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CHAPTER IV.

Krishna, or the Eighth Avatar.-Radha.—the Ninth and Tenth Avatars.

KRISHNA.

I HAVE now come to the eighth incarnation of Vishnu, in the person of Krishna, the shepherd Apollo of the Hindus, whose deeds, like those of Rama Chandra, have been sung by the noblest poets of the east.

This deity, one of the most extensively and enthusiastically worshipped among the Hindus, and the delight of the Hindu females, is variously represented; sometimes as a beautiful infant playing among the companions of his infancy; at others attending the flocks of Nanda, and sporting among the Gopias, or milk-maids, of Mount Govudun, where, like another Orpheus with his lyre, the ravishing harmony of his flute put in motion not only the nymphs and shepherds, but birds, beasts, trees, and all which came within the sphere of its enchanting melody. Again, he is seen as the youthful hero protecting the shepherds by his mighty power; and, at another time, raising up on his finger the mountain Govudun above the heaven of Indra, to shield them from a destructive storm, which that deity, in an angry mood, had poured upon them. Plate 11, fig. 3, represents him among the Gopias. He is richly dressed, with a crown on his head, round which is a ray or glory. In pictures he is usually seen of an azure colour; but at all times with a beautiful and engaging countenance. In plate 12, fig. 1, Krishna is represented crushing the head of the monstrous serpent. Fig. 2, from a richly emblazoned modern sculpture, represents him playing on his flute among the Gopias. Figs. 3 and 4 show him as Gopula, the infant Krishna; the head of fig. 3 is surmounted by the hooded snake. Fig. 5 represents his mistress, Radha; and fig. 6, Krishna upholding the

Fig1. Krishna crushing the head of the Serpent 2.De among the Gopias 3&4. The Infant Krishna. 5. Radha. 6. Krishna uplifting

the Mountain Goverd n

Published by Parbury Wlen & CoLondon 1832

mountain Govudun with his little finger, to protect his worshippers on the occasion just mentioned.

In this incarnation, Vishnu is said to have appeared in all the splendour of his godhead, accompanied by the other deities; whereas in his preceding avatars he conveyed with him only a portion of his divine nature. But in this, as in his former descents on the earth, the object of his appearance has been the destruction of giants, and the overthrow of oppressive and irreligious kings. The Brahmans affirm of this avatar, that "though all the seas were ink, and the whole earth paper, and all the inhabitants did nothing but write night and day for the space of a hundred thousand years, it would be impossible for them to describe all the wonders which Krishna wrought on earth in the time of his hundred years' reign; and they believe that all those who shall write respecting his history, read the same, or hear it read, shall merit very much; and if they read it with devotion, shall not be transmigrated into another body, but enter into heaven and live for ever." Upon the shewing in the first lines of the above sentence, I give up, in utter despair, any adequate description of this extraordinary immortal: but as I am desirous that both the reader and myself should benefit, in some degree, from a portion of the belief of the Hindus which follows (whatever may attach to us under the concluding part), I shall hope it will appear that we merit something of the very much which is promised.

Krishna was born in Mathura, and was the son of Vasudeva and Devaki, sister to Cansa, the king of that country. At the time of the nuptials of his father and mother, it was predicted to Cansa that the eighth child of Devaki would deprive him of his life and crown, and become the sovereign of Mathura in his stead. The king, in consequence, commanded that Devaki should be closely confined, and that whenever she was delivered of a child, it should be brought to him immediately to be put to death. The princess gave birth to five sons and one daughter, who were thus, by the directions of her brother, destroyed as soon as they were born. When she became pregnant the seventh time, a voice from heaven commanded that the fire of her womb should be conveyed into that of another female named Rohini, who gave birth to the third Rama, called Bala Rama, Krishna's

elder brother; and when the period of her delivery the eighth time arrived, the tyrant gave orders for a stricter watch to be placed over her than had been before observed. When her time had expired, the room became suddenly illumined, and she was, without pain, delivered of a beautiful child, who having been endowed by Mahadeo with the gift of speech, immediately addressed her (as she was sorrowfully lamenting that she should in a short time be so cruelly deprived of him), and assured her that she need not grieve, for he would escape from his uncle's power, and also soon deliver her from imprisonment; then turning to his father, he desired him to carry him to the house of a pious man, Nanda, at Gokal, and exchange him for Nanda's daughter, of whom his wife Yasuda had been just delivered. Like a good father, Vasudeva did as his wonderful son desired, the prison doors flying open, the guards falling asleep, and the river suspending its course to admit of an easy execution. When he returned with the daughter of Nanda, she, as female infants usually do, began to kick up a terrible dust at being disturbed from her sleep, and put the whole palace in an uproar. Cansa immediately ran in haste to his sister's apartment, and seizing the child, was about to dash her to pieces, when she slipped out of his hands, and placing her own upon her hips, and raising herself on tip-toe, she thus, like a precocious Thalestris, addressed him: "How dare you, audacious wretch, seek to put me to death? Know monster! that I am not the right party, and that he who shall dethrone you, and deprive you of your life, lives in safety at Gokal." Having thus spoken, or rather thus declaimed, she bounced into the air, where Mahadeo transformed her into, what so fiery a young lady* was most fit for, lightning; which, if we may credit Vyasa, was never seen nor heard of before that time a fact well worthy the notice of the natural philosophers of intellectual ages, some of whom, years gone by, have attributed it to different causes, little dreaming that the etherial fire about which they had perplexed their brains so much, was caught from a spark of the same lovely portion of creation which kindles that holy flame upon earth, without which man would be nothing.

* She is described as a form of Parvati, as Durga.