Page:The Architecture of Ancient Delhi Especially the Buildings Around the Kutb Minar 1872 by Henry Hardy Cole.djvu/79

 Masjid-i-Kutb-ul-Isldm. 5 3 The meaning of this scene is somewhat obscure, but, from the incidents of Krishna's birth, it may perhaps be not improbable that the female figure is intended to represent Dewaki, his mother. The seven children may also be accounted for as representations of the infant Krishna, in the different positions of being suckled, carried and washed. The cows and calf on the extreme right of the carving may be connected with " Ananda," the cowherd, who protected Krishna after his escape from Kansa — the open doorway in the centre of the panel suggests a connection with this escape. In Moor's " Hindu Pantheon " there is a plate (No. 58) representing the miraculous escape of the infant Krishna over the Yamuna, or Jumna, conveyed by his father, Vasudeva (t. e. giver of wealth) and protected by Sesha (or immortality), the guards placed by Kansa over his pregnant sister having failed in their vigilance. Kansa being enraged, ordered all newly-born infants to be slain, but Krishna escaped his various snares : one of which was sending a woman named " Patnia " with a poisoned nipple to nurse him. He was fostered by an honest herdsman named Ananda or " happy," and his amiable wife Yasuda or the " giver of honour," and passed the gay hours of youth, dancing, sporting and piping amongst a multitude of young " Gopas " or cowherds and " Gopias " or milkmaids, from whom he selected nine as favourites. The grouping of the figures bears some resemblance to the birth of Christ in the manger. Krishna was believed to be an incarnation of Vishnu as early as the period of the Chandra Gupta's, 1 and whatever similarity the circumstances of his birth may bear to that of Christ, it cannot be said that the Hindus borrowed the traditions of the Christian religion. (I brought back a cast of this carving, which may be seen at the South Kensington Museum.) 3. A carved architrave in the north-east corner of the inner courtyard. Subject, Vishnu lying on a couch, with a lotus rising from his navel and covered by a canopy. Indra on an elephant. Brahma, with three heads, on a goose. Siva on a bull. 4. A piece of stone carving on an architrave measuring about four feet long by nine inches deep, situated inside the north-east corner of the Colonnade. See M on plan No. II. and Photograph III. b. Subject: on the left are two men carrying circular vessels {i.e. "Gharras") in "Banghis," [i.e. slung at both ends of a bamboo, which is carried on the. 1 Lassen's " Indische AJterthums Kunde." Vol. ii. p. 1107.