Krishna: Encyclopedia II - Krishna - The name

Krishna - The name

The Sanskrit name and word is written kṛṣṇa in IAST transliteration (the equivalent of Devanagari कृष्ण; see Sanskrit for pronunciation.)

The term Krishna in Sanskrit means "the all-attractive one".

In depictions, Krishna often appears as a black or dark-skinned figure, for instance in the modern murtis (statues) and pictorial representations of Lord Jaganatha at Puri (Krishna as Lord of the World). In the same representations, his brother and sister are shown with a distinctly lighter complexion. Early pictorial representations also generally show him as dark or black-skinned. Rajasthani miniature paintings of the 16th century are often of a brown or black-skinned figure. The name is sometimes said to mean dark blue, rather than black and by the 19th century, he is almost always shown as blue skinned.

The Mahabharata(Udyogaparva 71.4), gives this analysis of the word 'Krishna':

(Translation) - The word 'krish' is the attractive feature of the Lord's existence, and 'na' means 'spiritual pleasure.' When the verb krish is added to na, it becomes krishna, which indicates the Absolute Truth.

In the Vishnu sahasranama, Krishna is the 57th name of Vishnu, and means the "Existence of Knowledge and Bliss".

He is known by numerous other names or titles and the Gaudiya tradition has a list of 108 names. The most commonly used of these include:

• Acyutah
• Gopala - cowherd; protector of cows
• Govinda - protector of cows
• Hari - the fawn (or yellow or gold) coloured one
• Hrshikesha - master of the senses
• Jaganatha - lord of the universe (see also Juggernaut).
• Keshava – long haired; in some accounts, the killer of Kesi
• Madhava - bringer of springtime
• Panduranga
• Vāsudeva - a patronymic title, as he is the son of Vasudeva

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "The name", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki