Indian Antiquary Vol 03

Author(s): Jas Burgess
Publisher: Swati Publications

Page 61

FEBRUARY, 1874.)
WEBER ON THE KRISHŅAJANMÅSHTAMI.
proosepi repositus. Another consideration against Mrs. Jameson's view is that this representation of the Madonna coith the Child is in fact found in India, and something like it in China; while we know that the entrance of Christian ideas into India and Chinn, 80 far as it is to be referred to the older missionaries of the Middle Ages, was brought about by the Nestorians. Of course we must remark here, on the other hand, that the influence of their opponents must not be underestimated. In the list of the dependencies of the Constantinopolitan diocese, for which we are indebted to Nilos Doxopatrios in the 12th century, we find that formerly the Patriarch of Antioch had under his charge the whole of Asia, including India, "wbere even now he nominates the Catholicus of Romogyri." And in the case of India at least we must look on Alexandria as the chief source of Christian influence, whether directly by Christian messengers, or indirectly by Indians who had come there to trade, or from some spiritual want; and it is in Alexandria, according to Mrs. Jameson's view, that we are to look for the peculiar locale of the group of the Madonna and sucking Child. For, in her opinion, it is to be referred to an Egyptian model," the Egyptian type of Isis nursing Horus" (Intr. p. xxii.), with which Cyril, "who was so influential in fixing the orthodox
books," must have been acquainted, since he had passed the greater part of his life in Egypt." That the Madonna-cult has some connection with the worship of Isis, which took such a high place in the Roman time, has often been suspected, and the consideration just mentioned may be taken as a new motive in the calculation. Nor is this idea of Mrs. Jameson's new. Twenty years before it was put forth and defended by Raoul Rochette in his very interesting paper "Discours sur l'Art du Christianisme" (Paris, 1834), pp. 33, 39. Unfortunately he gives no example of a Byzantine group of the Madonna Lactans" of whose dato we can be certain, and my want of acquaintance with this field makes it impossible for me to supply this defect. We can scarcely suppose that a man like Raoul Rochette would have advanced such a supposition without a substratum of fact. The defect is, however, the more to be regretted, because, as we shall see in the sequel, one of our Indian pictures which represents "Krishna drink. ing from his mother's breast" bears a remarkable resemblanco to the Egyptian picture of " Isis nursing Horus." The existence of Byzantino media would be of service in explaining what must be obscure in the absence of such media. A hope which I cherished with reference to this point has unfortunately been disappointed. Remember.
• The Gothaartcabinet in the decal castle of Friedenstein hne in ita Chinese division three small statuettes cut out of soap-stone, which are called in the catalogue (Nos. 835, 809, 906) " Tien han mother of heaven) of Shingmu (holy mother)," and represent a female figure who bears a child in her lap and stands ou a lotus. The notice in the catalogue is taken from a popular work on China, in which it is stated that among the numerous idols in tbe Buddhistie and other temples is one which cannot fail to interest a Christian, and his curiosity will be heightened by the account the bonze gives of this object of his worship. It is a feveale figure which generally bears an infant in her arms, and is called Tien haa (mother of heaven) or Shingmu (heavenly mother). The greatest care is taken to preserve this image: it is generally found, with a green veil over it, in a niche behind the altar, and a halo round her hemel." Ac. cording to Gätzlaff in J. S. Davis's China (translated by Bazin, Paris, 1837) II, 49 ff., we must assume a Nestorian origin for this Tien bau and Shingmu, while others are inclined to date them from the time of the Portuguese. There is the same controversy about the monument of Binganfa, which pnrports to date from the year 781, and has been often described : compare Salisbury in the Journal Am. As. Soc. III, 401 fr. 1852. However the controvery about the authenticity of Singanfu may be decided. it is impossible to deny the existence of early Christian Nestorian missionaries in China: conf. La Croze, p. 48; Salis. bury. 7. That the Chinese themselves see the analogy be. tween their queen of heaven and the Virgin is evident from the Chinese description of the earth, of which Gütalaff gives an scout in the z. der D. M. G. VI, 577. where it is muid of the Catholica (Ms contrasted with the teaching of Lather) that "the latter pray most to the mother of Jesus, MA, who is the queen of heaven." Gützlaff adds the remork that "the Chinese have also a goddess called Ms, or Matsupa, to whom they pray." We may contpare also the worship of the goddess Kouan-yin, to whom, according to the Marquis de Courcy, L'Empire du Milieu (Paris, 1867), p. 262, numerous altars are dedicated in China, and who is the divine symbol of justice, compassion, and om. nipotent intercession, and is sometimes represented with
little child in her Arms, bestowing blessings ou an.
fruitful women. She is, remarks the author, not to be confounded with the “Qaeen of heaven, Tienbeon, to whom the shipmen and passengers offer their prayers, and whose image is placed on board all Chinese vessels. Conf. with regard to Kouan-yin and her partly Buddhistic-Indian origin, Beal's interesting article in the Jour. R. As. S., New Series, II, 403 ff., especially p. 424, where she is called "the great Manes," which Beal "has no doubt refers to the Persian Manes, the founder of the Manichon weet." That the borrowing of the representation in question, if it is to be looked on a borrowed, as appears probable to me, goes back to the first period of the Middle Ages, is confirmed by the fact that it has become incorporated with the relí. gious system of the Chinese, while the relics of missions of more recent times have quite another character: conf.: e. g., what is said about the Sriéso in Birma in the Z. der D. M. G. V. 263: "they honour as the highest beings Juva and his son, andthe mother of the latter." Dr. Bastian calls my attention to the fact that a group of a goddess with a child at ber breast is found also in Japan : she is called there Kisiboxin, or Schin-mù t'iên, "goddess, mother of the Daityas :" see Siebold, Nippon, tom. V, VI, p. 93 (and the Atlas, tom. V, tab. XXIV, fig. 445 and 294) : accord. ing to the Japanese legend she was converted by Buddha. and in her joy at finding again the youngest of her thousand sons vowed to protect Buddhism, to give ehildren to the childless, and to guard women in delivery."
Clearly place called Råmagiri is meer here: but whether it be the Bamagiri of the Meghadůta (,1) is another question. I am indebted for the communication of this page from Stephanus Le Moyne, tom. I, 3. var. sacr. p. 219, to our honoured colleague Parthey: see his paper Hieroclis Syneodemus, etc. Berlin, 181, p. 271; and compare also Fabricius, Bibl.-græca, Hamburg, 1708, vol. III, p. 85.
Compare also pp. 58, 59: "It is as easily conceivable that the time-consecrated Egyptian myth of Isis and Horus may have suggested the original type, the outward forin, and the arrangement of the material group, as that the classical Greek types of the Orpheus and Apollo should hare furnished the early symbols of the Redeemer ss the good Shepherd."