Hindu Manners, Customs and Ceremonies - DUBOIS, Abbé Hindu Manners, Customs and Ceremonies, Dubois | Page 667

FEATS ACHIEVED BY KRISHNA
027
The ravisher was kept prisoner
off.
and was only given back to his father after
Krishna, after rescuing
several long and bloody battles.
his son, began to build in the middle of the sea the
town called Dwaraka, and took his innumerable family
attempted to carry
for a long time,
thither.
At length,
having seen all his children die before his eyes,
he himself paid tribute to nature. The victim of a curse,
which a penitent in his wrath had pronounced against him,
he fell pierced by a huntsman's arrow.
The following are some of the principal blessings which
the world gained from this incarnation of Vishnu in the
person of Krishna
He put to death Poothana, a woman celebrated for her
:
size, strength, and ferocity.
from the earth a great number
uprooted two trees of such tremendous
extraordinary
He
He
effaced
of giants.
size that they
covered one-half of the earth with their shade.
He chastised the serpent Kaliya.
He suspended a mountain in the air to serve as an
umbrella for forty thousand shepherds who had been over-
taken by a storm *.
Besides all this, he cut to pieces Kamsa and all his
followers.
However, this is enough about the incarnations of Vishnu.
Others before me have spoken at great length about him.
I will merely repeat that, judging by the outward worship
paid to him, this god must be considered as disputing the
and in fact many Hindu
highest rank with Brahma
pundits look upon Brahma merely as the chief of the
;
inferior gods.
weapons called by the
panchayuda. But the two principal ones
are the sankha, which he holds in his left hand, and the
chakra, which he holds in his right.
To Vishnu
common name
are attributed five
of
Siva.
This god is also called Ishwara, Rudra, Sadasiva, Maha-
deva, Parameswara, and a host of other names. He is
1
The mountain on that account was
called Govardhanagiri.
Ed.