Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 11, 1900.djvu/13

 The Legends of Krishna, 3

and men. They are accepted as incarnations of Vishnu, but at the same time they are regarded as human heroes, acting under the influence of human motives, and taking no advantage of their divine supremacy. Krishna even wor- ships Siva and wins boons from him.^ Later additions to and interpolations in the text of the Epics assert his divinity; and in particular this view of his nature finds expression in the celebrated philosophical poem known as the Bhagavad- gita, which is obviously a late supplement to the Maha- bharata. The same view was again enforced and extended in the Hari-vansa, and especially in the Bhagavata Purana, which may be as late as the tenth or eleventh century of our era.

It is impossible, then, to assign a definite date to a cultus thus gradually developed, as we are able to do in the case of other great historical religions, Buddhism, Islam, or Christianity. There seems, however, good reason to suspect that the elevation of Krishna to divine honours was coin- cident with the rise of the neo-Brahmanism on the decay of Buddhism. The older Brahmanism was too esoteric, too much the faith of priests and nobles, to influence the masses. In this respect Brahmanism learned a lesson from Buddhism, and with a view to popularise its tenets adopted not only the cult of the Sakti, or female element, which may have been one of the indigenous idolatries, but also drew within its fold some of the local or tribal gods, of whom, as we shaU see, Krishna was probably one. Nay more, it has been conjectured that in this new alliance it was not Vishnu, but Krishna, who was the predominant partner, and that it was by its combination with the Krishna or other allied cult that Vaishnavism finally won its way to the affections of the masses in Northern India.

It is outside my present purpose to discuss how far the

' Muir, Original Sanskrit Texts, iv., 169, 182 seqq. ; Wilson-Hall, Vishnu Ptirdna, i., intro., xv. For a summary of the story of Krishna, see Maha- bharata, Drona Parva, sec. ii., trans. Ray, v., 31 seqq. B 2