Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 11, 1900.djvu/48

 3^ Minutes of Meeting,

Krishna cult is more prominent than is generally suspected. The Madura of Southern India is supposed to take its name from the Dravidian Madur, " Old town," and the Krishna cult to have been derived from that of the Southern Indian Kurappan, "the black one."^ If this be so, the more famous Mathura of the North would be an offshoot from the southern shrine, a development the reverse of popular belief. And the Sanskrit derivation of the former, "the place of milking," may have been a later invention when a cult of kine was added to the ruder form of worship. It is noticeable that the connection between the teachers of Mathura and the Madras Brahmans is even now well marked.

At any rate, whatever may be the genesis of the dark- hued Krishna, it is clear that his legends absorbed much of the popular folk-beliefs which in this paper I have tried to illustrate.

WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 15th, 1899.

Mr. G. L. GOMME, Vice-President, in the Chair.

The minutes of the last Meeting of the Society, and of the Joint Meeting of the Anthropological Institute and the Society held on the 27th June, were read and confirmed.

The election of Mr. E. Vincent Evans, Miss C. Burdon, and Mr. A. Shewan as members of the Society was announced.

The resignation of Professor C. de la Saussaye was also announced.

The Secretary exhibited on behalf of the President a photograph of Professor Starr and his two boys, Manuel and Louis.

' Senathi VJx^'x, Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society, xlx, ^7^, note 3 ; Frazer, Literary History, 304 note.