Makhan Chor: the butter thief of Gokul

A thief with a gang

Little Krishna stole butter and curd from every house in Gokul, and he did not work alone. He climbed onto mortars and his friends' shoulders to reach the pots hanging from the rafters. When a pot was too high, he knocked a hole in it with a stick and caught the stream in his hands. He fed his friends, and he fed the monkeys. When a house was dark, the Bhagavata says, the jewels on his body lit the way.

The complaints

The gopis came to Yashoda with their complaints, half furious and half delighted. He let the calves loose before milking time. He laughed at us. When we scold him he says we are the thieves, and that this is his house. As they talked, they kept looking at his face, and forgot to be angry.

The universe in his mouth

One day his friends ran to Yashoda: Krishna had eaten dirt. She held him and ordered him to open his mouth. Inside, she saw everything: the sky, the planets, oceans, mountains, the whole moving and unmoving world, and Gokul itself, with herself in it, holding her son. Then, the Bhagavata says, Krishna spread his maya over her again, and she forgot, and took him back on her lap as her child.

Maiya mori, main nahin makhan khayo

The 16th-century poet Surdas gave the butter-thief his most famous song, in Braj Bhasha. In it, the child pleads his innocence: Mother, I did not eat the butter. My friends smeared it on my face. How could my small hands reach those high pots? By the end Yashoda is laughing and hugging him, and the stick is forgotten.

Why steal butter?

Devotional teachers point out that the butter was churned with love by women who were thinking of Krishna all the while. He stole the butter as he steals hearts. That is why one of his most loved names is Chitchor, the stealer of hearts, and why makhan-mishri, butter with crystal sugar, is offered at Krishna temples everywhere.

Questions people ask

Sources

• Bhagavata Purana, Canto 10, chapter 8
• Surdas, Sur Sagar (16th century)

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