In India, there have been several _Avatars_, or incarnations of Vishnu,[112:3] the most important of which is _Heri Crishna_,[112:4] or _Crishna the Saviour_. In the _Maha-bharata_, an Indian epic poem, written about the sixth century B. C., Crishna is associated or identified with Vishnu the Preserving god or Saviour.[113:1] Sir William Jones, first President of the Royal Asiatic Society, instituted in Bengal, says of him: "Crishna continues to this hour the darling god of the Indian woman. The sect of Hindoos who adore him with enthusiastic, and almost exclusive devotion, have broached a doctrine, which they maintain with eagerness, and which seems general in these provinces, that he was distinct from all the _Avatars_ (incarnations) who had only an _ansa_, or a portion, of his (_Vishnu's_) divinity, _while Crishna was the person of Vishnu himself in human form_."[113:2] The Rev. D. O. Allen, Missionary of the American Board, for twenty-five years in India, speaking of Crishna, says: "He was greater than, and distinct from, all the _Avatars_ which had only a portion of the divinity in them, while he was the very person of Vishnu himself in human form."[113:3] Thomas Maurice, in speaking of _Mathura_, says: "It is particularly celebrated for having been the birth-place of _Crishna_, who is esteemed in India, not so much an incarnation of the divine Vishnu, _as the deity himself in human form_."[113:4] Again, in his "_History of Hindostan_," he says: "It appears to me that the Hindoos, idolizing some eminent character of antiquity, distinguished, in the early annals of their nation, by heroic fortitude and exalted piety, have applied to that character those ancient traditional accounts of an _incarnate God_, or, as they not improperly term it, an _Avatar_, which had been delivered down to them from their ancestors, the virtuous Noachidæ, to descend amidst the darkness and ignorance of succeeding ages, at once to reform and instruct mankind. We have the more solid reason to affirm this of the Avatar of Crishna, because it is allowed to be the most illustrious of them all; since we have learned, that, in the _seven_ preceding Avatars, the deity brought only an _ansa_, or portion of his divinity; but, in the _eighth_, he descended in all the plentitude of the Godhead, _and was Vishnu himself in a human form_."[113:5] Crishna was born of a chaste virgin,[113:6] called _Devaki_, who, on account of her purity, was selected to become the "_mother of God_." According to the "BHAGAVAT POORAUN," _Vishnu_ said: "I will become incarnate at Mathura in the house of _Yadu_, and will issue forth to mortal birth from the womb of Devaki. . . . It is time I should display my power, and relieve the oppressed earth from its load."[114:1] Then a chorus of angels exclaimed: