KRSNA. - Before being identified with the god Viṣṇu and elevated to the honours of worship, K. was a valiant prince of the lineage of the Yādavas, who, having taken from Kamsa, tyrant of Mathurā, both his kingdom and his life, became the leader and national hero of the Yādavas. On his father’s side, he was a cousin of the Pāṇḍavas, with whom he is found allied in the great battle described in the *Mahābhārata*, which ends with the defeat of the Kauravas.
Yet K. does not always cut a fine figure in the epic poem. A hero in the hour of battle, he is not overly scrupulous in the choice of means when it comes to securing success. It is he who induces Arjuna to signal to Bhīma to break the thighs of Duryodhana with the club-stroke forbidden to duelists by the rules of chivalry, and his conduct is not always worthy of the god made man, who in the *Bhagavadgītā* (q.v.) imparts to Arjuna such lofty teachings. For the complex figure of the god, derived from the fusion of various deities, see INDUSMO. Here we refer only to the constituent elements of the legend of K., in the form in which it was handed down by the *Harivaṃśa* or “Genealogy of Hari (Viṣṇu)”, an appendix to the *Mahābhārata*, no older than the 3rd century A.D.
KRSNA — KRUMBACHER KARL
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to forge the “holy alliance” against Napoleon. The field of her prophetic preaching was Germany and Switzerland, but from there she was expelled in 1817; returning to Germany, she was again banned the following year, taking refuge, as a guest of Prince Galitzin, in the Crimea, where she died. Some poetic compositions, an autobiographical novel (*Valérie*, 1803), with a Wertherian flavour, and a short work of exuberant inspiration (*Camp de vertus*), published posthumously in 1841, survive from her.