Indian Antiquary Vol 03

Author(s): Jas Burgess
Publisher: Swati Publications

Page 31

JANUARY, 1874.)
WEBER ON THE KRISHNAJANMASHTAMI.
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supposition with regard to "Krishna's triumph over the great serpent Kaliya" as "borrowed from the triumph of Christ over Satan." But in the case of two other legends he assumes partly "a travestie of Christianity," partly a direct borrowing from the Gospel. And an anonymous reviewer of Wheeler's book in the Athenaeum, No. 7076 (Aug. 10, 1867), pp. 168, 169 speaks much more decidedly. This writer is not content with the similarity between the names Kộishna and Christ, Yadu and Juda, and the interpretation of Devaki as "Divine Lady;" but, a la P. Georgi, he connects Yasod and Vasudeva with Joseph, † and Gokula with Goshen. In the comparison of the matter of the legends also, which he takes from the Bhagavata Pur., there is much that is very wonderful. The result he reaches is that "it must be admitted that there are most remarkable coincidences between the history of Krishna and that of Christ. This being the case, and there being proof positive that Christianity was introduced into India at an epoch when there is good reason to suppose the episodes which refer to Křishra were inserted in the Mahd Bharata, the obvious iuference is that the Brahmans took from the Gospel such things as suited them." If these words can be taken to imply agreement with Kleuker's view, one may accept them. But if we are to understand by them that the history of Krishna took its origin from the "Gospel history" (and the author does not seem particularly averse to such a view), we cannot agree to them.
• The healing of the woman who had been bowed down for eighteen years and who was made straight by Christ on the sabbath-day, and the incident of the woman who broke an alabaster box of spikenard and poured it upon his head, seem to have been thrown together in the legend of Kubja." The legends about Krishna given at pp. 385-417 of this work, the representation of the efficacy of mere sight of him in taking away sin (by beholding Krishna her sins were forgiven her, p. 386), and the legend of the restora. tion to life of the dead son of Duḥsala (p. 414) are not taken from the Maha Bharata, as the composer Bays, but (of my remarks in the Lit. C. Bl. July 4th, 1866, No. 28, D. 757) from the Jaimini Bharata, a work that partakes of the character of the Puranas. This is interesting because it follows that the Persian translation of the Maha Bharata, on which Wheeler's book, according to Rajendra-Lala Mitra's latest investigation in the Proceedings of the Asiatic Society of Bengal, Jan. 1868) reats, made use of the Jaimini Bharata as well as the Mahd Bharata.
+ His words leave it uncertain if it is not Vasudeva alone which he identifies with Joseph. "His real mother was Devakt, which signifies the Divine Lady, and his reputed mother Yasoda or Yashoda (sic). His father's name was Vleudev. In comparing this word (Vasudeva then) with Yusef, we must remember that Dev in Sanscrit signifies Divine, and the d appears to have been inserted (sic!) from that word.
KArahno (Krishnena drishtah schol.) abar shah pAryaso bhavati (asteva su prataram'iti, and ah me indram iti, schol.) Krishno haitad Angiraso bråhmandchanalyâyai tritiyasa vanam dadarsa.
That Devakt is to be taken in this way, and so has etymologically nothing to do with deva, God, Appears certain on grammatical grounds. It is the feminine of devaka (root div), a nartak is of nartaka. Conf. Un. 2-39.(Can the love-game of Krishna with the shepherdesses, which plays
For however obscure the older history of the Kộishra-cult still is, this much is certain, that it rests on the following bases. First we find Kfishna, son of Devaki, in the Chándogyopanishad, 5, 17,5; (3, 17, 5 in Roer, p. 221, Rajendra Lala Mitra, p. 63) as the eager scholar of Ghora Angirasa (see Colebr. Misc. Ess. II. 197; Ind. Stud. I, 190). Nay, we may perhaps go higher. In the eighth mandala of the Riksamhita there is a gdyatri song to the two Asving (8,74) with a refrain which shows a certain amount of artistic effort, whose poet ca himself, in vv.2 and 3, Krishna. The Anukramani of the rik. attributes nlso to him the two following hymns to the Asvins (8, 75, 76), and three hymns to Indra (10, 42-44); it calls him an Angirasa, and the Sankhay. Brahmana 30, 9 agrees fully with it in reference to 10, 42, 43. I Now in these two last hymns there is very special reference to games with dice (devana), so that the supposition that we have here to do with the son of devaki, female player,' is an admissible one, though of course no great weight can as yet be laid on it. As corresponding to the passage in the Chandogyop. there might have been adduced, so long as we had not an exact text, a passage in the Åtmaprabodha-Upan. where Krishna Devakiputra, in Anquetil du Perron's words, appears as "doctus factus et doctos amicos habens" (see Ind. Stud. I, 190; II, 8, 9). But from the original,|| as we have it now, we can see clearly enough the secondary character of the passage and of the whole Upanishad.
such a prominent part in the later Krishna-legend, not be connected with this way of taking the word P) Devaka appears in the Rik. is the proper name of a foe conquered by Indra (7, 18, 20); in the M. Bhar., on the other hand, as the name of a king, a Gandharva prince whose daughter Devakt was carried away at her san vara (1.e. svayamvara) by the Yaou hero Sini for his cousin Vasudeva, the son of Siva (7. 6032-86). This legend of V Asudeva's marriage is quite different from the later one. The name Devakt occurs elsewhere ; in B Ana's Harshacharita (v. Hall, Intro. to Vása. radatta, p. 53) it is said that Devasena of Suhma was poison. ed by Devaki (but may devakt not be an appellative here P)
|| It is cited in Svapnešrara's schol. to the sandilyas atra 63 (page 36 of Ballantyne's edition, Bibl. Ind., New Series, No. 11) as sruti (Vasudeug.vishaye parabrahmapratyabhind cha fruvate) and is found, according to Ballantyne, in the " Narayanopanishad" (Atharvasirasi, dagake 6, vákya 9)
a follows: bralmanyo Devaki putro brahmanyo Ma. dhusudana) sarvabhatasthan ekam narayanam ka. ranarú pam akdranam parabrahmasvarúpam iti. Il And two St. Petersburg MSS. of the Nardyanopanishad that appears as part of the Atharvafiras (gee Ind. Stud. II. 53, 545 give them at the end in the following connection:
Om namo nArAyanayeti mantropeako Vaikunthabhuvanam gamishyati tad idam pundarikáksham vijnanaghanam, tasmat tach chidâbhâsamatramom brahmanyo Devakiputro brahmanyo Madhusudana' iti (iti is wanting in one MS.) waryabhat e. n. k. akars (na)m param brah mom etad atharva siro, yo' dhite pratar adhiyano råtrikitam pápem nféa yati, sêyam adhiyAno divasakritam p. n. ..... Though the construction of the words “br. Dev. br. M." is unfortunately obscure, it-is clear enough that we have here to do with a sectarian text whose business it is to identify the Devak putra with the highest brahman, which here bears the neutral name Nardyanam. (Compare Colebrooke, II, 112.)