Krsna Kirtana Songs est. 2001                                                                                                                                                      www.kksongs.org

Words Starting with K

 

Kabandha – the torso-shaped demon with long arms, slayed by Rāma and Lakṣmaṇa to free him from the curse

 

kacchapa – see Kurma

 

kahervā – a commonly used eight beat cycle

 

Kaikasī – wife of Viśravā, mother of Kumbhakarṇa, Rāvaṇa, Sūrpanakhā, and Vibhiṣaṇa

 

Kaikeyī – mother of Bharata; extracted the two boons from Daśaratha to make Bharata the king and exile Lord Rāma for fourteen years

 

Kaiṭabha – a demon killed by Lord Viṣṇu

 

kāla – eternal time

 

kalam – the hammer like tool used to strike strings on the santūr

 

Kālanemi – 1) demon killed by Viṣṇu 2) demon sent by Rāvaṇa to distract Hanumān from finding the saρjīvanī plant

 

Kālī – 1) the fiercest form of Durgā 2) wife of Bhīma and mother of Sarvagata

 

Kāliyā – cobra who lived in the Yamuna with his wife; subdued by Kṛṣṇa

 

Kaliyuga – the present age of quarrel and hypocrisy; started roughly five thousand years ago

 

kalpa-taru – desire tree

 

Kalyāna – 1) benediction 2) one of the ten thāṭs of North Indian music

 

Kalyāna Kalpataru – one of Bhaktivinoda Thākura’s songbook describing the process of bhakti as a desire tree with important thematic branches

 

kāma – material desire; lust

 

Kāmadeva – demigod of material desire; “cupid”

 

Kāmadhenu – the cow of Paraśurāma

 

Kaḿsa – the demoniac tyrant king of Mathurā who tortured the pious citizens and imprisoned his sister Devakī and friend, Vasudeva, for an oracle that their eighth would kill him; after instigating many attempts to kill Kṛṣṇa, he was killed by Kṛṣṇa

 

kaρjirā – a frame drum made of lizard skin used in South Indian music

 

kansa-svara – a quick light touch of a note

 

karatāla – (lit. “to make rhythm”) 1) wooden blocks struck together in a similar fashion that castanets would be played 2) Bengali fine tuned cymbals

 

Kareṇumatī – wife of Nakula and mother of Naramitra

 

karma – action in the material world which results in some sort or reaction, good or bad

 

karma-kāṇḍa – rituals recommended in the Vedas for those interested in material benefits

 

karma-yoga – performing action towards service to the Supreme Lord without expecting any fruits of the action

 

karmī – one who performs actions and enjoys the results of them

 

Karṇa – the son of Kuntī and Suryadeva, but was raised by the charioteer, Adhiratha, and his wife, Rādhā. One of the commander-in-chiefs of the Kaurava army.

 

Karṇa Parvana – the eighth book of the Mahābhārata discussing the war when Karṇa was the commander-in-chief

 

Kārtika – October-November

 

Kārtikeya – commander-in-chief of the army of demigods; son of Lord Siva and Pārvatī

 

karuṇā – mercy

 

Kātyāyanī – form of Durgā who the gopis worshipped in order to get Lord Kṛṣṇa as their husband

 

Kauśalya – mother of Lord Rāma

 

Kesari – father of Hanumān, a general of the ape army

 

Keśava – name of Kṛṣṇa; killer of Keśi

 

Keśava Kāśmīrī – a famous scholar who was defeated in a poetry competition by Lord Caitanya

 

Keśi – the horse-demon who was killed by Kṛṣṇa

 

Keśi-ghaṭā – the location where Keśi was killed

 

khālī – 1) lit. “empty” in Hindi 2) the start of the deaccented vibhag; denoted by a “0” in Bhātkhāṇḍe notation

 

khamak – (khomok) a stringed instrument where there is simultaneous action between pulling the string and plucking it which produces a unique pitch fluctuations

 

Khammāja – one of the ten thāṭs of North Indian music

 

khaṇḍa – the class of rhythmic cycles having properties of a five-beat count

 

Khāṇḍava – (Khāṇḍavaprastha) the dense forestland which was given to the Pāṇḍavas during the partition of the land of the Kurus; constructed to form Indraprastha

 

Khara – one of Rāvaṇa’s distant brothers

 

khemtā – a six beat folk rhythm

 

khīr – (kheer) see kṣīra

 

khol – (lit. “open”) two-headed clay drum used commonly in Bengali bhajanas and kīrtanas

 

Kīcaka – the brother of the king of Virāṭa who tried to harass and abuse Draupadī, killed by Bhīma

 

kināra – 1) bank of a river 2) the outer rim on the head of the tabla, pakhawaj, or khol

 

kinnara – a celestial being

 

kīrtana – congregational chanting or speaking of the Lord’s name or glories

 

kīrtī – fame

 

Kīrtīdā – mother of Srīmatī Rādhārāṇī

 

Kiṣkindhā – the city consisting of bears and apes, ruled once by Vāli, then Sugrīva

 

Kiṣkindhā Kāṇḍa – canto describing pastimes and the friendship of Lord Rāma and Sugrīva

 

kiśora – the peak of youth (male); (female kiśorī)

 

konnakol – the names used to describe sounds produced on South Indian percussion instruments; South Indian analog for bols

 

kṛpā – mercy

 

Kṛpā – (Kṛpācārya) the royal priest of the Kuru dynasty from the end of Sāntanu’s reign; fought on the Kaurava side and was one of the few survivors of the Mahābhārata war

 

Kṛṣṇa – 1) the Supreme Personality of Godhead (lit. “All-Attractive”) 2) a twenty-beat cycle 3) the dark-phase within the month

 

Kṛṣṇā – 1) Druapadī 2) a name of one of the gopīs 3) “dark”

 

Kṛṣṇa Consciousness – (Kṛṣṇa bhāvanāmṛta) the state of constantly remembering and loving Kṛṣṇa

 

Kṛṣṇa Dvaipāyana Vyāsa – see Vyāsadeva

 

Kṛṣṇaloka – see Goloka

 

kṛta – written work

 

Kṛtavarma – a chief of the Yadu race; aided in the theft of the Syāmāntaka jewel; joined the Kauravas during the Mahābhārata War; one of the three survivors of the Kauravas

 

kṣatriya – the administrative class

 

kṣīra – (kheer) (lit. “milk”) a rice-milk sweet

 

Kṣīrodakaśāyī Viṣṇu – the expansion of Viṣṇu that enters into the heart of every created being and into every atom; the Supersoul

 

kumāra – the middle age of youth

 

Kumāra sampradāya – one of the four original sampradayas; founded by the four Sanat-kumāras

 

Kumbhakarṇa – younger brother of Rāvaṇa and elder brother of Vibhiṣaṇa

 

Kumbha-mela – a festival where many pilgrims gather

 

kumkum – red decorative tempera

 

Kuntī – wife of Pāṇḍu and the mother of Yudhiṣṭhira, Bhīma, and Arjuna; mother of Karṇa; aunt of Balarāma and Kṛṣṇa

 

Kuntībhoja – foster-father of Kuntī

 

Kurma – the tortoise incarnation of Lord Kṛṣṇa

 

Kuru – the dynasty of the Bharatas; the Lunar dynasty

 

Kurukṣetra – the pilgrimage site where the Mahābhārata war took place and the place where the Bhagavad-Gītā was spoken

 

Kuśa – son of Lord Rāma, elder brother of Lava

 

kuśā – special grass used in rituals by brāhmaṇas

 

Kuśadhvaja – father of Maṇḍavī and Srutakīrtī; father-in-law of Bharata and Satrughna

 

Kuvalayāpīḍa – the angry-elephant that was charged by his keeper to kill Kṛṣṇa