Hindu gods and heroes : $b studies in the history of the religion of IndiaBarnett, Lionel D. (Lionel David)
ReligionEastern
Hindu gods and heroes : $b studies in the history of the religion of India
Barnett, Lionel D. (Lionel David)
Hindu mythology; Hinduism
Next in date is an inscription on a stone slab found at Ghasundi,
about four miles north-east of Nagari, in Udaipur State. It was
engraved about 150 B.C., and records that a certain _bhāgavata_, or
"worshipper of the Lord," named Gājāyana, son of Pārāśarī, caused to
be erected in the Nārāyaṇa-vāṭa, or park of Nārāyaṇa, a stone chapel
for the worship of the Lords Saṃkarshaṇa and Vāsudēva.[26] Here their
worship is associated with that of Nārāyaṇa.
[Footnote 26: It is noteworthy that Saṃkarshaṇa is here mentioned
first, as is also the case in the Nanaghat inscription of about 100
B.C., which mentions them as descendants of the Moon in a list of
various deities. This order may possibly be due to the fact that in
ancient legend Saṃkarshaṇa, or Bala-bhadra, is the elder brother of
Kṛishṇa Vāsudēva, and it does not entitle us to draw the inference
that he ever received equal honour with Vāsudēva. Special devotees of
Saṃkarshaṇa are mentioned in the Kauṭilīya, the famous treatise on
polity ascribed to Chāṇakya, the minister of Chandra-gupta Maurya, who
came to the throne about 320 B.C. (Engl. transl. 1st edn., p. 485). I
suspect that in its present form the Kauṭilīya is considerably later
than 320 B.C.; but in any case the existence of special votaries of
Saṃkarshaṇa is no proof that he ever ranked as equal to Vāsudēva, just
as the presence of special worshippers of Arjuna is no proof that
Arjuna was ever considered a peer of Vāsudēva. On the Ghasundi
inscription see R. Chanda, _ut supra_, p. 163 ff., etc.; for the
Nanaghat inscription, _ibidem_ and _Memoirs of the Arch. Survey of
India_, No. 1, with H. Raychaudhuri's _Materials, etc._, p. 68 ff.]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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