Mohna is an epithet of Vishnu or Sri Krishna. The name ‘Mohana’ as an epithet of Vishnu (Sri Krishna) does not appear in the original list of one thousand epithets of Vishnu in the Mahabharata. The term as one of the thousand epithets of Vishnu occurs in Skanda Purana. The term is used as an epithet of Shiva in Skanda Purana and also as an epithet of kama in Brahmanda Purana. This term also means “one of the seventy hosts in the eastern direction of Hara Narayana”; these are Shaiva hosts and fifty Vaishnava hosts. The term mohana means “mythical weapon of pisacas” and “one of the five arrows of Kama” (Narayaneeyam).
Krishna and Krishna lila seem to be one. Due to Krishna lila is often called Mohana, meaning “bewildering, perplexing, stupefying, infatuating, fascinating.” In Hindu writings of Sri Krishna, one hears many names of Krishna more frequently than the name of Krishna itself, because Hindu devotional writers take delight in playing with words. Lika Kama and Shiva, Sri Krishna also incites women to frenzy and abandon. Sri Krishna is also referred to as Madana Mohana – “alluring as the God of love.” It is as Madana Mohana that Sri Krishna/Jagannatha is often worshiped in Puri (Odisha) during Dolyatra or Holi. In the late dramatic text Vidagdha Madhava of Rupadeva Gosvami, the term Mohana is used for Sri Krishna.