History of Dharmashastra (Ancient and Mediaeval Religious and Civil Law in India) v6.c81.565

v6.c81.565

Before closing this account of Janmāṣṭamī reference must be made to a paper read in 1867 before the Berlin Akademie der Wissenschaften by the renowned German scholar, Prof A Weber. The subject of the paper was 'An investigation into the origin of the festival of Kṛṣṇajanmāṣṭamī' and the paper was divided into four parts, the first dealt with the sources (an English translation of it by E. Rehatsek was published in Indian Antiquary vol VI. pp. 161-180 and pp. 281-301), the 2nd dealt with ritual, the 3rd part was the most important and was concerned with a novel theory, viz the ritual of Kṛṣṇāṣṭamī festival was something transferred from outside of India, that the description in the ritual of Kṛṣṇa's image as suckling at the mother's (Devakī's) breast was the keystone of the theory of this ritual as of foreign origin and that it was suggested by pictorial representations of the Madonna with a suckling child (Christ)