And HIST ORY OF INDIA. PART II. The Brahmans to forgive their by a eulogist. to him. perform before merit is to be derived from beholding Krishna." when he came nigh to the city, multitudes of Bráhmans, with clasped hands, besought him to forgive their sins; but he said:"If your hearts be true and single before God, beseech Krishna there is hope of forgiveness from him." So he went on to sins. the city while the women collected on the tops of the houses Krishna's reply. to behold him. As he advanced further, a eulogist said to Krishna praised him :-"What auspicious day is this in which men behold your face to the cleansing of all their sins:" And the eulogist also said to those around:-" This is Krishna, who has assumed so many transformations to visit the world." And Krishna took a necklace of pearls and jewels from off his own neck and gave it to the eulogist. After this Brahmans pray Krishna was met by a large number of Bráhmans, who prayed to him; and then by a company of dancing girls, Dancing girls who sang and played before him. And Krishna stopped for Kshna. a time to look at the dancing girls. And one of the girls said to those around:-" My heart is so intent with viewing Pious speeches Krishna, that I lose my recollection; and I fear that I shall performances of spoil my dance, and that Krishna will think meanly of me." She then turned to Krishna, and said:"You have one chakra which you whirl where you list, but I have four chakras which I can whirl." So saying she took one on each hand, and one on each foot, and whirled all four about to the admiration of Krishna and of all who beheld her. She then said :-"You play with the world as with a ball; and I can play with seven balls." So she took and tossed seven balls into the air, and caught each one in turn. And Krishna praises Krishna bestowed great praises upon the girl, and told her girl. to come to his quarters, and he would give her whatever she asked of him. and wonderful a dancing girl. the dancing the city of Has After this Krishna approached the city, and was met by Krishna enters Arjuna and all his kinsmen, and lastly at some distance by tinápur. Raja Yudhishthira, and all the great men of Hastinapur, and they conducted him to the house which had been prepared for him. And Krishna paid a visit to Maháraja Dhritar- Visits the áshtra and the Rání Gándárí, and the Rání Kuntí, and they Ram. received him with every honour. And Arjuna was despatch Maharaja and INDIA. PART II. Ladies of the Pandavas receive the ladies of Krishna. Conversation between Draupadi and the wives of Krishna polyandry. HISTORY OF ed with many of the ladies of the Pándavas to meet the ladies of Krishna's camp; and when all the ladies had nearly reached the city, Yudhishthira and Krishna went out also to meet them; and in this manner the ladies of Krishna were conducted into the city and introduced to Kuntí, Gándhárí, and Draupadí. And Satyabháma said to Draupadí :—“ We, who are so many thousands in number, have all but one and on polygamy and the same husband in Krishna, and we are all happy with him; how comes it then that you have five husbands, and are not ashamed before men?" Draupadí answered :—“ You are every one jealous of each other, and are always talking of your suspicions one of another: But I never speak one word which all my five husbands may not hear alike, or which would give to either the smallest offence: And as to what you ask of my having no shame before men, I had great shame when Duhsásana insulted me in the presence of all the Kauravas; but Krishna miraculously protected me terference of by his divine power; and as fast as Duhsásana stripped me of one of my cloths, Krishna supplied another in its Draupadi's acknowledg ment of the miraculous in Krishna in the gambling pavilion. Review of the foregoing narra ture of the horse. acter of the details. Later Bráh room." The foregoing narrative of the capture of the tive of the cap- horse contains only a single relic of the original tradition; namely, the incident that the horse intended for the Aswamedha was literally stolen by Mythical char Bhíma. Every other detail appears to be mythical; or, in other words, is a modern interpolation enforcing the observances of the Bráhmans, or the worship of Krishna. The conquest of the Rajas has been spiritualized into a conquest of the pasatonement for sions; and the conjugal rights of the younger Pánif religious davas are apparently set aside, in order that Yudhishthira may sleep every night for an entire year by the side of his wife with a naked sword between them. Moreover, the main idea of the Aswamedha, that it was undertaken to settle questions of supremacy, has been virtually set aside in favour manical idea of sin, and acquisi merit. INDIA. etc., a disqualifi Aswamedha. of the later Brahmanical notion that it was a sacri- HISTORY OF fice for the atonement of sin and the acquisition of PART II. religious merit. Again, the disqualifications men- Low marriage, tioned by Krishna, as unfitting a man to assist at an cation for an Aswamedha; namely, marriage with an Asura wife, or with a wife of lower rank than himself, or residing in the house of a father-in-law;-are all breaches of Brahmanical law, which could scarcely have had any connection with the ancient celebration of an Aswamedha. Lastly, a palpable fable has been intro- Fable of the duced of a treasure hidden in the Himálayas, which Yudhishthira declined to accept because it had belonged to the Bráhmans; all of which may be regarded as a later interpolation, intended to indicate by a negative process the respect to be paid by Hindú Rajas to the Brahmanical hierarchy. and treasure. tions referring features in the inture of Krishna as a man of pleasure and as an inear nationof the Su Besides, however, these purely Brahmanical de- Large interpelatails, it will have been seen that the narrative of the to Krishna. capture of the horse is largely interpolated with incidents referring to Krishna, which are very curious and suggestive, and serve to illustrate that epicurean phase in the religion of the Hindus which will be discussed hereafter. Krishna appears not only as a lover Contradictory of women, but as prone to mirth and jesting; no doubt these were the characteristics of the mortal hero. But in elevating Krishna to the Godhead, preme being." and representing him as the incarnation of the Supreme Being, it seems to have been deemed necessary to invest him with divine attributes, such as the forgiveness of sins, and even to identify him with the universe in accordance with a pantheistic idea that the universe existed in him. The attempt Absurd attempts to harmonize these two opposite conceptions of opposite Krishna as a man and Krishna as a god, has re to harmonize conceptions. INDIA. PART II. Krishna's prac tical jest with Bhima in the 5 HISTORY OF Sulted in a strange medley of absurdities; and these are especially manifest in the scenes between Krishna and Bhíma. Krishna reproaches Bhíma for his large stomach, his Asura wife, and his love of women. Bhíma retorts by an extravagant allusion to Krishna as the Supreme Being in whom the whole creation exists, not as an idea in the divine intellect, but in his stomach as an actual and material fact. Bhíma also refers to the traditionary history of Krishna, in which it is recorded that the hero married the daughter of a Bear, and indulged in a multiplicity of amours. The scene in the dining hall, in which Krishna is descanting upon the excellence of the dishes whilst Bhíma is kept outside frantic with hunger, is still more whimsical, and precisely in accordance with Hindú tastes. is utterly devoid of religious meaning, but yet it is a part of the conception of Krishna: and pious worshippers will laugh all the more because the jest was perpetrated by Krishna, just as courtiers will laugh at the sorriest jest uttered by their sovereign. Mixture of jest. But the scenes in Krishna's motley camp exhibit incongruities which would surpass the mysteries of the middle ages, or the practices at the Dionysian festivals. A courtesan excites merriment by falling dining hall. ing and piety. It 5 It would be difficult to find a more curious illustration of the wide difference between the idealism of the learned class of Hindús and the intense realism which is alone apprehended by the masses, than is here involved in the remark of Bhima as regards the universe. Many Pundits are perfectly capable of conceiving the creation as existing as a Divine idea in the mind of the Creator; and do indeed teach that all external nature, and the exploits of Krishna himself as a human being, are all Maya, or a delusion of the intellect. But the masses are totally incapable of apprehending such metaphysical conceptions. To them the mountains, rivers, and seas are absolute material facts, and nothing short of representing the universe as so much matter existing in the stomach of Krishna as the Creator of the universe, will render the cosmogony intelligible to the popular mind. As to Krishna's human character, that is to be dismissed as something incomprehensible, which the learned only can understand. INDIA. PART II. from her camel, and then proves her religious faith by HISTORY OF declaring that her sins are forgiven her because she has beheld Krishna. The benevolence of the deity is shown by his dubious liberality to a flower-girl; whilst his humanity is displayed in a still more dubious exchange of jests with Bhíma respecting the jealousy of their wives at the presence of the courtesans. The bantering remarks of the men and Bantering of the women of Mathurá, and those of the Bráhmans and men at Madancing girls who welcomed the approach of Krishna to Hastinápur, are all of the same grotesque character; and instead of elevating a man into a deity, only tend to degrade the deity into a very ordinary mortal. men and wo thurá. dent of the old to leave her household goods to bathe in the Ganges. There is one other incident in the narrative of Natural incithe capture of the horse which is very curious; lady who refused namely, the story of the old mother of the Raja of Badravati, who refused to leave her milk and butter to the mercy of the servants, or to believe in the efficacy of Ganges water; and who accordingly by the advice of the Minister was carried away by force. The language of the old lady is startling from its truthfulness to human nature. She is a perfect type of a large class. The power of the Ganges water to wash away her sins was a newfangled doctrine which she utterly refused to believe. The springs in her own neighbourhood she declared were quite as good as the Ganges; in the same spirit that Naaman the Syrian declared that the rivers of Damascus were better than all the • This observation of the courtesan is a striking instance of that doctrine of the power of faith in Ráma and Krishna as incarnations of deity, which is insisted upon by the worshippers of Vishnu; as opposed to the doctrine of the power of good works, such as austerities and sacrifices, which is insisted upon by the worshippers of Siva. |