Krishna's big brother fought with a plough, and once outranked him
Balarama, elder brother of Krishna, carries a plough as his weapon and was worshipped as a farming god long before he joined Vishnu's avatars. On Indo-Greek coins from the second century BCE he takes the front face while Krishna sits on the reverse, a hint that the older brother once held the higher rank.
His names describe him. Haladhara and Halayudha mean the one who bears or fights with a plough, while Baladeva and Balabhadra refer to his strength, bala in Sanskrit. Early images show him with a plough, a pestle or a mace and a many-headed serpent, emblems that point to a rural, agricultural cult. As Samkarshana he was a powerful local deity among the Vrishni heroes of Mathura from around the 4th century BCE, and Kautilya's Arthashastra mentions devotees with shaved heads or braided hair.
Archaeology backs up his seniority. Coins of the Indo-Greek king Agathocles, from roughly 185 to 170 BCE, put Balarama on the Greek-inscribed side. At Chilas in northwest Pakistan, a first-century engraving labelled Rama-Krsna in Kharosthi script shows the plough-bearer as the larger figure. The Mora well inscription near Mathura, from between 10 and 25 CE, records five Vrishni heroes installed in a stone temple. His absorption into the list of Vishnu's avatars came later and is not found in the Vedas; Jayadeva's Gita Govinda of about 1200 counts him as the ninth of ten, while some Gujarati temples place him eighth.
In the stories, his embryo is moved from Devaki's womb to that of Rohini to escape the tyrant Kamsa, which some texts link to his name Sankarshana, the one drawn away. He grows up among cowherds beside Krishna, fights demons sent against them, and uses his plough to drag the Yamuna closer to Vrindavan. Teacher of the mace to both Duryodhana and Bhima, he stays neutral in the Mahabharata war and is furious when Bhima wins with a foul blow to the thigh, until Krishna reminds him of Bhima's vow.
Pale-skinned where Krishna is dark, he is revered as patron of farmers and one of the triad of the Jagannath tradition, and Jains know him as Baladeva. Tradition places his departure from the world near the Somnath Temple in Gujarat, where a white serpent is said to have left his mouth.
Source: Balarama
