________________
OCTOBER, 1877.]
ON THE KRISHNAJANMASHTAMI.
281
ON THE KRISHNAJANMASHTAMİ, OR KRISHNA'S BIRTH-FESTIVAL
BY Pror. A. WEBER, BERLIN.
(Continued from p. 180.) (Translated from the German by Miss Tweedie.) $ 2.
taken in a solemn manner on the morning of We come now to the representation of the the feast-day. This is done, according to RN, celebration of the festival itself. On the in- after previous calling on the gods as witnesses tricate questions of a calendic sort which be- (with the wordslong to it, we do not enter further here, as they súryaḥ somo yamah kalah sandhye bhitany ahah have been sufficiently discussed already. One kshapa I pavano dikpatir bhúmir dkasam khachar. point, however, in this respect appears of im.
amaráh ('rd narah, Nś.) Ibráhmyan (brahman, portance: the dividing of the celebration into
NÁ.) 6dsanam asthaya kalpadhvan (kalpantam two forms, one a simple form which consists only
Vr.) iha savinidhim ) in the observance of a strict fast (see above,
amid sprinkling of water out of a copper vessel p. 163); while the other, depending on the coin
filled with fruits, flowers, and roasted barley, cidence of the date with a particular star, ap
and with water, while reciting, according to pears as the original celebration of the festival,
O 24, $b 545, 55a, D. Ms. Ud., the following with which alone we have to do here. We have
sentence, asking for the god's assistance :seen already that in it also two forms are to be
adya sthitud nirdharah svobhúte paranesvara (tu
pare 'hani, Sb.) | bhokshye tham pundarikáksha kept separate from each other, one of which
saranam me bhard 'chyuta ('vyaya, Sb.) || koeps the god in view together with his mother,
"Remaining without nourishment to-day, I while the other presents him alone; in the
shall feast to-morrow, former case the celebration is combined with
O high lord, O lotus-eyed one, be a defence the preparation of a shed intended for the recep
to me, thou unshaken one!" tion of a woman about to give birth to a child,
Ms. D. reads the second hemistich thus :adorned with pictures from the history of the
bhokshyámi Devakiputra asmin janmashtamivrate holy nativity, and in which the mother of the
(the last páda as in Ca also), and Ud. hasgod, with her son drinking at her breast, is re
karishye páranai tatra bhaktim me hy achaldri presented resting on a couth, and receiving the
kuru worship consecrated to her; in the second case
Ca adds other three half-slokas to this :the picture of the god is worshipped over a
sarvapdtakandédya prasanno bhava keśava jug. As the sources for this last form of the idan vratam maya deva grihitam puratas tava celebration, we have only the secondary texts nirvighnam siddhim dydtu prasanne tvayi keśava | Sc. (= Sv. 3) Vi. J. Ud. In D. and Ms. both "Be gracious to me, O Keśava! to the blotforms of the festival are brought forward. The ting out of all my sins. rest of the texts recognize only the first form. Let this vow which I have now taken before
The richness and abundance of the material thee, O god! be accomplished without hinnow before us in these various texts is so great drance, through thy grace, 0 Kesava!" that we are obliged to limit ourselves. I have B 24 has the following sentence :therefore chosen as a guide the representation adya'ham pundarfkdksha éraddhdyukto jitendriyah which the older Bhavishya texts 0. O. Sa. offer, upavdeam karishyami varajanmdsham vratar having at the same time due regard to the (vrate ?) || variations of the rest of the texts from it, but 0. Sa. Sc. give no sentence at all. Lastly referring only, as far as seemed indispensable, to R. (p. 26) quotes from the Sarmvatsarapradipa the rites and formulæ peculiar to them.
the four following impressive verges, in the After the necessary cleansing of the teeth use of wbich N (fol. 306) s. Vi. and Sk. join on the previous day (N) the vow of fasting is with him. (Kd. has only vv. 1 and 4):
Compare with this the quite analogous sentence in in the Vaishnavs ritual. In the Jayanti form of the the Vardhapurana (Chambers 585a, fol. 180ab, on the
Janmd.shtami (fol. 25a), treated of separately in Ms. (see occasion of the matsyadvadast):
p. 179), the sentence runs nearly above, with the ekadasyam wirdharah sthitud chaiva pare 'hami | bhok- readings Jayantyd te wirdhara bhokshyami pundarishyami pundartk aksha saranam mo bhaud'chyutall
kaksha saranam charanan tara || The formula, it is evident, is one generally acknowledged
