Keshi (demon)

[1] Keshi assumes the form of a huge horse, who gallops at the speed of thoughts, wears the earth with his hooves and scatters celestial vehicles and clouds in the sky with his mane.

Krishna's arm expands, and Keshi chokes to death, as sweat flows from his body, his eyes roll and he struggles kicking his feet.

As Keshi falls lifeless on the ground, assuming his true demon form, the gods and Narada extol Krishna.

However, Keshi first appears in the episode when Kamsa calls the host of demons to kill all male children, once he realizes Krishna is born.

[5] The Harivamsa from the epic Mahabharata also narrates the incident in a similar fashion complete with Narada's praise identifying Krishna as Vishnu.

[7] In the Atharvaveda (2nd millennium BCE), Keshi, the "hairy one", first appears as being described as a demon who attacks the unborn, though not in relation to Krishna.

A line from passage 8.6 which describes evils that attack female fetuses reads as: "Let us keep the black asura Keśin, born in the reed clump, snout-mouthed and all other harmful creatures, away from her genitals and her loins" [IAST original].

Phyllis Granoff, a scholar on Indian religions, opines that the Keshi is a demon of childhood diseases or miscarriage, like the demoness Putana, who were both killed by the infant Krishna.

[9] Metropolitan Museum of Art parallels Krishna killing Keshi to the labour of Greek hero Heracles - slaying the horses of Diomedes.

In the third chapter, Arjuna ask a question to Lord Kṛṣṇa: "If it is your conclusion that knowledge is superior to action, O Janārdana, why do you direct me to do this terrible deed, o Keśava?"