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18
JAINISM
pletely real, since even at present, the custom according to which not one's own son but the son of the sister is the inheritor is preserved with a number of Dravidian peoples. Kansa's fear for Krishna as the inheritor of the throne is more confirmed by the assumption about the non-Aryan origin of Krishna. (During the times of Krishna, matriarchal succession was well known in the given region. His being constantly referred to as Devaki-putra or son of Devaki speaks in favour of this statement.)
It is known that Krishna's father carried him across Jamuna. Jamuna apparently served in that region as the border between the Aryan and the non-Aryan settlements. The Aryans avoided settling in the forests and set fire and cleared them off in the vicinity of their fields and pastures. The suggestion that attempts from the side of Kansa's people to assimilate local settlement had led to the marriage of Kansa's sister with local chieftain (this device was utilised by many Aryan rulers in those days), and that usurpation of Kansa's throne by their son historically did take place, is completely realistic.
Bhagvatism started spreading from Mathura, as propaganda of the belief in one of the indigenous gods of local and nonAryan settlement and as an expression of anti-Aryan, anti Brahmin and anti-caste movement. This movement must invariably have developed and did develop in the environment of pre-Aryan settlement, which was, in overwhelming majority, in the position of low, oppressed castes.
In Rigveda, Krishna is spoken of as a leader of non-Aryan tribe. According to legends, he was an enemy of Vedic god Indra and so Indra caused terrible showers of rain on the land of shepherds, rearing Krishna, but Krishna saved the people, holding mountain above the earth as an umbrella. It is possible to gather many such legends from the Vedic and epic literature.
The process of accepting of god Krishna by the Brahmanic faith and gradually introducing him in the ranks of Brahmanic deities, 27 is reflected in these works too.
From the pattern of the legend about Krishna, who, after
27. It should be noted that in the Indian iconography god Krishna is invariably portrayed black or dark-blue.
