Krishna. Krishna easily fends him off
and kills him, earning himself the name
of Keshimanthana, “destroyer of Keshi.”
Keshimanthana
(“destroyer of Keshi”) Epithet of the
god Krishna. Keshi is one of the
demon assassins sent by Krishna’s uncle
Kamsato kill the child Krishna. Keshi
appears in the form of a horse, but
Krishna easily destroys him, as he does all
the other demons.
Keshini
In Hindu mythology, one of the wives of
King Sagar. Through a sage’s boon,
Keshini and her co-wife Sumati are
given a choice in the number of children
they will bear—one will bear a single son
through whom the lineage will continue,
whereas the other will bear sixty thou-
sand sons who will die before they
have any offspring. Keshini chooses the
former, and through her son
Asamanjasathe line of King Sagar is
preserved. Her descendants are particu-
larly important, since her great-great-
grandson is the sage Bhagirath, who
succeeds in bringing the river Ganges
from heavento earth.
Ketu
A malevolent “planet” in Hindu astrology
(jyotisha), and was originally the body
of a demon. According to the story, the
gods and the demons join forces to
churn the ocean of milk to obtain the
nectar of immortality. The gods manage
to trick the demons out of their share.
While the gods drink the nectar, the
demon Sainhikeyaslips into their midst
in disguise. As the demon begins to
drink, the sunand moonalert Vishnu,
who uses his discus to cut off the
demon’s head. Sainhikeya’s two halves
become immortal, since they have come
into contact with the nectar. The severed
body becomes Ketu, and the severed
head becomes another malevolent
planet, Rahu. Ketu is not regarded as a
physical planet, but as the descending
node of the moon, or the place where it
intersects the ecliptic while passing
southward. Ketu is also associated with
comets and fiery meteors, generally
considered signs of ill omen. See
Tortoise avatar.Khadga
(“sword”) In Hindu iconography, the
sword is an object associated with a
variety of deities. It carries strong asso-
ciations with Kali, symbolizing the cut-
ting off of her devotees’ (bhakta)
ignorance. Sometimes it is literally used
to cut off heads of the animalssacrificed
to her. The sword is also carried by other
images of the Goddess, including Durga
and Santoshi Ma, as well as certain
images of Shivaand Vishnu.Khajuraho
Small village in the Chattarpur district of
the northern state of Madhya Pradesh,
renowned for a magnificent collection
of temples built about a thousand years
ago by the Chandella dynasty. It is
unclear why these temples were built in
such an inaccessible place, although its
remote location is believed to have
spared the temples from iconoclasm
during Muslim incursions. The most
famous Hindu temples at the site are the
Kandariya Mahadev, Lakshmana, and
Vishvanath. There are many smaller
temples to other Hindu deitiesand sev-
eral Jain temples as well.
The temples at Khajuraho were built
in the northern Indian Nagarastyle. The
building replicates a sacred mountain
with the highest point directly over the
primary image. The outside of the tem-
ples were decorated with sculptural
images, and the most famous of these
depict women in various explicit sexual
encounters. The significance of the erotic
sculptures is much debated. Some claim
that the sculptures sanction carnal plea-
sure as a religious path, while some
interpret them to represent human
union with the divine. Still others view
them as teaching that the desire forKhajuraho