Page:South-Indian Images of Gods and Goddesses.djvu/67

Rh Again Krishna on the tree is a familiar figure in paintingsand decorative sculptures of temples. The story is related in the Bhāgavata-Purāna how one day Krishna saw the cow-herd girls bathing naked in the Jumna leaving their clothes on the sand banks of the river and how he took away their clothes and got up a tree standing near by. He did not restore the clothes to the girls till they confessed their error in bathing naked against the teaching of the Sāstras. One of the usual processional vehicles in Vishnu temples is the punnai-tree with the naked Gōpis standing round it and begging for the return of their clothes (fig. 30).

After leaving Brindāvana, Krishna became the clever and astute statesman and warrior of Dvārakā and took an active part in the war between Kauravas and Pāndavas described in the Mahābhārata. He was on the side of the Pāndavas; he was an intimate friend of Arjuna (or Pārtha) and even served him as his charioteer on the battle-field. Hence Krishna is also known by the name of Pārthasārathi, the name of the god in the famous temple at Triplicane. It was on this occasion in the battle-field, when Arjuna was dismayed at the prospect of a bloody war with his relatives, that the divine charioteer Krishna is said to have delivered to Arjuna the famous discourse known as the Bhagavad-Gitā. A fine illustration of the scene comes from the Kēsavasvāmin temple at Pushpagiri (fig. 31). The story runs that Arjuna and Krishna were bosom friends in far earlier ages, when under the names Nara and Narāyana they are supposed to have performed penance in Badarikāsrama.

Two other avatārs of Vishnu, viz., Buddha and Kalki may be noticed. The latter is only a prospective incarnation in which the god is expected to appear as a powerful hero riding on horse-back, sword in hand, to suppress the growing wickedness of the Mlēchchhas. The Buddha incarnation of Vishnu is, no doubt, counted among the ten avatārs but is rarely found worshipped in Hindu temples. Buddha is