting
the god three paces of land of his own.
Bali does this with little thought because
Vishnu has come in the form of a dwarf
(vamana), but when the gift has been
given, Vishnu grows immensely large
and claims the whole universe, relegat-
ing Bali to the Patalaunderworld. See
also Vamana avatar.Bali
(2) In Hindu mythology, a monkey-king
in the Ramayana, the earlier of the two
great Hindu epics. Bali and Sugrivaare
brothers who together rule the kingdom
of Kishkindha, but enmity develops
between them, and Bali drives away his
brother and takes Sugriva’s wife. After
the abduction of the god Rama’swife
Sita, Sugriva meets with Rama and theBali
Hindu temple in Bali, Indonesia. In the early centuries of the common era,
Hinduism was introduced to Bali by merchants and traders,
where it was transformed by the influence of both Buddhist and indigenous religious beliefs.