ever visits it is freed from all his sins. See Wilson, _Vishnu
Purana_, V. p. 155.]

[Footnote 377: A most curious chapter of the Vishnu Purana (IV. 13)
contains a vindication of Krishna's character and a picture of old
tribal life.]

[Footnote 378: Neither can I agree with some scholars that Krishna
is mainly and primarily a deity of vegetation. All Indian ideas about
the Universe and God emphasize the interaction of life and death,
growth and decay, spring and winter. Krishna is undoubtedly
associated with life, growth and generation, but so is Siva the
destroyer, or rather the transmuter. The account in the Mahabhashya
(on Pan. III. 1. 26) of the masque representing the slaughter of
Kamsa by Krishna is surely a slight foundation for the theory that
Krishna was a nature god. It might be easily argued that Christ is a
vegetation spirit, for not only is Easter a spring festival but there
are numerous allusions to sowing and harvest in the Gospels and Paul
illustrates the resurrection by the germination of corn. It is a
mistake to seek for uniformity in the history of religion. There were
in ancient times different types of mind which invented different
kinds of gods, just as now professors invent different theories about
gods.]

[Footnote 379: The Krishna of the Chandogya Upanishad _receives_
instruction but it is not said that he was himself a teacher.]

[Footnote 380: Hopkins, _India Old and New_, p. 105.]

[Footnote 381: Bhandarkar. Allusions to Krishna in Mahabhashya,
_Ind. Ant._ 1874, p. 14. For the pastoral Krishna see Bhandarkar,
_Vaishnavism and Saivism_, chap. IX.]

[Footnote 382: The divinity of Radha is taught specially in the
Brahma-vaivarta Purana and the Narada pancaratra, also called
Jnanamritasara. She is also described in the Gopala-tapaniya
Upanishad of unknown date.]

[Footnote 383: But Kamsa appears in both series of legends, _i.e._, in
the Ghata-Jataka which contains no hint of the pastoral legends but is
a variant of the story of the warlike Krishna.]

[Footnote 384: Vishnu Purana, V. 10, 11 from which the quotations in
the text are taken. Much of it is repeated in the Harivamsa. See for
instance H. 3808.]

[Footnote 385: The Muttra cycle of legends cannot be very late for the
inscription of Glai Lomor in Champa (811 A.D.) speaks of Narayana
holding up Goburdhan and a Cambojan inscription of Prea Eynkosey (970
A.D.) speaks of the banks of the Yamuna where Krishna sported. These
legends