CHRISTIAN RELIGION IN INDIA. 6S 



'Saliva'hana. If we prefix to this abstract the 

 legends concerning the infancy of Sa'liVa'hana, 

 and the era of his manifestation, we shall have the 

 principal circumstances of the life of our Saviour, 

 either from the true Gospels, or from the Apocryphal 

 ones. 



There are two singular circumstances in these le- 

 gends : the first is that it was decreed, that the iron 

 should pierce the body of Mand'avyah as well as 

 thatofCuisHNA, because both were accursed, though 

 guiltless. The second is, that neither Crishna nor 

 Mand'avyar died, the first in consequence of his 

 wound, nor the second after being crucified ; and 

 both are represented as contemporaries. 



The Christian sectaries in the first ages, and Mu- 

 HAMED himself with the Miislemans to this day, 

 highly reprobated the idea of Christ dying upon the 

 cross, and even considered it almost a blasphemy. 

 Crishna, though guiltless, was involved in the ge- 

 neral curse denounced against his whole tribe, by 

 which all the Yadus were doomed to be pierced with 

 iron, and to die. Neither Crishna nor Mand'a- 

 VYAH could die; but they were to be brought, as 

 near as possible, to the point of death, that the words 

 of the Muni should not be done away. Besides, 

 Yama, as King of death, has a claim upon every in- 

 dividual, and with regard to some exalted characters, 

 he must be satisfied, and a compromise must take 

 place. But another ditficulty arises ; Yama cannot 

 condemn a man to die, without some reason; it 

 would be unjust in him, who is also King of justice. 

 All incarnations of the deitv, however dio:nified and 

 exalted, such as that of Crishna, which is considered 

 as the first in rank, and the most perfect of all ; all 



F 



