Page:History of Bengali Language and Literature.djvu/554

 Vishu as the eighth chiid. 518 BENGALI LANGUAGE & LITERATURE. [Chap. | Visnu, whose first mission would to be to kill him j and then destroy other oppressors of the world. The prophecy alarmed Kamsa who immediately put Daivaki and her husband Vasudeva in prison © and ordered that all children born to her should be — killed; for his ministers advised him that the prophecy of Narada was ambiguous in its meaning as it was not clear what was meant by the eighth child ;—supposing that Daivaki should have twelve children, then counting from the last, the fourth according to ordinary calculation would be the — eighth. As the question of the King’s life or death — hung on the correct solution, nothing ought to be | left dubious and all the children of Daivaki should unsparingly be killed, thus completely remov- ing all chance of danger. One by one seven children were born to poor Daivaki in prison and they were all killed by Kamsa. Ultimate- ly Visnhu came as the eighth child. He was born in the middle of the eighth night of the waning moon and as Vasudeva looked upon him, he saw the baby surrounded by a halo of light and possessed of other signs from which he knew him to be no other than Visnau himself; he was naturally eager to save the divine child from the hands of the oppressor, and marched with him to the gates of the prison. The gate-keepers, at his approach, fell into a deep sleep, and the gates which were under strong lock and key, softly opened of themselves making a passage for the child. The anxious father came to the Jumnaé whose dark waters rolled before him, with their foaming waves, and the night was so dark that he despaired of crossing it. But at this moment a