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December, 1877.]
ON THE KRISHNAJANMASHTAMİ.
351
(see p. 285), nor "pressing the point of the breast And in fact it is to this idea, in all probability, as with his hand, and lookingly up lovingly into its source, that the Christian legend related the face of Deva k i" (see p. 286); she, rather, in the two Gospels of the Infancy of Jesus, the is looking down lovingly on him, and, on herGreek (Fabricius, p. 160) and the Arabic (cap. part, presses her breast, to make drinking easier 36, 46, Fabricius, pp. 198, 206) is to be traced, for him. She appears, too, far past the condi- --the legend of the making of animals out tion of a confined woman, as Krishna does of clay and imparting life to them, as apes, past that of a newly-born child. An immediate oxen, birds, &c., especially sparrows, alluded reference to the festival of the Janmashtami to also in the Qorán (Súra iii. 43). In India is not contained, then, in the picture. Of the this is ascribed sometimes to Krishna: compare, identity of the persons, however, there can be for example, Bhagavata-Purdna X. 14, p. 59 no reasonable doubt. Niclas Müller, indeed, on of Pavie's translation from the Hindi (Paris, p. 608, explains the picture as a "Bha vâni | 1852), where it is only flocks and shepherds, laying an infant to her nourishing breast in her as in the case of Christ, -not, as here, eleparadise, as universal mother of earth, and phants, that are dealt with ; partly also to source of life" (!). Others have also recognized king Så livå hana, who belonged, as is assertin it "Buddha suckled by M&y ," see ed, to the first century of our era, who Creuzer's Symbolik (3rd ed. Leipsic, 1837), I. made elephants, horses, and riders out of clay, 572: so especially Guigniaut, in his translation of and imparted life to them (see Lassen, Ind. Alt. Creuzer's work (Paris, 1825), I. 293. Nowhere, II. 882-4). Consequently this symbol is exhowever, in Buddhist literature or elsewhere, is actly in its right place here, inasmuch as it is there any such representation of Buddha joined to an analogous circle of representations, mentioned, which, moreover, would be inconsistent springing from the same source. What further with his whole character (see $3 in Ind. Ant. occurs to us here as specially worthy of attention vol. III. p. 21). That the child we have here is among the representations lying before us, is the to be considered as an incarnation of the Lord striking similarity which they show to the Egyptian and Creator of the world, is testified by the shell* type, Isis nourishing Horus (see before, $3 in as a symbol, lying underneath on the ground at Ind. Ant. vol. III. p. 49), particularly as regards the right hand, with figures of animals (elephant, the attitude and upper part of the group, in lion, bull, horse, &c.), which likewise are repeated so special a degree that a closer reference is elsewhere, namely, in N. Müller, on plate IV. fig. superfluous-a comparative glance at the two 64, in a group representing Siva with his wife pictures suffices (see the third plate, fig. 5). The Pârvati.t Under the seat of the latter there is explanation of this would be very easily found if a similar basket, a "dish of models of beings" Raoul Rochettes or Mrs. Jameson's opinion, that Wesenmodellenschüssel, as N. Müller expresses the type of Byzantine Madonnas rests upon this himself, --in which an elephant, a cow, a horse, Egyptian group, I could be clearly proved by a gazelle, a bird, and two men are visible, so that Byzantine pictures of the kind. We should then the common interpretation of the symbols as have to consider these last as the medium which denoting creative power is sufficiently apparent. had served as a model for the Indian picture.
• Moor remarks on this, especially on the remaining in Egypt, from ancient times even down to the time of shells, &o., "The tray and stand bearing fruita, animals, &c. the Ptolemies and the Romans : compare, for example, one would imagine to be merely what they represent; but for the later age the great work of Lepsius, Ægyptische with enthusiastic Hindus everything is mysterious : and Denkmäler, Part IV. plates 48, 59, 61, 64, 71 [this laat they will affirm, that the dominion of Krishna over the is the picture fig. 6 on our plate). The picture which animal and vegetable worlds is here typified: nor are Mrs. Jameson gives on page xxii. (Isis nursing Horus) legends wanting in the fabulous history of this extraordinary
is evidently borrowed from Sir J. G. Wilkinson's person, applicable to, and accounting for, each of the second series of Manners and Customs of Ancient animals that are seen in the dish. The low table on the Egypt, London, 1841, Plate 354. Greek art also has right of the nurse is similarly said to hold food, poison, and representations of Here giving the breast to Aree, or by amrita, symbolical of life, death, and immortality; advert- mistake to Heraklės (see Preller's Greek Mythology, 1864, ing of course to Krishna's potency; while the triangular pp. 113, 114, but the only specimen of the kind accessible die, denoting trinity in unity, marks his coequality with to me in Wiesseler's edition of O.O. Müller's Denkmäler the grand powers of the Triad conjoined."
der alten Kunst (Göttingen, 1856), tom. II. p. 6, plate
v. No. 62-does not show the smallest reference to the Niclas Müller had this sketched along with others of
Egyptian type. It is an en-face statue in the Vatican the copies of Indian miniatures in the old Louvre, done
Museum (M119. Pio Clementino). Hera, it is true, offers by him in Paris, in the year 1794, at the request of G.
her left breast to Ares also, holds it with her right hand, Forster.
while the left encircles the child, but the attitude and the I This representation is, in fact, exceedingly frequent rest of the arrangement differ entirely.
be the ancora Borromanner inte sabe been hitholog committer
