Hindu Manners, Customs and Ceremonies - DUBOIS, Abbé Hindu Manners, Customs and Ceremonies, Dubois | Página 665

025
VISHNU INCARNATED AS KRISHNA
Creator of all things, it is to you that I owe my being
'
;
your duty therefore to protect me. The king Kamsa,
who has given himself up altogether to sin, holds me in
the most cruel oppression. I can bear his tyranny no
This wicked man is your creature. Therefore
longer.
it is
him and forbid his injuring me further.'
Brahma, angered at this report, went with the supplicant
to Siva, and told him what he had learnt.
All these next
went together to Vishnu, the Supreme Being and after
they had offered their respectful salutations, the cow that
is, the Earth still in this form
spoke thus
Great god, you always listen graciously to the prayers
issue orders to
;
—
—
:
'
addressed to you. I come, then, in my unhappiness to
implore your protection. Kamsa, the cruel Kamsa, is com-
mitting the most unheard-of cruelties against me. I pro-
strate myself at your feet, and beg of you to put an end to
them by
slaying this evildoer.'
After listening to these complaints, Vishnu asked Brahma
whether he had not formerly granted some special favour
to this Kamsa, and what was its nature.
The favour which I granted him,' answered Brahma,
is that he can only be deprived of life by his own nephew.
Enter, therefore, into the womb of Devaki, his sister for
there is no other way of getting rid of this tyrant.'
So Vishnu followed Brahma's advice, and became in-
carnate in the womb of Devaki, sister of Kamsa and wife
of Vassu-Deva, one of the most celebrated merchants of
the country.
Kamsa, on learning all that was going on, placed guards
and spies everywhere, thrust Vassu-Deva and his wife into
close confinement, and loaded them with fetters.
How-
ever, Devaki was not long in giving birth to Krishna, and
the day of his birth was the eighth of the moon of the
month Badra (September) 1 Being informed that Kamsa
had resolved to kill the child, Devaki managed to escape
the vigilance of the guards and had him secretly carried
away into the town of Gokulam.
At the same time Yasoda, wife of the shepherd Nanda,
had given birth to a daughter. To prevent this cruel
'
'
;
.
1
It
month
was the month
of Badra.
Ed.
—
of
Sravana (eighth day after
full
moon), not the