Cox, George - Aryan Mythology Vol 2.pdf

THE BIRTH OF KRISHNA. 133
the more valuable from the independent developements of CHAP.
these several myths from a common germ. Thus if Pausa- >.
nias speaks of Dionysos Antheus, Krishna 'also is Vanamali,
the flower-crowned. If Herakles smites Antaios, Krishna
overthrows the giant Madhu, and the cruel tyrant of
Madura. Like Oidipous, Komulus, Perseus, Cyrus and others,
he is one of the fatal children, born to be the ruin of their
sires ; and the king of Madura, like Laios, is terrified by the
prediction that his sister's son shall deprive him of his
throne and his life. It is but the myth of Kronos and Zeus
in another form. The desire of Kamsa is to slay his sister,
but her husband promises to deliver all her children into the
hands of the tyrant. But although six infants were thus
placed in his power and slain, he shut up the beautiful
Devaki and her husband in a dungeon; and when the
seventh child was about to be born, Devaki prays, like Khea,
that this one at least may be spared. In answer to her
entreaty, Bhavani, who shields the newly-born children,
comes to comfort her, and taking the babe brings it to the
house of Nanda, to whom a son, Balarama, had been born.
When Devaki was to become for the eighth time a mother,
Kamsa was again eager to destroy the child. As the hour
drew near, the mother became more beautiful, her form
more brilliant, while the dungeon was filled with a heavenly
light as when Zeus came to Danae in a golden shower, and
the air was filled with a heavenly harmony as the chorus of
the gods, with Brahma and Siva at their head, poured forth
then* gladness in song. 1
All these marvels (which the Bha-
gavata Purana assigns to the birth of the child) are reported
to Kamsa by the warders, and his jealousy and fear are
1 This song would of itself suffice to cities, villages, hamlets, and towns ; all
prove how thoroughly Krishna, like Dyii, the fires, waters, and winds; the stars.
Indra, Varuna, Agni, or any other asterisms, and planets : the sky crowded
names, denotes the mere conception of
the One True God, who is but feebly
with the variegated chariots of the gods,
and ether that provides space for all
shadowed forth under these titles and substance; (lie several spheres of earth,
by the symbolism of these myths. 'As sky, and heaven, of saints, sages,
Aditi,' say the gods to Devaki the ascetics, and of Brahma ; the whole egg
mother of the unborn Krishna, 'thou of Brahma with all its population of
art the parent of the gods; as Diti, gods, demons, spirits, snake-gods, fiends,
thou art the mother of the Daityas, ghosts and imps, men and brutes, and
their foes. . . . The whole earth, deco- whatever creatures have life, comprised
rated with oceans, rivers, continents, in him who is their eternal lord and
_JL«