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that this clan-god Krishna once learned the great truth that the sun is the All-god, at the mouth of a Brahman, is what might be expected. 'Krishna, the son of Devaki,' is not only the god, but he is also the progenitor of the clan, the mystic forefather, who as usual is deified as the sun. To the priest he is merely an avatar of Vishnu. The identity of Krishna with the Gangetic god described by Megasthenes can scarcely be disputed. The latter as represented by the Greek is too great a god to have passed away without a sign except for a foreigner's account. And there is no figure like his except that of Krishna
The numerous avatars[88] of Vishnu are first given as ten, then as twenty, then as twenty-two, [89] and at last become innumerable. The ten, which are those usually referred to, are as follows: First come the oldest, the beast-avatars, viz., as a fish; as a tortoise;[90] as a boar (rescuing earth from a flood); and as a man-lion (slaying a demon). Next comes the dwarf-avatar, where Vishnu cheats Bali of earth by asking, as a dwarf, for three steps of it, and then stepping out over all of it (the 'three strides' of the Rig Veda). Then come the human avatars, that of Paraçu-R[=a]ma (R[=a]ma with the axe), Krishna, R[=a]ma[91] (hero of the R[=a]m[=a]yana epic), Buddha, and Kalki (who is still to come).
The parallels between the latest Krishna cult and the Biblical narrative are found only in the Pur[=a]nas and other late works, and undoubtedly, as we have said in the last chapter, are borrowed from Christian sources. Krishna is here born in a stable, his father, like Joseph, going with his virgin spouse to pay taxes. His restoring of a believing woman's son is narrated only in the modern J[=a]imini Bh[=a]rata, These tales might have been received through the first distant Christian mission in the South in the sixth century, but it is more likely that they were brought directly to the North in the seventh century; for at that time a Northern king of the V[=a]içya caste, Çil[=a]ditya (in whose reign the Chinese pilgrim, Hiouen Thsang, visited India), made Syrian Christians welcome to his court (639 A.D.).[92] The date of the annual Krishna festival, which is a reflex of Christmastide, is variously fixed by the Pur[=a]nas as coming in July or August.[93]
