Krisna

(Krishna)

   The Krisna of Vedic myth as told in the Mahabharata would appear to have been a Ksatriya warrior, who fought at the battle of Kurusksetra at the time when the Indo-Germanic peoples were fighting their way towards the great Indian plain. His mystical teaching was received from Ghora Angirasa, as recorded in the Chandogya Upanishad and finally incorporated in the Gita of the Bhagavads. It is possible that the story of his overthrow of the tyrant Kamsa has a factual basis; the remainder of the legends about Krisna are probably myths of earlier heroes which have been incorporated into his story in the process of making him into a god. The Vishnu worship which grew up about Krisna may have been the result of an attempt to foist a sectarian god on the Vedic peoples by identifying Krisna as the eighth avatar of Vishnu. Details as to the manner in which Vasudeva was brought into the picture are given under the relevant entry. The legends of Krisna’s boyhood among the cowherds of Brindaban arise from his confusion with Gopala, a cowherd god of the nomadic tribe of Abhiras, who migrated into India about the first century AD, bringing with them the worship of a boy god and legends of the massacre of the innocents.

   The name Hari usually applied to Vishnu is sometimes given to Krisna. To the Tamils he was known as Mayon. His twin brother was the fair-haired Bala-Rama.