Cox, George - Aryan Mythology Vol 2.pdf

BOOK
II.
MYTHOLOGY OF THE ARYAN NATIONS.
natural reproduction as a necessary stage in the education of
man. If our limbs are still shackled and our movements
hindered by ideas which have their root in the sensuousness
of the ancient language, we shall do well to remember that
a real progress for mankind might in no other way have
been possible. If the images of outward and earthly objects
have been made the means of filling human hearts and
minds with the keenest yearnings for Divine truth, beauty,
and love, the work done has been the work of God.
Section XIII.—THE SUN-GODS OF LATER HINDU
MYTHOLOGY.
If it be urged that the attribution to Krishna of qualities
or powers belonging to other deities is a mere device by
which his devotees sought to supersede the more ancient
gods, the answer must be that nothing is done in his case
which has not been done in the case of almost every other
member of the great company of the gods, and that the sys-
tematic adoption of this method is itself conclusive proof of
the looseness and flexibility of the materials of which the
cumbrous mythology of the Hindu epic poems is composed.
As being Vishnu, Krishna performs all the feats of that god.
' And thou, Krishna, of the Yadava race, having become
the son of Aditi and being called Vishnu, the younger
brother of Indra, the all-pervading, becoming a child, and
vexer of thy foes, hast by thy energy traversed the sky, the
atmosphere, and the earth in three strides.' 1
He is thus also identified with Hari or the dwarf Vishnu,
a myth which carries us to that of the child Hermes as well
as to the story of the limping Hephaistos. As the son of
Nanda, the bull, he is Govinda. a name which gave rise in
times later than those of the Mahabharata to the stories of
his life with the cowherds and his dalliance with their wives;
but in the Mahabharata he is already the protector of cattle,
and like Herakles slays the bull which ravaged the herds. 2
His name Krishna, again, is connected with another parent-
age, which makes him the progeny of the black hair of Hari,
1 Muir, Sanskrit Texts, part ir. p. 118. lb. 206.