Note 5 — CHAPTER 1

The Kaba race is almost extinct; it was famed, even in the days of Krishna, as the savage inhabitants of Saurashtra. When the forester Bhil, who mortally wounded Krishna, was expressing his contrition for the unintentional act, he was forgiven, with the remark that it was only retributive justice, as “in a former birth,” as the godlike Rama, Krishna had slain him. Thus Rama appears as the subjugator and civilizer of these indigenous tribes, of whom the Kabas are described as plundering Krishna’s family after his decease. [The Kābas, now extinct, were regarded as savage inhabitants of Saurāshtra in the Krishna tradition, and are said to be the ancestors of the modern Vāghers (BG, viii. 271, 587).]