Vishu as the eighth chiid. 518 BENGALI LANGUAGE & LITERATURE. [Chap. |
Visnu, whose first mission would to be to kill him j
and then destroy other oppressors of the world.
The prophecy alarmed Kamsa who immediately
put Daivaki and her husband Vasudeva in prison ©
and ordered that all children born to her should be —
killed; for his ministers advised him that the
prophecy of Narada was ambiguous in its meaning
as it was not clear what was meant by the eighth
child ;—supposing that Daivaki should have twelve
children, then counting from the last, the fourth
according to ordinary calculation would be the —
eighth. As the question of the King’s life or death —
hung on the correct solution, nothing ought to be |
left dubious and all the children of Daivaki should
unsparingly be killed, thus completely remov-
ing all chance of danger. One by one seven
children were born to poor Daivaki in prison
and they were all killed by Kamsa. Ultimate-
ly Visnhu came as the eighth child. He was born
in the middle of the eighth night of the waning
moon and as Vasudeva looked upon him, he
saw the baby surrounded by a halo of light and
possessed of other signs from which he knew
him to be no other than Visnau himself; he was
naturally eager to save the divine child from the
hands of the oppressor, and marched with him to
the gates of the prison. The gate-keepers, at his
approach, fell into a deep sleep, and the gates
which were under strong lock and key, softly
opened of themselves making a passage for the
child. The anxious father came to the Jumnaé
whose dark waters rolled before him, with their
foaming waves, and the night was so dark that he
despaired of crossing it. But at this moment a