ON KRISHNA, AND SOLAR MYTHS. 169 
generally regarded as a later addition to the Mahabhirata ; 
the Vishnu-Purana; the Bhigavata-Purina; and the com- 
paratively modern Gita-Govinda—the incongruity between 
the exalted doctrines of the Git& and the character of 
Krishna is much more strongly portrayed: for in those 
productions he is exhibited, morally, under still darker 
shades. In the midst of his immoralities, however, he is 
still represented as doing works of mercy, some of which 
bear a strange resemblance to the works of Christ, and, as 
in the case of the doctrines noticed in the Gita, forcibly 
suggest the idea of adaptation. Thus, in the Mahabhirata, 
-he is described as laying hold of the hand of the dead body 
of the son of Jayadratha, when, upon his saying, ‘‘ Arise ! ”’ 
“by the will of the Almighty the dead man instantly arose.” 
Harlier in the epic a woman, described as “‘ of infamous 
character,’ is made to say, ‘‘ Hvery day I behold the divine 
Krishna, and therefore all my sins are forgiven me.” Can 
this be a debased echo of Christ’s mercy to ‘‘ publicans and 
sinners,” and to the Magdaiene? Ona journey to Hastinapur, 
as he came near to the city, ‘‘ multitudes of Brahmans, with 
clasped hands, besought him to forgive their sins:” and one 
said, ‘‘ What an auspicious day is this, in which men behold 
your face to the cleansing of all their sins.” In the Bhigavata- 
Purina, there is a very singular account of his curing a 
hump-backed woman. She prays Krishna to allow her to 
anoint him with saffron and sandal; he took compassion upon 
her, and “placed his feet upon her feet, and his two fingers 
beneath her chin, and raised her up, so that she became quite 
straight, and by the touch of Krishna she was rendered young 
and beautiful.’ As Mr. Talboys Wheeler remarks: ‘“ The 
similarity between this story and the two events recorded in 
St. Luke, xii., and St. Mark, xiv., is too striking to be 
passed over.” The incongruity, however, between this act of 
mercy, and the character of Krishna, as set forth in the 
Purana, is as great as it can well be; for he is described as 
afterwards rewarding this restored woman by a visit, the 
nature of which must be passed over in silence. 
17. [tis this incongruity between the higher teachings of the 
Bhagavad-Gita and the other portions of it, as well as between 
those teachings and the character of Krishna, that strikes one 
as indicating a foreign source for those higher teachings ; 
that suggests that these germs of thought, which we know 
of only as originating in their integrity with the Christian 
religion, may, or must, have been thence borrowed by 
the writer of the Gita, to give a fresh glory to his doctrine. 
For, further, these are the very doctrines of Christianity that 
