enthroned him as supreme in their hearts, they are endeavouring
to find for him a corresponding place in their intellects. To this end
they claim that Siva as Isvara is the highest of all forms of
existence; and this doctrine is growing and finding much favour. Among
the Aupanishadas there are many who reconcile it with the teaching of
the Upanishads by identifying Siva with Brahma. Thus a new light
begins to flicker here and there in the Upanishads as the conception
of Siva, a personal god wielding free grace, colours the pale
whiteness of the impersonal Brahma; and at last in the Svetasvatara,
which though rather late in date is not the least important of the
Upanishads, this theistic movement boldly proclaims itself: the
supreme Brahma, identified with Siva, is definitely contrasted with
the individual soul as divine to human, giver of grace to receiver of
grace. Later Upanishads will take up this strain, in honour of Siva
and other gods, and finally they will end as mere tracts of this or
that theistic church.

Yet another current is now beginning to stir men's minds, and it is
one that is also destined to a great future. It starts from Krishna.

The teaching of the Upanishads, that all being is the One Brahma and
that Brahma is the same as the individual soul, has busied many men,
not only Brahmans but also Kshatriyas, noblemen of the warrior order.
Some even say that it arose among the Kshatriyas; and at any rate it
is likely that they, being less obsessed with the forms of ritual than
the Brahmans and therefore able to think more directly and clearly,
have helped the Brahmans in their discussions to clear their minds of
ritual symbolism, and to realise more definitely the philosophic ideas
which hitherto they had seen only dimly typified in their ceremonies.

Krishna was one of these Kshatriyas. He belonged to the Satvata or
Vrishni tribe, living in or near the ancient city of Mathura.
Sometimes in early writings he is styled Krishna Devakiputra, Krishna
Devaki's son, because his mother's name was Devaki; sometimes again he
is called Krishna Vasudeva, or simply Vasudeva, which is a patronymic
said to be derived from the name of his father Vasudeva. In later
times we shall find a whole cycle of legend gathering round him, in
which doubtless there is a kernel of fact. Omitting the miraculous
elements in these tales, we may say that the outline of the
Krishna-legend is as follows: Krishna's father Vasudeva and hi