کشن kishan कृष्ण S̱. n. prop. The most cele- brated form of Vish̤ṇu or rather Vish̤ṇu himself; being distinct from the ten avatārs or incarna- tions. He was the younger brother of the third Rāma (or Balarāma). His parents were Va- sudeva and Devakī; but he was brought up in the house of Nanda and Yasodā, to conceal him from the tyrant Kansa, to whom it had been predicted that a child, the eighth of this family, would destroy him. In the family of Nanda he passed his youth, among the gopas and gopīs. During his childhood he vanquished the serpent Kāliya, and slew many giants and monsters. Afterward, he put the tyrant Kansa to death, protected Yudhish̤ṭhira, and kindled the war described in the Mahābhārata. He is the Apollo of the Hindūs, and is supposed by Colonel Wilford to have lived about 1300 years before Christ.
