ate of the _Mahabharata_ war has been variously
assessed--'between 1400 and 1000 B.C.' (M.A. Mehendale in _The Age of
Imperial Unity_, 251) 'the beginning of the ninth century B.C. (Basham,
op. cit., 39)--the epic itself is generally recognized as being a product
of many centuries of compilation. The portions relating to Krishna the
hero may well date from the third century B.C. The _Gita_, on the other
hand, was possibly composed in the second century B.C. 'but assumed the
form in which it appears in the _Mahabharata_ today in the early centuries
A.D.' (Mehendale, op. cit., 249).

Note 5, p. 24.

The implication is that the Pandavas have not been granted ultimate
salvation i.e. final release from living but have reached the important
transitional level of 'the heaven of the doers of good deeds.' They have
also been granted the limited status of petty gods.

Note 6, p. 25.

_Harivansa_, 'the Genealogy of Krishna' but more literally, 'the Genealogy
of Hari,' a synonym for Vishnu. For the sake of clearness and to avoid
burdening the text with too much periphrasis, I have throughout referred
to Krishna as such. In the texts themselves, however, he is constantly
invoked under other names--Hari (or Vishnu), Govinda (the cowherd),
Keshava (the hairy or radiant one), Janarddana (the most worshipful),
Damodara ('bound with a rope,' referring to the incident (p. 32) when
having been tied by Yasoda to a mortar, Krishna uproots the two trees),
Murari ('foe of Mura, the arch demon' p. 58) or in phrases such as
'queller of Kaliya the snake,' 'destroyer of Kesi, the demon horse,'
'slayer of Madhu--the demon who sprang from the ear of Vishnu and was
killed by him.' A similar use of periphrasis occurs in Anglo-Saxon
kennings ('world-candle' for sun, 'battle-adders' for arrows). In the same
way, Abul Fazl's chronicle, the _Akbarnama_, never names the emperor Akbar
but refers to him in terms such as 'His Majesty,' 'the holy soul,' 'lord
of the age,' 'fountain of generosity,' 'the sacred heart,' 'the
world-adorning mind,' 'the decorated mansion of sports.'

Note 7, p. 26, 34, 46, 68, 69.

In Chapters 3 and 4 I have, in the main, strictly followed the _Bhagavata
Purana,_ incorporating, however, a few important details and passages
either not given in this text but included in the _Vishnu Purana_ or if
given, not so vividly expressed. The details and passages in question are
page 27 concerning the white and black hairs of Vishnu