CHAPTER 20
Krishna.
Sun and Moon Worship.
The Spirit in whose honour shrines are weak.
Hence the Jains, the chief sect of the Buddhists,[[17]] so called from adoring the spirit (Jina), were untinctured with idolatry until the apotheosis of Krishna,[[18]] whose mysteries superseded the simpler worship of Budha. Neminath (the deified Nemi) was the pontiff of Budha, and not only the contemporary of Krishna, but a Yadu, and his near relation; and both had epithets denoting their complexion; for Arishta, the surname of Nemi, has the same import as Syam and Krishna, ‘the black,’ though the latter is of a less Ethiopic hue than Nemi.[[19]] It was anterior to this schism amongst the sons of Budha that the creative power was degraded under sensual forms, when the pillar rose to Bal or Surya in Syria and on the Ganges: and the serpent, “subtlest beast of all the field,” worshipped as the emblem of wisdom (Budha), was conjoined with the symbol of the creative power, as at the shrine of Eklinga, where the brazen serpent is wreathed round the lingam.[[20]] Budha’s descendants, the Indus, preserved the Ophite sign of their race, when Krishna’s followers adopted the eagle as his symbol. These, with the adorers of Surya, form the three idolatrous classes of India, not confined to its modern [536] restricted definition, but that of antiquity, when Industhan or Indu-Scythia extended from the Ganges to the Caspian. In support of the position that the existing polytheism was unknown on the rise of Vaishnavism, we may state, that in none of the ancient genealogies do the names of such deities appear as proper names in society, a practice now common; and it is even recorded that the rites of magic, the worship of the host of heaven, and of idols, were introduced from Kashmir, between the periods of Krishna and Vikrama. The powers of nature were personified, and each quality, mental and physical, had its emblem, which the Brahmans taught the ignorant to adopt as realities, till the pantheon become so crowded that life would be too short to acquire even the nomenclature of their ‘thirty-three millions of gods.’[[21]] No object was too high or too base, from the glorious Orb to the Rampi, or paring-knife of the shoemaker. In illustration of the increase of polytheism, I shall describe the seven forms under which Krishna is worshipped, whose statues are established in the various capitals of Rajasthan, and are occasionally brought together at the festival of Annakuta at Nathdwara.
The international wars of the Suryas and the Yadu races, as described in the Ramayana and Mahabharata, are lost between allegory and literal interpretation. The Suryas, or Saivas, were depressed; and the Indus, who counted ‘fifty-six’ grand tribes, under the appellations of Takshak, ‘serpent,’ Aswa, ‘horse,’ Sasa, ‘hare,’ etc., etc., had paramount sway. Krishna’s schism produced a new type, that of the eagle, and the wars of the schismatics were depicted under their respective emblems, the eagle and serpent, of which latter were the Kauravas and Takshaks,[[22]] the political adversaries of the Pandus, the relatives of Krishna. The [537] allegory of Krishna’s eagle pursuing the serpent Budha, and recovering the books of science and religion with which he fled, is an historical fact disguised: namely, that of Krishna incorporating the doctrines of Budha with his own after the expulsion of the sect from India. Dare we further attempt to lift the veil from this mystery, and trace from the seat of redemption of lost science its original source?[[23]] The Gulf of Cutch, the point where the serpent attempted to escape, has been from time immemorial to the present day the entrepôt for the commerce of Sofala, the Red Sea, Egypt, and Arabia. There Budha Trivikrama, or Mercury, has been and is yet invoked by the Indian mariners, especially the pirates of Dwarka. Did Budha or Mercury come from, or escape to the Nile? Is he the Hermes of Egypt to whom the ‘four books of science,’ like the four Vedas[[24]] of the Hindus, were sacred? The statues of Nemi,[[25]] the representative of Budha, exactly resemble in feature the bust of young Memnon.[[26]]
I have already observed that Krishna, before his own deification, worshipped his great ancestor Budha; and his temple at Dwarka rose over the ancient shrine of the latter, which yet stands. In an inscription from the cave of Gaya their characters are conjoined: “Hari who is Budha.” According to Western mythology, Apollo and Mercury exchanged symbols, the caduceus for the lyre; so likewise in India their characters intermingle: and even the Saiva propitiates Hari as the mediator and disposer of the ‘divine spark’ (jyoti) to its reunion with the ‘parent-flame’:—thus, like Mercury, he may be said to be the conveyer of the souls of the dead. Accordingly in funeral lamentation his name only is invoked, and Hari-bol! Hari-bol! is emphatically pronounced by those conveying the corpse to its final abode. The vahan (qu. the Saxon van?) or celestial car of Krishna, in which the souls (ansa) of the just are conveyed to Suryamandal, the ‘mansion of the sun,’ is painted like himself, blue (indicative of space, or as Ouranos), with the eagle’s head; and here he partakes of the Mercury of the [538] Greeks, and of Oulios, the preserver or saviour, one of the titles of Apollo at Delos.[[27]]
The Forms of Krishna.
The Rāsmandal Dance.
In song and dance about the sacred hill;
Mystical dance, which yonder starry sphere
Of planets and of fixed in all her wheels
Resembles nearest; mazes intricate,
Eccentric, intervolved, yet regular
Then most, when most irregular they seem;
And in their motions harmony divine
So smooths her charming tones that God’s own ear
Listens delighted.
Milton, Paradise Lost, Book v. 619-27.
These nymphs are also called the nauragini, from raga, a mode of song over which each presides, and naurasa, or ‘nine passions,’ excited by the powers [540] of harmony. May we not in this trace the origin of Apollo and the sacred nine? In the manner described above, the rasmandal is typical of the zodiacal phenomena; and in each sign a musical nymph is sculptured in alto-relievo, in the vaulted temples dedicated to the god,[[34]] or in secular edifices by way of ornament, as in the triumphal column of Chitor. On the festival of the Janam,[[35]] or ‘birth-day,’ there is a scenic representation of Kanhaiya and the Gopis: when are rehearsed in the mellifluous accents of the Ionic land of Vraj, the songs of Jayadeva, as addressed by Kanhaiya to Radha and her companions. A specimen of these, as translated by that elegant scholar, Sir W. Jones, may not be considered inappropriate here.
The Songs of Jayadeva.
“If thy soul be delighted with the remembrance of Hari, or sensible to the raptures of love, listen to the voice of Jayadeva, whose notes are both sweet and brilliant.”
KANHAIYA AND RĀDHA.
To face page 630.
The poet opens the first interview of Krishna and Radha with an animated description of a night in the rainy season, in which Hari is represented as a wanderer, and Radha, daughter of the shepherd Nanda, is sent to offer him shelter in their cot.[[37]] Nanda thus speaks to Radha: “The firmament is obscured by clouds; the woodlands are black with Tamala trees; that youth who roves in the forest will be fearful in the gloom of night; go, my daughter, bring the wanderer to my rustic mansion. Such was the command of Nanda the herdsman, and hence arose the love of Radha and Madhava.”[[38]]
The poet proceeds to apostrophize Hari, which the Hindu bard terms rupaka, or ‘personal description’:
“Oh thou who reclinest on the bosom of Kamala, whose ears flame with gems, and whose locks are embellished with sylvan flowers; thou, from whom the [541] day-star derived his effulgence, who slewest the venom-breathing Kaliya, who beamedst like a sun on the tribe of Yadu, that flourished like a lotus; thou, who sittest on the plumage of Garuda, who sippest nectar from the radiant lips of Padma, as the fluttering chakora drinks the moonbeams; be victorious, O Hari.”
Jayadeva then introduces Hari in the society of the pastoral nymphs of Vraj, whom he groups with admirable skill, expressing the passion by which each is animated towards the youthful prince with great warmth and elegance of diction. But Radha, indignant that he should divide with them the affection she deemed exclusively her own, flies his presence. Hari, repentant and alarmed, now searches the forest for his beloved, giving vent at each step to impassioned grief. “Woe is me! she feels a sense of injured honour, and has departed in wrath. How will she conduct herself? How will she express her pain in so long a separation? What is wealth to me? What are numerous attendants? What the pleasures of the world? How can I invite thee to return? Grant me but a sight of thee, oh! lovely Radha, for my passion torments me. O God of love! mistake me not for Siva. Wound me not again. I love already but too passionately; yet have I lost my beloved. Brace not thy bow, thou conqueror of the world! My heart is already pierced by arrows from Radha’s eyes, black and keen as those of the antelope.”
Radha relents and sends a damsel in quest of Hari, whom she finds in a solitary arbour on the banks of the Yamuna. She describes her mistress as animated by the same despair which controls him:
“Her face is like a water-lily veiled in the dew of tears, and her eyes are as moons eclipsed. She draws thy picture and worships it, and at the close of every sentence exclaims, ‘O Madhava, at thy feet am I fallen!’ Then she figures thee standing before her: she sighs, she smiles, she mourns, she weeps. Her abode, the forest—herself through thy absence is become a timid roe, and love is the tiger who springs on her, like Yama, the genius of death. So emaciated is her beautiful body, that even the light garland which waves o’er her bosom is a load. The palm of her hand supports her aching temple, motionless as the crescent rising at eve. Thus, O divine healer, by the nectar of thy love [542] must Radha be restored to health; and if thou refusest, thy heart must be harder than the thunder-stone.”[[39]]
The damsel returns to Radha and reports the condition of Hari, mourning her absence: “Even the hum of the bee distracts him. Misery sits fixed in his heart, and every returning night adds anguish to anguish.” She then recommends Radha to seek him. “Delay not, O loveliest of women; follow the lord of thy heart. Having bound his locks with forest flowers, he hastens to yon arbour, where a soft gale breathes over the banks of Yamuna, and there pronouncing thy name, he modulates his divine reed. Leave behind thee, O friend, the ring which tinkles on thy delicate ankle when thou sportest in the dance. Cast over thee thy azure mantle and run to the shady bower.”
But Radha, too weak to move, is thus reported to Hari by the same fair mediator: “She looks eagerly on all sides in hope of thy approach: she advances a few steps and falls languid to the ground. She weaves bracelets of fresh leaves, and looking at herself in sport, exclaims, behold the vanquisher of Madhu! Then she repeats the name of Hari, and catching at a dark blue cloud,[[40]] strives to embrace it, saying, ‘It is my beloved who approaches.’”
Midnight arrives, but neither Hari nor the damsel returns, when she gives herself up to the frenzy of despair, exclaiming: “The perfidy of my friend rends my heart. Bring disease and death, O gale of Malaya! receive me in thy azure wave, O sister of Yama,[[41]] that the ardour of my heart may be allayed.”
The repentant Hari at length returns, and in speech well calculated to win forgiveness, thus pleads his pardon:
“Oh! grant me a draught of honey from the lotus of thy mouth: or if thou art inexorable, grant me death from the arrows of thine eyes; make thy arms my chains: thou art my ornament; thou art the pearl in the ocean of my mortal birth! Thine eyes, which nature formed like blue water-lilies, are become through thy resentment like petals of the crimson lotus! Thy silence affects me; oh! speak with the voice of music, and let thy sweet accents allay my ardour” [543].
“Radha with timid joy, darting her eyes on Govinda while she musically sounded the rings of her ankles and the bells of her zone,[[42]] entered the mystic bower of her beloved. His heart was agitated by her sight, as the waves of the deep are affected by the lunar orb.[[43]] From his graceful waist flowed a pale yellow robe,[[44]] which resembled the golden dust of the water-lily scattered over its blue petals.[[45]] His locks interwoven with blossoms, were like a cloud variegated by the moonbeam. Tears of transport gushed in a stream from the full eyes of Radha, and their watery glances beamed on her best beloved. Even shame, which had before taken its abode in their dark pupils, was itself ashamed,[[46]] and departed when the fawn-eyed Radha gazed on the bright face of Krishna.”
The poet proceeds to describe Apollo’s bower on the sable Yamuna, as ‘Love’s recess’; and sanctifies it as
... The ground
Where early Love his Psyche’s zone unbound.[[47]]
In the morning the blue god aids in Radha’s simple toilet. He stains her eye with antimony “which would make the blackest bee envious,” places “a circle of musk on her forehead,” and intertwines “a chaplet of flowers and peacock’s feathers in her dark tresses,” replacing “the zone of golden bells.” The bard concludes as he commenced, with an eulogium on the inspirations of his muse, which it is evident were set to music. “Whatever is delightful in the modes of music, whatever is graceful in the fine strains of poetry, whatever is exquisite in the sweet art of love, let the happy and wise learn from the songs of Jayadeva.”
The Rāsmandal Dance.
Govardhana.
Cave Worship of Krishna.
Krishna a Dragon-Slayer.
Parallels to Krishna in other Mythologies.
The coincidence between the most common epithets of the Apollos of Greece and India, as applied to the sun, are peculiarly striking. Hari, as Bhannath, ‘the lord of beams,’ is Phoebus, and his heaven is Haripur (Heliopolis), or ‘city of Hari.’[[54]] Helios (Ἥλιος) was a title of Apollo, whence the Greeks had their Elysium, the Haripur or Bhanthan (the abode of the sun), the highest of the [546] heavens or abodes of bliss of the martial Rajput. Hence the eagle (the emblem of Hari as the sun)[[55]] was adopted by the western warrior as the symbol of victory.
The Di Majores of the Rajput are the same in number and title as amongst the Greeks and Romans, being the deities who figuratively preside over the planetary system. Their grades of bliss are therefore in unison with the eccentricity of orbit of the planet named. On this account Chandra or Indu, the moon, being a mere satellite of Ila, the earth, though probably originating the name of the Indu race, is inferior in the scale of blissful abodes to that of his son Budha or Mercury, whose heliacal appearance gave him importance even with the sons of Vaivasvata, the sun. From the poetic seers of the martial races we learn that there are two distinct places of reward; the one essentially spiritual, the other of a material nature. The bard inculcates that the warrior who falls in battle in the fulfilment of his duty, “who abandons life through the wave of steel,” will know no “second birth,” but that the unconfined spark (jyotis) will reunite to the parent orb. The doctrine of transmigration through a variety of hideous forms may be considered as a series of purgatories.
The Greeks and Celts worshipped Apollo under the title of Carneios,[[56]] which “selon le scholiaste de Théocrite” is derived from Carnos, “qui ne prophétisoit que des malheurs aux Héraclides lors de leur incursion dans le Péloponnèse. Un d’eux appelé Hippotés, le tua d’un coup de flèche.” Now one of the titles of the Hindu Apollo is Karna, ‘the radiant’; from karna, ‘a ray’: and when he led the remains of the Harikulas in company with Baldeva (the god of strength), and Yudhishthira, after the great international war, into the Peloponnesus of Saurashtra, they were attacked by the aboriginal Bhils, one of whom slew the divine Karna with an arrow. The Bhils claim to be of Hayavansa, or the race of Haya, whose chief seat was at Maheswar on the Nerbudda: the assassin of Karna would consequently be Hayaputra, or descendant of Haya[[57]] [547].
The most celebrated of the monuments commonly termed Druidic, scattered throughout Europe, is at Carnac in Brittany, on which coast the Celtic Apollo had his shrines, and was propitiated under the title of Karneios, and this monument may be considered at once sacred to the manes of the warriors and the sun-god Karneios. Thus the Roman Saturnalia, the carnivale, has a better etymology in the festival to Karneios, as the sun, than in the ‘adieu to flesh’ during the fast. The character of this festival is entirely oriental, and accompanied with the licentiousness which belonged to the celebration of the powers of nature. Even now, although Christianity has banished the grosser forms, it partakes more of a Pagan than a Christian ceremony.
The Annakūta Festival.
Interruption of Worship.
Seven Forms of Krishna.
Nathji, the god, or Gordhannath, god of the mount Nathdwara.
| 1. Nonita | Nathdwara. |
| 2. Mathuranath | Kotah. |
| 3. Dwarkanath | Kankroli.[[61]] |
| 4. Gokulnath, or Gokulchandrama | Jaipur. |
| 5. Yadunath | Surat. |
| 6. Vitthalnath[[62]] | Kotah. |
| 7. Madan Mohana | Jaipur. |
Nathji is not enumerated amongst the forms; he stands supreme.
Nonita, or Nonanda, the juvenile Kanhaiya, has his altar separate, though close to Nathji. He is also styled Balamukund, ‘the blessed child,’[[63]] and is depicted as an infant with pera[[64]] or comfit-ball in his hand. This image, which was one of the penates of a former age, and which, since the destruction of the shrines of [549] Krishna by the Islamites, had lain in the Yamuna, attached itself to the sacerdotal zone (Janeo) of the high-priest Balba, while he was performing his ablutions, who, carrying it home, placed it in a niche of the temple and worshipped it: and Nonanda yet receives the peculiar homage of the high-priest and his family as their household divinity. Of the second image, Mathuranath, there is no particular mention: it was at one time at Khamnor in Mewar, but is now at Kotah.
Balkrishna, the third son, had Dwarkanath, which statue, now at Kankroli in Mewar, is asserted to be the identical image that received the adoration of Raja Amaraka, a prince of the solar race who lived in the Satya Yuga, or silver age. The ‘god of the mount’ revealed himself in a dream to his high-priest, and told him of the domicile of this his representative at Kanauj. Thither Balba repaired, and having obtained it from the Brahman, appointed Damodardas Khatri to officiate at his altar.
The fourth statue, that of Gokulnath, or Gokul Chandrama (i.e. the moon of Gokul), had an equally mysterious origin, having been discovered in a deep ravine on the banks of the river; Balba assigned it to his brother-in-law. Gokul is an island on the Jumna,[[65]] a few miles below Mathura, and celebrated in the early history of the pastoral divinity. The residence of this image at Jaipur does not deprive the little island of its honours as a place of pilgrimage; for the ‘god of Gokul’ has an altar on the original site, and his rites are performed by an aged priestess, who disowns the jurisdiction of the high-priest of Nathdwara, both in the spiritual and temporal concerns of her shrine; and who, to the no small scandal of all who are interested in Apollo, appealed from the fiat of the high-priest to the British court of justice. The royal grants of the Mogul emperors were produced, which proved the right to lie in the high-priest, though a long period of almost undisturbed authority had created a feeling of independent control in the family of the priestess, which they desired might continue. A compromise ensued, when the Author was instrumental in restoring harmony to the shrines of Apollo.
The fifth, Yadunath, is the deified ancestor of the whole Yadu race. This image, now at Surat, formerly adorned the shrine of Mahaban near Mathura which was destroyed by Mahmud [550].
The sixth, Vitthalnath, or Pandurang,[[66]] was found in the Ganges at Benares, Samvat 1572 (A.D. 1516), from which we may judge of their habit of multiplying divinities.
The seventh, Madan Mohana, ‘he who intoxicates with desire,’ the seductive lover of Radha and the Gopis, has his rites performed by a female. The present priestess of Mohana is the mother of Damodara, the supreme head of all who adore the Apollo of Vraj.
The Pontiff of Nāthdwāra.
As the supreme head of the Vishnu sect his person is held to be Ansa, or ‘a portion of the divinity’; and it is maintained that so late as the father of the present incumbent, the god manifested himself and conversed with the high-priest. The present pontiff is now about thirty years of age. He is of a benign aspect, with much dignity of demeanour: courteous, yet exacting the homage due to his high calling: meek, as becomes the priest of Govinda, but with the finished manners of one accustomed to the first society. His features are finely moulded, and his complexion good. He is about the middle size, though as he rises to no mortal, I could not exactly judge of his height. When I saw him he had one only daughter, to whom he is much attached. He has but one wife, nor does Krishna allow polygamy to his priest. In times of danger, like some of his prototypes in the dark ages of Europe, he poised the lance, and found it more effective than spiritual anathemas, against those who would first adore the god, and then plunder him. Such were the Mahratta chiefs, Jaswant Rao Holkar and Bapu Sindhia. Damodara accordingly made the [551] tour of his extensive diocese at the head of four hundred horse, two standards of foot, and two field-pieces. He rode the finest mares in the country; laid aside his pontificals for the quilted dagla, and was summoned to matins by the kettle-drum instead of the bell and cymbal. In this he only imitated Kanhaiya, who often mixed in the ranks of battle, and “dyed his saffron robe in the red-stained field.” Had Damodara been captured on one of these occasions by any marauding Pathan, and incarcerated, as he assuredly would have been, for ransom, the marauder might have replied to the Rana, as did the Plantagenet king to the Pope, when the surrender of the captive church-militant bishop was demanded, “Is this thy son Joseph’s coat?” But, notwithstanding this display of martial principle, which covered with a helmet the shaven crown, his conduct and character are amiable and unexceptionable, and he furnishes a striking contrast to the late head of the Vishnu establishments in Marwar, who commenced with the care of his master’s conscience, and ended with that of the State; meek and unassuming till he added temporal[[68]] to spiritual power, which developed unlimited pride, with all the qualities that too often wait on “a little brief authority,” and to the display of which he fell a victim. Damodara,[[69]] similarly circumstanced, might have evinced the same failings, and have met the same end; but though endeavours were made to give him political influence at the Rana’s court, yet, partly from his own good sense, and partly through the dissuasion of the Nestor of Kotah (Zalim Singh), he was not entrained in the vortex of its intrigues, which must have involved the sacrifice of wealth and the proper dignity of his station [552].
[1]. [Derived, through the Prākrit, from Krishna.]
[2]. Chhappan kula Yadava.
[3]. Qu. Japhet? [?].
[4]. Also called Vaivaswata Manu—‘the man, son of the sun.’
[5]. Ila, the earth—the Saxon Ertha. The Germans chiefly worshipped Tuisco or Teutates and Ertha, who are the Budha or Ila of the Rajputs [?].
[6]. A male divinity with the Rajputs, the Tatars, and ancient Germans.
[7]. ‘Triple Energy’ [‘he who strides over the three worlds’], the Hermes Triplex of the Egyptians. [There is no cult of Budha at Dwārka.]
[8]. I shall here subjoin an extract of the rise and progress of Vaishnavism as written at my desire by the Mukhya of the temple:
“Twenty-five years of the Dwapar (the brazen age) were yet unexpired, when the incarnation (avatar) of Sri Krishna took place. Of these, eleven were passed at Gokul,[[A]] and fourteen at Mathura. There he used to manifest himself personally, especially at Govardhan. But when the Kaliyug (the iron age) commenced, he retired to Dwarka, an island separated by the ocean from Bharatkand,[[B]] where he passed a hundred years before he went to heaven. In Samvat 937 (A.D. 881) God decreed that the Hindu faith should be overturned, and that the Turushka[[C]] should rule. Then the jizya, or capitation tax, was inflicted on the head of the Hindu. Their faith also suffered much from the Jains and the various infidel (asura) sects which abounded. The Jains were so hostile, that Brahma manifested himself in the shape of Sankaracharya who destroyed them and their religion at Benares. In Gujarat, by their magic, they made the moon appear at Amavas.[[D]] Sankara foretold to its prince, Siddhraj,[[E]] the flood then approaching, who escaped in a boat and fled to Toda, on which occasion all the Vidyas[[F]] (magicians) in that country perished.” [For a more correct version of Krishna’s legend see Growse, Mathura, 3rd ed.; for Vaishnavism, R. G. Bhandarkar, “Vaisnavism, Saivism and Minor Religious Systems,” in Grundriss Indo-Arischen Philologie und Altertumskunde, 1913.
[A]. A small town in the Jumna, below Mathura. Hence one of Krishna’s titles is Gokulnath, ‘Lord of Gokul.’
[B]. The channel which separates the island of Dwarka from the mainland is filled up, except in spring tides. I passed it when it was dry.
[C]. We possess no record of the invasion of India in A.D. 881, by the Turki tribes, half a century after Mamun’s expedition from Zabulistan against Chitor, in the reign of Rawal Khuman [?].
[D]. The ides of the month, when the moon is obscured.
[E]. He ruled Samvat 1151 (A.D. 1095) to S. 1201 (A.D. 1145).
[F]. Still used as a term of reproach to the Jains and Buddhists, in which, and other points, as Ari (the foe, qu. Aria?), they bear a strong resemblance to the followers of the Arian Zardusht, or Zoroaster. Amongst other peculiarities, the ancient Persian fire-worshipper, like the present Jain, placed a bandage over the mouth while worshipping.
[9]. For an account of the discovery of the remains of this ancient city, see Transactions of the Royal Asiatic Society, vol. i. p. 314.
[10]. [Arrian, Indika, viii.]
[11]. [Growse (Mathura, 279) suggests that Cleisobora is Krishnapura, ‘Krishna’s city.’]
[12]. Hercules, Mercury, and Apollo; Balaram, Budha, and Kanhaiya.
[13]. The ‘God Bal,’ the Vivifier, the Sun [?].
[14]. Budha signifies ‘wisdom.’
[15]. Job chap. xxxi. 26, 27, 28.
[16]. Chand, the bard, after having separately invoked the three persons of the Hindu triad, says that he who believes them distinct, “hell will be his portion.”
[17]. [The Jains were not a Buddhist sect.]
[18]. A very curious cause was assigned by an eminent Jain priest for the innovation of enshrining and worshipping the forms of the twenty-four pontiffs: namely, that the worship of Kanhaiya, before and after the apotheosis, became quite a rage amongst the women, who crowded his shrines, drawing after them all the youth of the Jains; and that, in consequence, they made a statue of Neminath to counteract a fervour that threatened the existence of their faith. It is seldom we are furnished with such rational reasons for religious changes.
[19]. [Neminātha was the twenty-second Jain Tīrthakara or deified saint. Arishta means ‘unhurt, perfect.’]
[20]. It was the serpent (Budha) who ravished Ila, daughter of Ikshwaku, the son of Manu, whence the distinctive epithet of his descendants in the East, Manus, or men, the very tradition on an ancient sculptured column in the south of India, which evidently points to the primeval mystery. In Portici there is an exact lingam entwined with a brazen serpent, brought from the temple of Isis at Pompeii: and many of the same kind, in mosaic, decorate the floors of the dwelling-houses. But the most singular coincidence is in the wreaths of lingams and the yoni over the door of the minor temple of Isis at Pompeii; while on another front is painted the rape of Venus by Mercury (Budha and Ila). The Lunar race, according to the Puranas, are the issue of the rape of Ila by Budha. Aphah is a serpent in Hebrew. Ahi and Sarpa are two of its many appellations in Sanskrit. [These speculations are now obsolete.]
[21]. Taintīs kror devata.
[22]. The Mahabharata records constant wars from ancient times amongst the children of Surya (the sun), and the Tak or Takshak (serpent races). The horse of the sun, liberated preparatory to sacrifice, by the father of Rama, was seized by the Takshak Ananta; and Janamejaya, king of Delhi, grandson of Pandu, was killed by one of the same race. In both instances the Takshak is literally rendered the snake. The successor of Janamejaya carried war into the seats of this Tak or serpent race, and is said to have sacrificed 20,000 of them in revenge; but although it is specifically stated that he subsequently compelled them to sign tributary engagements (paenama), the Brahmans have nevertheless distorted a plain historical fact by a literal and puerile interpretation. The Paraitakai (Mountain-Tak) of Alexander were doubtless of this race, as was his ally Taxiles, which appellation was titular, as he was called Omphis till his father’s death. It is even probable that this name is the Greek Ὄφις, in which they recognized the tribe of the Tak or Snake. Taxiles may be compounded of is, ‘lord or chief,’ sila, ‘rock or mountain,’ and Tak, ‘lord of the mountain Tak,’ whose capital was in the range west of the Indus. We are indebted to the Emperor Babur for the exact position of the capital of this celebrated race, which he passed in his route of conquest. We have, however, an intermediate notice of it between Alexander and Babur, in the early history of the Yadu Bhatti, who came in conflict with the Taks on their expulsion from Zabulistan and settlement in the Panjab. [The Paraitakai or Paraitakenai have no connexion with Tāk or Takshak, the first part of the name perhaps representing Skt. parvata, ‘a mountain,’ or pahār in the modern dialect. They lived in the hill country between the rivers Oxus and Jaxartes (McCrindle, Alexander, 57). Omphis represents the Āmbhi, king of Taxila, a name supposed to mean ‘rock of the Tāk tribe’ (ibid. 413; Smith, EHI, 60), or, more probably, ‘city of cut stone.’]
[23]. The Buddhists appeared in this peninsula and the adjacent continent was the cradle of Buddhism, and here are three of the ‘five’ sacred mounts of their faith, i.e. Girnar, Satrunjaya and Abu. The Author purposes giving, hereafter, an account of his journey through these classic regions. [He refers to Jains; Buddhism arose in Bihār.]
[24]. The Buddhists and Jains are stigmatized as Vidyavan, which, signifying ‘possessed of science,’ is interpreted ‘magician.’
[25]. He is called Arishta-Nemi, ‘the black Nemi,’ from his complexion.
[26]. [The connexion of Hindu with Egyptian beliefs is no longer admitted.]
[27]. The Sun-god (Kan, according to Diodorus) is the Minos of the Egyptians. The hieroglyphics at Turin represent him with the head of an ibis, or eagle, with an altar before him, on which a shade places his offerings, namely, a goose, cakes of bread, and flowers of the lotus, and awaits in humble attitude his doom. In Sanskrit the same word means soul, goose, and swan [?], and the Hindu poet is always punning upon it; though it might be deemed a levity to represent the immaterial portion under so unclassical an emblem. The lotus flowers are alike sacred to the Kan of the Egyptians as to Kanhaiya the mediator of the Hindus, and both are painted blue and bird-headed. The claims of Kanhaiya (contracted Kan) as the sun divinity of the Hindus will be abundantly illustrated in the account of the festivals. [The above theories are obsolete.]
[28]. I do not mean to derive any aid from the resemblance of names, which is here merely accidental. [Nonīta probably = Navanīta, ‘fresh butter,’ a dairy god (Macdonell-Keith, Vedic Index, i. 437).]
[29]. When I heard the octogenarian ruler of Kotah ask his grandson, “Bapalal, have you been tending the cows to-day?” my surprise was converted into pleasure on the origin of the custom being thus classically explained.
[30]. From chha, ‘six,’ and tar, ‘a string or wire.’
[31]. Strabo says the Greeks consider music as originating from Thrace and Asia, of which countries were Orpheus, Musaeus, etc.; and that others “who regard all Asia, as far as India, as a country sacred to Dionysus (Bacchus), attribute to that country the invention of nearly all the science of music. We perceive them sometimes describing the cithara of the Asiatic, and sometimes applying to flutes the epithet of Phrygian. The names of certain instruments, such as the nabla, and others likewise, are taken from barbarous tongues.” This nabla of Strabo is possibly the tabla, the small tabor of India. If Strabo took his orthography from the Persian or Arabic, a single point would constitute the difference between the N (ن) and the T (ﺕ). [The Arabic tabl, tabla, has no connexion with Greek νάβλα, Hebrew nevel.]
[32]. An account of the state of musical science amongst the Hindus of early ages, and a comparison between it and that of Europe, is yet a desideratum in Oriental literature. From what we already know of the science, it appears to have attained a theoretical precision yet unknown to Europe, and that at a period when even Greece was little removed from barbarism. The inspirations of the bards of the first ages were all set to music; and the children of the most powerful potentates sang the episodes of the great epics of Valmiki and Vyasa. There is a distinguished member of the Royal Asiatic Society, and perhaps the only one, who could fill up this hiatus; and we may hope that the leisure and inclination of the Right Honourable Sir Gore Ousely will tempt him to enlighten us on this most interesting point.
[33]. [The lyrical drama of Jayadeva, Gītagovinda, dates from the twelfth century A.D. (Macdonell, Hist. Sanskrit Literature, 344 f.).]
[34]. I have often been struck with a characteristic analogy in the sculptures of the most ancient Saxon cathedrals in England and on the Continent, to Kanhaiya and the Gopis. Both may be intended to represent divine harmony. Did the Asi and Jits of Scandinavia, the ancestors of the Saxons, bring them from Asia?
[35]. [The Janamashtami, Krishna’s birthday, is celebrated on the 8th dark half of Sāwan (July-August).]
[36]. Trans. Royal Asiatic Society, vol. i. p. 146.
[37]. [Rādha was daughter of Vrishabhānu.]
[38]. Madho in the dialect of Vraj.
[39]. We meet with various little philosophical phenomena used as similes in this rhapsody of Jayadeva. These aërolites, mentioned by a poet the contemporary of David and Solomon, are but recently known to the European philosopher. [But one was worshipped at Rome in B.C. 204.]
[40]. This is, in allusion to the colour of Krishna, a dark blue.
[41]. The Indian Pluto; she is addressing the Yamuna.
[42]. Thus the ancient statues do not present merely the sculptor’s fancy in the zone of bells with which they are ornamented.
[43]. This is a favourite metaphor with the bards of India, to describe the alternations of the exciting causes of love; and it is yet more important as showing that Jayadeva was the philosopher as well as the poet of nature, in making the action of the moon upon the tides the basis of this beautiful simile.
[44]. This yellow robe or mantle furnishes another title of the Sun-god, namely, Pitambara, typical of the resplendence which precedes his rising and setting.
[45]. It will be again necessary to call to mind the colour of Krishna, to appreciate this elegant metaphor.
[46]. This idea is quite new.
[47]. Childe Harold, Canto iii.
[48]. The anniversary of the birth of Kanhaiya is celebrated with splendour at Sindhia’s court, where the author frequently witnessed it, during a ten years’ residence.
[49]. The priests of Kanhaiya, probably so called from the chob or club with which, on the annual festival, they assault the castle of Kansa, the tyrant usurper of Krishna’s birthright, who, like Herod, ordered the slaughter of all the youth of Vraj, that Krishna might not escape. These Chaubēs are most likely the Sobii of Alexander, who occupied the chief towns of the Panjab, and who, according to Arrian, worshipped Hercules (Hari-kul-es, chief of the race of Hari), and were armed with clubs. The mimic assault of Kansa’s castle by some hundreds of these robust church militants, with their long clubs covered with iron rings, is well worth seeing. [The Chaubē Brāhmans of Mathura do not take their name from Chob, ‘a club,’ but from Skt. Chaturvedin, ‘learned in the four Vedas.’ By the Sobii the Author means the Sibi or Sivaya, inhabiting a district between the Hydaspes and the Indus (McCrindle, Alexander, 366). They have no possible connexion with the Mathura Chaubēs.]
[50]. [Govardhana means ‘nourisher of cattle.’]
[51]. [The title Guphanātha is not recorded.]
[52]. Jalandhara on the Indus is described by the Emperor Babur as a very singular spot, having numerous caves. The deity of the caves of Jalandhara is the tutelary deity of the Prince of Marwar. [When the body of Daksha was cut up, the breast fell at Jālandhar; the Daitya king, Jālandhara, was crushed by Siva under the Jawālamukhi hill (Āīn, ii. 314 f.).]
[53]. [Cave worship does not seem to be specially connected with the cult of Krishna. The mention of the cave at Govardhan seems to refer to the legend of Krishna protecting the people of Braj from a storm sent by Indra, by holding the hill over them (Growse, op. cit. 60). The Gaya caves are Buddhistic, and have no connexion with Krishna (IGI, xii. 198 f.). Guphanāth does not seem to be a Krishna title, and the cave of Gopnāth in Kāthiāwar is said to derive its name from Gopsinghji, a Gohil prince, who reigned in the sixteenth century (BG, viii. 445).]
[54]. “In Hebrew heres signifies the sun, but in Arabic the meaning of the radical word is to guard, preserve; and of haris, guardian, preserver” (Volney’s Ruins of Empires, p. 316). [Needless to say, Elysium (Ἠλύσιον πεδίον) has no connexion with Ἥλιος, the sun.]
[55]. The heaven of Vishnu, Vaikuntha, is entirely of gold, and 80,000 miles in circumference. Its edifices, pillars, and ornaments are composed of precious stones. The crystal waters of the Ganges form a river in Vaikuntha, where are lakes filled with blue, red, and white water-lilies, each of a hundred and even a thousand petals. On a throne glorious as the meridian sun resting on water-lilies, is Vishnu, with Lakshmi or Sri, the goddess of abundance (the Ceres of the Egyptians and Greeks), on his right hand, surrounded by spirits who constantly celebrate the praise of Vishnu and Lakshmi, who are served by his votaries, and to whom the eagle (garuda) is door-keeper (Extract from the Mahabharata—See Ward on the History and Religion of the Hindus, vol. ii. p. 14).
[56]. [Apollo Κάρνειος was probably ‘the horned god,’ connected with κέρας, ‘a horn,’ as a deity of herdsmen (Farnell, Cults of the Greek States, iv. 131).]
[57]. Supposing these coincidences in the fabulous history of the ancient nations of Greece and Asia to be merely fortuitous, they must excite interest; but conjoined with various others in the history of the Herikulas of India and the Heraclidae of Greece, I cannot resist the idea that they were connected [?].
[58]. [The Annakūta festival, held on the first day of the light half of Kārttik (Oct.-Nov.). This was the old name of the hill which Krishna held aloft to protect his people (Growse, op. cit. 300).]
[59]. Gibbon records a similar offering of 200,000 sesterces to the Roman church, by a stranger, in the reign of Decius [ed. W. Smith, ii. 199].
[60]. I enjoyed no small degree of favour with the supreme pontiff of the shrine of Apollo and all his votaries, for effecting a meeting of the seven statues of Vishnu in 1820. In contriving this I had not only to reconcile ancient animosities between the priests of the different shrines, in order to obtain a free passport for the gods, but to pledge myself to the princes in whose capitals they were established, for their safe return: for they dreaded lest bribery might entice the priests to fix them elsewhere, which would have involved their loss of sanctity, dignity, and prosperity. It cost me no little trouble, and still more anxiety, to keep the assembled multitudes at peace with each other, for they are as outrageous as any sectarians in contesting the supreme power and worth of their respective forms (rupa). Yet they all separated, not only without violence, but without even any attempt at robbery, so common on such occasions.
[61]. [Kānkroli, 36 miles N.E. of Udaipur city: the image is said to have been brought from Mathura A.D. 1669 (Erskine ii. A. 113).]
[62]. [The form of Vishnu worshipped at Pāndharpur in Sholapur District. The name is probably a local corruption of Vishnupati, ‘Lord Vishnu,’ through the forms Bistu or Bittu (IA, iv. 361).]
[63]. [Said to mean ‘the child, giver of liberation.’]
[64]. The pera of Mathura can only be made from the waters of the Yamuna, from whence it is still conveyed to Nonanda at Nathdwara, and with curds forms his evening repast.
[65]. [Gokul is not an island, but a suburb of Mahāban in Mathura District.]
[66]. [Pāndurang is said to mean ‘white-coloured’; but others believe it to be the Sanskritized form of Pandaraga, that is, ‘belonging to Pandargē,’ the old name of Pāndharpur (BG, xx. 423).]
[67]. Gosain is a title more applicable to the célibataire worshippers of Hara than of Hari—of Jupiter than of Apollo. It is alleged that the Emperor Akbar first bestowed this epithet on the high-priest of Krishna, whose rites attracted his regard. They were previously called Dikshit, ‘one who performs sacrifice,’ a name given to a very numerous class of Brahmans. The Gotrācharya, or genealogical creed of the high-priest, is as follows: “Tailang Brahman, Bharadwaja gotra,[[A]] Gurukula,[[B]] Taittari sakha; i.e. Brahman of Telingana, of the tribe of Bharadwaja, of the race of Guru, of the branch Taittari.”
[A]. Bhāradwaja was a celebrated founder of a sect in the early ages.
[B]. Guru is an epithet applied to Vrishapati, ‘Lord of the bull,’ the Indian Jupiter, who is called the Guru, preceptor or guardian of the gods. [Brihaspati, ‘Lord of prayer,’ the regent of the planet Jupiter, is confused with Vrishapati. ‘Lord of the bull,’ an epithet of Siva.]
[68]. The high-priest of Jalandharnath used to appear at the head of a cavalcade far more numerous than any feudal lord of Marwar. A sketch of this personage will appear elsewhere. These Brahmans were not a jot behind the ecclesiastical lords of the Middle Ages, who are thus characterized: “Les seigneurs ecclésiatiques, malgré l’humilité chrétienne, ne se sont pas montrés moins orgueilleux que les nobles laïcs. Le doyen du chapitre de Notre Dame du Port, à Clermont, pour montrer sa grande noblesse, officiait avec toute la pompe féodale. Étant à l’autel, il avait l’oiseau sur la perche gauche, et on portait devant lui la hallebarde; on la lui portait aussi de la même manière pendant qu’on chantait l’évangile, et aux processions il avait lui-même l’oiseau sur le poing, et il marchait à la tête de ses serviteurs, menant ses chiens de chasse” (Dict. de l’Anc. Régime, p. 380).
[69]. The first letter I received on reaching England after my long residence in India was from this priest, filled with anxious expressions for my health, and speedy return to protect the lands and sacred kine of Apollo.