It is so common among Hindus to laugh off and crack jokes about the number of wives Sri Krishna had. Do you know the real story behind it? It is so pitying that we have never tried to dig deep into the authentic Bhagavata Purana and know the real story of Shri Krishna’s life. We have often propagated a malicious narrative by socialists which is completely wrong and misleading.
Yes, Sri Krishna had 16, 108 wives as per Srimad Bhagavatam. You may find negative comments where Krishna is shown as a playboy by giving a false explanation of his 16,108 wives. So, let us explore the actual story here.
Sri Krishna had 8 principal wives known as Ashta-Bharyas, They were: Rukmini, Satyabhama, Jambavati, Nagnajiti, Kalindi, Mitravinda, Bhadra, and Lakshmana.
There was a demon by the name of Narakasura. He had captured 16,100 beautiful unmarried girls in this area and kept them as sex slaves. When Shri Krishna killed Narakasura, he freed these 16100 sex slaves of Narakasura. After freeing them, all the girls requested Shri Krishna to marry them as society would never accept them.
So they pleaded with Lord Krishna to accept them because nobody else is going to marry them and if he doesn’t accept them, then they will commit suicide. Being trapped in dharma, Shri Krishna accepted all women as his wives so that they live an honorable life and nobody dares to mock them. To restore their honor and give them the status of queen, Shri Krishna married them. That is how he came to have 16,108 wives.
All princesses of Lord Krishna were extremely beautiful and were attracted to Krishna’s beauty. Still, the Lord was not aroused by sexual appeal and thereby fulfilled his virtue perfectly by not indulging in any illegitimate relationship with any of these princesses.
