The childhood stories of Krishna — the ones that earned him the name Makhan Chor, "butter thief" — are told most fully in the tenth book of the Bhagavata Purana. Composed in Sanskrit and widely dated to between the 8th and 10th centuries CE, the text devotes its longest single book to Krishna's life, from his birth in Mathura to his return there as a young man. The butter stories belong to the years he spent in the village of Gokul and the surrounding forest of Vrindavan.
Why the butter
The Bhagavata Purana places Krishna in a community of gopas and gopis — cowherds and milkmaids. Their economy was milk. Curd, butter and ghee were stored in clay pots, often hung from beams in the kitchen high above the floor to keep them out of reach of children and animals.
According to the text, Krishna would form gangs with other cowherd boys, including his friends Sridama, Subala and others named in the eleventh chapter of the tenth book. They would enter houses, climb on each other's shoulders, and break the pots.
The complaints to Yashoda
The text records the complaints the village gopis brought to Yashoda, Krishna's foster mother. He fed butter to monkeys. He broke pots in homes where he had not been invited. When the butter was hidden, he found it. When the gopis caught him, he turned the accusation around, saying he had not stolen anything — the butter, he said, was his.
The Bhagavata Purana describes Yashoda's responses with a particular tenderness: she scolds him, she ties him to a mortar to keep him still, she finds she cannot stay angry.
The episode of the mortar
One of the most-told stories of his childhood is the binding of Krishna to a wooden mortar. The text describes Yashoda catching Krishna at the butter pot. She decides to tie him up. She ties a rope around his waist and tries to fasten the other end to the mortar. The rope is too short. She fetches a longer rope, and that one too falls short by a finger's width. No length of rope can be made to reach.
Eventually, the text says, she succeeds — not because the rope grows, but because Krishna allows it. This story is the origin of one of his epithets: Damodara, "bound at the waist by a rope."
The trees
Tied to the mortar and left alone, Krishna crawls outdoors, dragging the heavy mortar behind him. He passes between two large arjuna trees growing close together. The mortar wedges between them. He pulls. The trees uproot and fall.
The Bhagavata Purana identifies the two trees as the cursed forms of two semi-divine beings, the sons of Kubera, who had been transformed by the sage Narada for an earlier offence. Their release is the purpose of the entire episode.
How the story has been retold
The butter stories have been told and retold in painting, poetry, music and dance. The padas of the 16th-century poet Surdas describe them at length. The Gita Govinda of Jayadeva (12th century) references them. They appear in Rajput and Pahari miniature painting, in temple sculpture, and in classical and folk dance traditions across India.
The festival of Janmashtami — Krishna's birthday, observed in August or September — includes a ritual called dahi handi, particularly in Maharashtra, where teams of young men form human pyramids to break a pot of curd hung high above the ground, re-enacting the original theft.
How the Anahat Butter Bandit design represents him
The Anahat Butter Bandit t-shirt is illustrated with the young Krishna at the moment of the butter theft. The design draws from traditional Indian devotional iconography and is rendered in the warm palette associated with Krishna in folk and miniature painting. It is part of Anahat's Devdutt Pattanaik collection.
Wear the Butter Bandit
Young Krishna, hand-illustrated on premium organic cotton. Designed in India by Anahat.
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FAQ
Where are Krishna's butter-theft stories told?
Most fully in the tenth book of the Bhagavata Purana, a Sanskrit text dated to between the 8th and 10th centuries CE. They also appear in the Harivamsa and later devotional poetry.
What does "Makhan Chor" mean?
Makhan is butter, chor is thief. "Makhan Chor" is one of Krishna's common epithets, referring to the butter-theft stories of his childhood.
Why is Krishna called Damodara?
From the episode in which Yashoda binds him to a mortar with a rope around his waist. Dama means rope, udara means belly.
What is dahi handi?
A ritual observed especially in Maharashtra during Janmashtami, in which a pot of curd is hung at height and teams of young men form human pyramids to break it. It re-enacts the butter theft.
What does the Butter Bandit design depict?
The Anahat Butter Bandit t-shirt illustrates young Krishna at the moment of the butter theft. The artwork is part of Anahat's Devdutt Pattanaik collection.