Materials for the Study of the Early History of the Vaishnava Sect c8.269

c8.269

Dr. Keith has dealt fully with the subject in J. R. A. S., 1915, pp. 548-550. “In the Chhāndogya Upanishad we hear of a pupil Kṛṣṇa Devakīputra, of Ghora Āṅgirasa who is credited with certain doctrines. We are asked to believe that this is an historical reference to the Kṛṣṇa of the epic. It is a much more credible hypothesis on the theory of the identity of the Kṛṣṇas that we have in this Kṛṣṇa a euhemerism, a reduction to human rank of a tribal God and it is the only hypothesis which does not raise serious difficulties as to the date of the divinity of Kṛṣṇa and his appearance in the epic. That text never treats Kṛṣṇa as a mere ordinary mortal teacher; when he teaches he reveals himself as the Supreme Being and we cannot ignore the fact that his divine nature is clearly known throughout the epic, which in a part claimed as old by Garbe (II, 2291) calls him Gopījanavallabha revealing him already as the beloved of the Gopīs, a feature which sits oddly on a presumed warrior-teacher, but which accords well with a god of Kṛṣṇa's type closely connected with pastoral life. Moreover, it is impossible to ignore the fact that in the epic Kṛṣṇa appears in his actions and his practical advice in a very different aspect from the Kṛṣṇa of the Upaniṣad, who appears in a passage where among other virtues the telling of truth is inculcated."'¹