spite of making enquiry I have never seen or heard
of these representations of a stable myself. As Senart points out
(_Legende_, p. 336) all the personages who play a part in Krishna's
early life are shown in these tableaux in one group, but this does not
imply that shepherds and their flocks are supposed to be present at
his birth.]

[Footnote 1094: Though the ordinary legend does not say that Krishna
was born in a stable yet it does associate him with cattle.]

[Footnote 1095: Pargiter, _Dynasties of the Kali age_, p. xviii.]

[Footnote 1096: Commentary on Panini, 2. 3. 36, 3. 1. 36 and 3. 2.
111. It seems probable that Patanjali knew the story of Krishna and
Kamsa substantially as it is recounted in the Harivamsa.]

[Footnote 1097: Section 337. A journey to Svetadvipa is also
related in the Kathasarit sagara, LIV.]

[Footnote 1098: The most accessible statement of the geographical
fancies here referred to is in Vishnu Purana, Book II, chap. IV. The
Sea of Milk is the sixth of the seven concentric seas which surround
Jambudvipa and Mt. Meru. It divides the sixth of the concentric
continents or Sakadvipa from the seventh or Pushkara-dvipa. The
inhabitants of Sakadvipa worship Vishnu as the Sun and have this
much reality that at any rate, according to the Vishnu and Bhavishya
Puranas, they are clearly Iranian Sun-worshippers whose priests are
called Magas or Mrigas. Pushkara-dvipa is a terrestrial paradise:
the inhabitants live a thousand years, are of the same nature as the
gods and free from sorrow and sin. "The three Vedas, the Puranas,
Ethics and Polity are unknown" among them and "there are no
distinctions of caste or order: there are no fixed institutes." The
turn of fancy which located this non-Brahmanic Utopia in the north
seems akin to that which led the Greeks to talk of Hyperboreans.
Fairly early in the history of India it must have been discovered that
the western, southern, and eastern coasts were washed by the sea so
that the earthly paradise was naturally placed in the north. Thus we
hear of an abode of the blessed called the country of the holy Uttara
Kurus or northern Kurus. Here nothing can be perceived with human
senses (Mahabh. Sabha, 1045), and it is mentioned in the same breath
as Heaven and the city of Indra (_ib._ Anusas. 2841).

It is not quite clear (neither is it of much moment), whether the
Mahabharata intends by Svetadvipa one of these concentric world
divisions or a separate island.