Hinduism and Buddhism, An Historical Sketch, Vol. 2Eliot, Charles
Religion
Hinduism and Buddhism, An Historical Sketch, Vol. 2
Eliot, Charles
Asia -- Religion; Buddhism; Hinduism
The first of these aspects is clearly the oldest and it is here, if
anywhere, that we may hope to find some fragments of history. But the
embellishments of poets and story-tellers have been so many that we
can only point to features which may indicate a substratum of fact.
In the legend, Kṛishṇa assists the Pâṇḍavas against the Kauravas.
Now many think that the Pâṇḍavas represent a second and later
immigration of Aryans into India, composed of tribes who had halted in
the Himalayas and perhaps acquired some of the customs of the
inhabitants, including polyandry, for the five Pâṇḍavas had one wife
in common between them. Also, the meaning of the name Kṛishṇa,
black, suggests that he was a chief of some non-Aryan tribe. It is,
therefore, possible that one source of the Kṛishṇa myth is that a
body of invading Aryans, described in the legend as the Pâṇḍavas,
who had not exactly the same laws and beliefs as those already
established in Hindustan, were aided by a powerful aboriginal chief,
just as the Sisodias in Rajputana were aided by the Bhîls. It is
possible too that Kṛishṇa's tribe may have come from Kabul or other
mountainous districts of the north west, although one of the most
definite points in the legend is his connection with the coast town of
Dvârakâ. The fortifications of this town and the fruitless efforts of
the demon king, Salva, to conquer it by seige are described in the
Mahâbhârata,[375] but the narrative is surrounded by an atmosphere of
magic and miracle rather than of history.[376]
Though it would not be reasonable to pick out the less fantastic parts
of the Kṛishṇa legend and interpret them as history, yet we may
fairly attach significance to the fact that many episodes represent
him as in conflict with Brahmanic institutions and hardly maintaining
the position of Vishṇu incarnate.[377] Thus he plunders Indra's
garden and defeats the gods who attempt to resist him. He fights with
Śiva and Skanda. He burns Benares and all its inhabitants. Yet he is
called Upendra, which, whatever other explanations sectarian ingenuity
may invent, can hardly mean anything but the Lesser Indra, and he
fills the humble post of Arjuna's charioteer. His kinsmen seem to have
been of little repute, for part of his mission was to destroy his own
clan and after presiding over its annihilation in internecine strife,
he was slain himself. In all this we see dimly the figure of some
aboriginal hero who, though ultimately canonized, represented a force
not in complete harmony with Brahmanic civilization. The figure has
also many solar attributes but these need not mean that its origin is
to be sought in a sun myth, but rather that, as many early deities
were forms of the sun, solar attributes came to be a natural part of
divinity and were ascribed to the deified Kṛishṇa just as they were
to the deified Buddha.[378]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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