ORIENTAL SERIES.

160 KRAVYAD KRISHNA.
KRAYYAD. ' A flesh-eater. 5 A
Rakshasa or any carnivo-
rous animal In the Yeda, Agni is in one place called a Kravyad
of terrible power.
Fire is also a Kravyad in consuming "bodies
on the funeral pile. See Agni.
K.S/PA. Son of the sage $aradwat, and the adopted son of
King $antanu. He "became one of the privy council at Hastinapura,
and was one of the three surviving Kuru warriors who
made the murderous night attack upon the camp of the Pa^avas.
He was also called Gautama and Saradwata. See Kripa and
Maha-bharata.
KRIPA, KftlPI Wife of DroTza and mother of Aswatthaman,
The sage $aradwat or Gotama so alarmed Indra by his
austerities that the god sent a nymph to tempt him. Though
she was unsuccessful, two children were found born to the sage
in a tuft of grass. King Santanu found them and brought them
up out of compassion (kripa), whence their names, Knpa and
Kripa. The children passed as $antanu's own. Drona was a
Brahman and Santanu a Kshatriya : the myth makes Kripi a
Brahmam, and so accounts for her being the wife of Drona,
The Vishmi Purafta represents them as children of Satya-dhnti,
grandson of tfaradwat by the nymph Urvasi, and as being exposed
in a clump of long grass.
KjRJSH^A.
'
Black/ This name occurs in the jf&g-veda,
but without any relation to the great deity of later times. The
earliest mention of Krishna, the son of Devakl, is in the Chhandogya
Upanishad, where he appears as a scholar. There was a
Bishi of the name who was a son of Yiswaka. There was also
a great Asura so named, who with 10,000 followers committed
fearful devastation, until he was defeated and skinned by Indra.
In another Yedic hymn, 50,000 Krishnas are said to have been
slain, and it is added in another that his pregnant wives were slain
with him that he might leave no posterity. This is supposed
to have reference to the Bakshasas or to the dark- coloured
aborigines of India,
The modem deity Krishna is the most celebrated hero of
Indian mythology, and the most popular of all the deities.
He is said to be the eighth Avatara or incarnation of Vishnu,
or rather a direct manifestation of Yislwu himself. This hero,
iround whom a vast mass of legend and fable has been gathered,
probably lived in the Epic age, when the Hindus had not ad