s we find used are
Gopa, Gopi and Vraja. This is indeed remarkable. For the descriptions
of the removal of Krishna as an infant to Nanda, the cowherd's hut,
of his childhood passed in playing with the cowherd boys, and of his
youth spent in amorous sports with the milkmaids are set forth at
great length, but the word Abhira is not once met with. From this
only one conclusion is possible, that is, that the Abhiras did not
originally represent the Gopas of Krishna. The word Abhira occurs for
the first time in connection with the Krishna legend about A.D. 550,
from which it follows that the Abhiras came to be identified with
the Gopas shortly before that date." [23]

This argument is interesting as showing that Abhira was not originally
an occupational term for a herdsman, nor a caste name, but belonged
to an immigrant tribe. Owing apparently to the fact that the Abhiras,
like the Gujars, devoted themselves to a pastoral mode of life in
India, whereas the previous Aryan immigrants had settled down to
cultivation, they gave their name to the great occupational caste
of herdsmen which was subsequently developed, and of which they may
originally have constituted the nucleus. The Gujars, who came to India
at a later period, form a parallel case; although the Gujar caste,
which is derived from them, is far less important than the Ahir,
the Gujars have also been the parents of several Rajput clans. The
reason why the early Mathura legends of Krishna make no mention of
the Ahirs may be that the deity Krishna is probably compounded of at
least two if not more distinct personalities. One is the hero chief of
the Yadavas, who fought in the battle of the Pandavas and Kauravas,
migrated to Gujarat and was killed there. As he was chief of the
Yadavas this Krishna must stand for the actual or mythical personality
of some leader of the immigrant nomad tribes. The other Krishna,
the boy cowherd, who grazed cattle and sported with the milkmaids of
Brindaban, may very probably be some hero of the indigenous non-Aryan
tribes, who, then as now, lived in the forests and were shepherds
and herdsmen. His lowly birth from a labouring cowherd, and the
fact that his name means black and he is represented in sculpture
as being of a dark colour, lend support to this view. The cult of
Krishna, Mr. Crooke points out, was comparatively late, and probably
connected with the development of the worship of the cow after the
decay of Buddhism. This latter K