is merely an _avatar_ of
Vishnu. The identity of Krishna with the Gangetic god described by
Megasthenes can scarcely be disputed. The latter as represented by the
Greek is too great a god to have passed away without a sign except for
a foreigner's account. And there is no figure like his except that of
Krishna.

The numerous _avatars_[88] of Vishnu are first given as ten, then as
twenty, then as twenty-two,[89] and at last become innumerable. The
ten, which are those usually referred to, are as follows: First come
the oldest, the beast-_avatars_, viz., as a fish; as a tortoise;[90]
as a boar (rescuing earth from a flood); and as a man-lion (slaying a
demon). Next comes the dwarf-_avatar_, where Vishnu cheats Bali of
earth by asking, as a dwarf, for three steps of it, and then stepping
out over all of it (the 'three strides' of the Rig Veda). Then come
the human _avatars_, that of Paracu-R[=a]ma (R[=a]ma with the axe),
Krishna, R[=a]ma[91] (hero of the R[=a]m[=a]yana epic), Buddha, and
Kalki (who is still to come).

The parallels between the latest Krishna cult and the Biblical
narrative are found only in the Pur[=a]nas and other late works, and
undoubtedly, as we have said in the last chapter, are borrowed from
Christian sources. Krishna is here born in a stable, his father, like
Joseph, going with his virgin spouse to pay taxes. His restoring of a
believing woman's son is narrated only in the modern J[=a]imini
Bh[=a]rata, These tales might have been received through the first
distant Christian mission in the South in the sixth century, but it is
more likely that they were brought directly to the North in the
seventh century; for at that time a Northern king of the V[=a]icya
caste, Cil[=a]ditya (in whose reign the Chinese pilgrim, Hiouen
Thsang, visited India), made Syrian Christians welcome to his court
(639 A.D.).[92] The date of the annual Krishna festival, which is a
reflex of Christmastide, is variously fixed by the Pur[=a]nas as
coming in July or August.[93]

As Krishna is an _avatar_ of Vishnu[94] in the Bh[=a]rata, and as the
axe-R[=a]ma is another _avatar_ in legend (here Vishnu in the form of
Paracu-R[=a]ma raises up the priestly caste, and destroys the
warrior-caste), so in the R[=a]m[=a]yana the hero R[=a]ma (not
Paracu-R[=a]ma) is made an _avatar_ of Vishnu. He is a mythical prince
of Oude (hence a close connection between the R[=a]m[=a]yana
and Buddhism), who is identified with Vishnu. Vishnu wished t