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THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY.
[OCTOBER, 1874.
by the people of the Panjab at that period, and Panjab, but which, having been used for these difficult to understand now, and in that variationsacred books, is called the Gurmukhi, the words of the Nagari character which is common in the having been uttered by the Guru.
CORRESPONDENCE AND MISCELLANEA. STRICTURES ON PROF. WEBER'S KRISHNA. anniversary in almost every nation, and is as JANMASHTAMI.
naturally observed by Hindus as by Christians; SIR-I have read with great care Prof. Weber's while prima facie the fact that one birthday is article on the Hindu festival of Krishna's Birth- celebrated in mid-winter and the other in midday; but the special argument is imbedded in summer does not seem a very valid reason for such a mass of irrelevant matter that I cannot feel connecting the two. sure that I have thoroughly apprehended the The essay displays unquestionably much learning writer's intention. Concisely stated, his reason- and some ingenuity; bnt the Professor frankly ing appears to be as follows:
admits that one-half of his subject, viz. Christian 1st. The similarity in several striking inci. archæology, is strange ground to bim, as is very dents between the Gospel narrative and the legends evidently the case, otherwise he would scarcely related of the deified Krishna suggests the idea of refer the Rosary (a devotion instituted by St. some connection between the two. This is grant- Dominic in the 13th century) to Siva's garland of od on all sides; and if the connection could be skulls, and conceive that the name was a mistransproved there would be nothing in it to shock the lation, by early Christians of some very remote most scrupulous Catholic theologian
period, of the Sanskrit japa-mdla. Again, what 2nd. The idea is strikingly confirmed by the is stated about the variety of dates on which Indian tradition that the doctrine of salvation by Christmas used to be celebrated requires some faith in the one god Krishna was brought by qualification: for St. John Chrysostom-in his serNa rada from the northern region of Sveta-dvipa, mon, quoted by Prof. Weber, preached in 386 A.D. which may be interpreted to mean white man's notes (it is true) that at Antioch the festival had land,' or Europe. This again is no novel dis- only been in existence for ten years, but adds that covery.
at Rome it had been celebrated on the 25th of 3rd. If any European country is really intend- December from the first days of Christianity. The ed, it would probably be Egypt; as the connection remark also that the Madonna-cult has some with Alexandria was easier than with any other connection with the worship of Isis can scarcely place. This also is an obvious sequence.
have been introduced except from a wanton desire 4th. The popular pictorial representation of to give offence; since after discussing the point Krishna at his mother's breast, assumed to be a (which has no bearing whatever on the main argucopy of a picture of the Madonna and Child, must ment) through several long columns, the writer is have boen borrowed-if from Alexandria-before at last obliged-though showing a strong personal the Muhammadan occupation of that city in 640 bias in its favour-to admit that the theory is unA.D. Granted.
founded, since the oldest picture in the Catacombs 5th. It may have been borrowed so early as is distinctly classical, and has no leaning whatever the second century, since there are frescoes of the to the Egyptian type. Madonna and Child of that date in the Catacombs.
F. S. GROWSE. Admitted.
Mathurá, N. W. P. April 23, 1874. 6th. Between the two limits of the second and seventh century the most probable period would be from 350 to 431 A.D. : because till 431 the
KANDHÅR AND SOMANÅTH. Alexandrian Church celebrated not the birth of SIR, -At page 445 of the Appendix to vol. I. of Christ, but his baptism, on the 6th of January, Sir H. Elliot's History of India, Professor Dowson and after that time observed, as now, the festival has fallen into an inaccuracy which you may of his birth on the 25th of December, in the same think worthy of notice. The passage I allude to way as the Hindus observe the festival of Kfishna's is : birth in the month of July or August.
"About this time the Sindian Arabs engaged in This last step in the argument, the only one a naval expedition against Kandahar, at which of any individuality, is difficult to follow. I fail place the idol temple was destroyed, and a mosque to detect the slightest parallelism in the two facts raised upon its ruins. Here, again, we have that are brought together. A birthday is an greatly to reduce the distance within which these
