874 K R I 
KREU'PEL, a fmall ifiand near the weft: coaft of Bor¬ 
neo. Lat. 3. 57. N. ion. 112. 25. E. 
KREUS'BACH, a town of Auftria : nine miles fouth- 
fcuth-eaft of St. Poiton. 
KREU'TZBURG, a town of Ruflia, in the government 
of Polotfk, on the Duna: 60 miles eaft-fouth-eaft of Riga, 
and 104 north-weft of Polotfk. 
KREU'TZEN, or Creu'tzen, a town of Auftria: two 
miles north-weft of Grein. 
KRE'WITZ, a town of Mecklenburg: thirty-two 
miles fouth-fouth-weft of Roftock, and ten eaft of Schwe¬ 
rin. Lat. 53.40. N. Ion. 11.45. E. 
KRE'WO, a town of Lithuania, in the palatinate of 
Wilna: forty-two miles louth-eaft of Wilna. 
KREY'SCHA, a town of Saxony : one mile n.orth- 
eaft of Torgau. 
KREY'WIS, a town of Bohemia, in Leitmeritz : three 
miles north-north'-eaft of Kamnitz. 
KRIA'NY, a town of Poland, in the palatinate of Lub¬ 
lin : eight miles eaft of Lublin. 
KRICHEVSKAI'A, a town of Ruflia, in the govern¬ 
ment of Archangel, on the Dwina : fixteen miles l’outh of 
Cholmoffori. 
KRICHIN'GEN. See Creange, vol. v. 
KRIECH'BAUM, a town of Auftria, ten miles eaft- 
north-eaft of Steyregg. 
KRIE'GLA, a town of the duchy of Stiria : eleven 
miles north-eaft of Pruck. 
KRIE'GSTETTEN, a bailiwick of Swifferland, in the 
canton of Berne. 
KRI'ENS AND HORB, a bailiwick of Swifferland, in 
the canton of Lucerne. 
KRI'GIA, f. in botany, a genus of the clafs fynge- 
nefia, order sequalis. Generic effential characters—Re¬ 
ceptacle naked ; calyx many-leaved, fimple ; feeds crown¬ 
ed with a five-leaved membrane alternating with as many 
bri files. 
Krigia Virginica/a fingle fpecies. Scapes one-flowered ; 
leaves lyrate, lanceolate, glabrous. Native of Virginia. 
KRIJINAGUR', a town of Hindooftan, in Mewat: 
eighteen miles north-north-eaft of Alvar. 
KRIJINAGUR', a town of Hindooftan, in Agimere : 
fifteen miles eaft-north-eaft of Roopnagur. 
KRI'KA, a diftrift or country of Africa, in the king¬ 
dom of Calbari. 
KRIM. See Crimea, vol. v. 
KRIM'PE, a town of Holland, on the Merwe : fix 
miles eaft of Rotterdam. 
KRINK, a town of Iftria: twelve miles fouth-fouth- 
Caft qf Capo d’lftria. 
KRIS, a tribe of North-American Indians, inhabiting 
the banks of Lake Chriftineaux. They can raife 1200 
warriors. 
KRISAN'ITZTHURN, a town of Croatia : three miles 
Louth of Sluin. 
KRISH'NA, or Crishna. SeeKisiiNA, p. 767 of this 
•volume. 
KRJSH'NA, or Crishna, in Hindoo mythology, one 
of the avataras, or incarnations, of the god Vifhnu, (fee 
the article Hindoostan, vol. x. p. 116, 17.) in which he 
is Laid by the feftaries, who exclufively worfhip him un¬ 
der this name, to have magnified himfelf in a degree of 
power and glory far exceeding any other of his forms. 
They maintain, indeed, that, under the other avataras, lie 
affumed only an anja , or portion of his divinity, while 
Krifhna was Viftinu himfelf in mortal mould. A numer¬ 
ous feet, called Gokalafta, from Gokala, one of KriHina’s 
names, worfnip him exclufively, or conjointly with his 
confort Radha, or Lechemy : this Left are immeafurably la- 
vifh in their praifes, and vehement in their adoration, of 
this deity ; while other lefts of Hindoos call Krilhna an 
impious wretch, a mercilefs tyrant, an incarnate demon, 
now expiating his crimes in lieil. Molt of the extrava¬ 
gant tales related of Krilhna may be refolve.d into a con- 
|lnued foiar allegory 5 for he is a perfenification of the 
K ft I 
fun, and correfponds with the Apollo of the Greek?.! 
But fome French writers have impioully compared him 
with Jefus Chrift. On this fubjeft the following paffage 
occurs in Moor’s Hindoo Pantheon, whence chiefly this 
article is taken. Defcribing a plate of Krifhna deftroying 
Kiliya, “It has,’’ he lays, “been furmifed by refpeftablo 
writers, that the fubjeft here reprefented has reference to 
an awful event figuratively related in our Scriptures ; and 
Krilhna is not only painted, as feen in the plate, bruif- 
ing the head of the ferpent, but the latter is'made to re¬ 
tort by biting his heel. Among my images and piftures 
of this deity (and they are very numerous, for he is en- 
thufiaftically and extenfively adored, and his hiftory af¬ 
fords great icope for the imagination) I have not one ori¬ 
ginal, nor did I ever fee one, in which the fnake is biting 
Krifhna’s foot j and I have been hence led to fufpeft, that 
the plates engraved in Europe of that aftion are not folely 
of Hindoo invention or origin. I may ealily err in this 
inftance ; but I am farther ftrengthened in the fufpicion, 
from never having heard the faft alluded to, in the many 
converfations that I have held with Brahmans and others 
on the hiftory of this avatara. Sonnerat was, I believe, 
the firft who exhibited Krifhna cruihing a fnake ; how, 
otherwife would he or any one kill it fo eafily and obvi- 
oully, as by ftampingon its head ? Nor can the reptile in 
any mode retort but by biting the foot of its affailant. Zeal 
fometimes may have in its refults the fame effefts as infi¬ 
delity ; and one cannot helplamenting thata fuperftrufture 
requiring fo little fupport Ihould be encumbered by awk¬ 
ward buttrelfes, fo ill applied, that they would, if it were 
polfibJe, diminilh the liability of the building that they 
were intended to uphold. Of this defeription were the 
zealous refearches of fome milfionaries, who in Brahma 
and Sarafwati eafily found Abraham and Sarah 5 and the 
Chriftian Trinity is as readily dilcovered. in the monftrous 
.Trimurti of the Hindoos. Or this defeription aho, I am. 
difpofed to think, are the attempts at bending fo many 
of the events of Krilhna’s life to tally with tnofe real or 
typical of Jefus Chrill’s. That Krilhna, according to his 
hiftorians, palled a life of a molt extraordinary and incom- 
prehenlible nature, may be admitted ; and that his name, 
and the general outline of his ftory, exilled long anterior 
to the birth of our Saviour, is very certain, and probably 
to the time of Homer. His miracles are amazing, but 
ridiculous; a term that may, perhaps, be applied to a ma¬ 
jority of the legends detailed with fuch prolixity in the 
modern poem, the Sri Bhagavata. He is reprefented as 
the meekeft, tendered, and molt benevolent, of beings 5 
{till, however, he fomented the terrible war deferibed in 
the Mahabarat; he wafhed the feet cf the Brahmans, he. 
exhibited an appearance of exceflive libertinifm ; but it 
was, they fay, ail maya, or delufion, for he was pure and 
chafte in reality ; he uplifted mountains, raifed the dead, 
defeended into hell, and performed fuch motley exploits, 
as induced fir William Jones (Af. Ref. i. 274.) to think 
that “ the fpurious gofpels, which abounded in the firlt 
ages of Chriftianity, were carried to India, and the wildelt 
parts of them repeated to the Hindoos, who engrafted on 
them the old fable of Kefava, the Apollo of Greece.” 
In that very curious work tranllated by Mr. Wilkins, 
entitled Bhagavat-Gita, Arjun, the fon of Pandu, ad- 
drefles Krilhna as “ the fupreme Brahm ; the molt holy 3 
the molt high god ; the divine being before all other gods; 
without birth ; the mighty lord ; god of gods ; the uni- 
verfal lord.” In different parts of the Gita he fays of 
himfelf, “ I am, of things tranfient, the beginning, the 
middle, and the end ; the whole world was fpread abroad 
by me in my invifible form. At the end of the period kal- 
pa, all things return into my primordial foure.e; and, as 
the beginning of another kalpa, I create them all again* 
I am the creator of all mankind, uncreated, and without 
decay. There is not any thing greater than I, and all 
things hang on me, as precious gems on a firing. I am 
the underltanding of the wife, the glory of the proud, the 
ftrength of the itrdng. I am the eternal feed of all na¬ 
ture $ 
