Page:South-Indian Images of Gods and Goddesses.djvu/58

38 the trees assumed the shape of the two sons of Kubēra, the god of riches, who being cursed by the sage Nārada to assume the shape of trees had been waiting long to be thus restored by the Lord Krishna to their original form. The first part of this incident is represented in fig. 24.

In South India pictures of Krishna with a pot of butter under his left arm and eating out of a ball of it placed in the palm of his right hand are not uncommon. On either side of him are represented shepherd girls of Brindāvana. This form of Krishna, though very often meditated upon and sung about even in nursery rhymes, is rarely worshipped as the chief figure in temples-a famous exception to this being Udipi in the South Canara district, where a big temple, richly endowed, is maintained for the worship of the god Bāla Krishna. In the Madras Museum are two metallic images of dancing Krishna, one of which holds in its right hand a ball of butter (fig. 25). A peacock's feather stuck into the tuft of hair knotted overhead is, along with the other golden jewellery peculiar to children, a special feature of Krishna as a boy. Gold and silver images of this form of Krishna in miniature are among the set of idols worshipped daily in an orthodox Brāhmana's house. Vaishnavism in its various forms prevailing throughout India praises the child form of Krishna in the sweetest of strains with an overflow of devotion peculiar to that creed alone.

Another story of the boy Krishna is represented in his dance on the head of a serpent named Kāliya (the black). Kāliya was hiding in a pond in the Yamunā river and making the whole neighbourhood poisonous to all living beings. One day the cattle tended by Krishna and his companions strayed into this region and were thereby poisoned. Krishna then plunged into the pond and holding the viper by the tail