Materials for the Study of the Early History of the Vaishnava Sect c8.265

c8.265

Max Müller denies² and Macdonell and Keith doubt the identity of Kṛṣṇa Devakīputra of the epic and the Purāṇas with Kṛṣṇa Devakīputra of the Upanishad. Referring to the Kṛṣṇa of the Upanishad the latter scholars observe in the Vedic Index, “Tradition and several modern writers like Grierson, Garbe and Von Schroeder recognise in him the hero Kṛṣṇa who later is deified. In their view he is a Kshatriya teacher of morals, as opposed to Brāhmaṇism. This is extremely doubtful. It appears better either to regard the coincidence of name as accidental, or to suppose that the reference is a piece of euhemerism.”