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14. THE CONCEPT OF AVATARS
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RI. TA83:
"Three immortal precepts (footsteps)..when practiced lead to heaven-self restraint, charity, conscientiousness."
This portion indicates the influence of Buddhism on the cult on the cult of Vasudeva and does not indicate Bhakthi as a way.
Megasthenes also refers to a god who was worshipped by the local Sourasenoi (Surasena Kshatriyas) in whose land was two great cities, Methora (Mathura) and Kleisobora (Krishnapura?) and through it flowed the river Jobores (Yamuna) called Herakles ( Greek - Hercules) which is also claimed by the Vaishnavites as actually Krishna. The German orientalist Christian Lassen (1800-1876] was the first scholar to bring Megasthenes into the debate on the borrowing theory. He noted that Megasthenes wrote of Krishna under the pseudonym of Heracles and that Heracles, or Krishna, was worshipped as God in the area. The only similarity is that Hercules fought and killed a dragon and Krishna subjugated the Naga the King of the Serpents. How Greek God Hercules is identifiable as Krishna is anyone's guess as if Krishna needed a Pseudonym and the people actually worshipped Him with that
name!
"No individual character like Krishna or Rama can be found through archaeology," said Prof. B.D. Chatopadhyay of the Centre for Historical Studies at JNU. "Archaeology can reconstruct the material culture of a people. Krishna is known from legends, epics and puranas. Interpolating archaeology with literature is fraught with difficulties. The efforts of some historians and archaeologists to correlate textual evidence with archaeological finds have not found a consensus even among themselves, and serious archaeologists are questioning the exercise." http://www.mahabharataonline.com/articles/mahabharata_article.php?id=32
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