Superb Early to Mid Edo,Museum Quality Signed Samurai War Helmet Kabuto, by Nobutada, of 21 'Helmet Skull' or 'Bowl Plates', with a Leaping Animal, Carved Wooden and Gold Maedate & Clan Mon of the Sakai Clan, & “Fierce Face” Ressai, Face Armour

A truly fabulous, original, Edo samurai's antique kabuto, war helmet, worthy of a museum display, the best samurai or Japanese art collections, or as a single 'statement' piece for any home. This is, without doubt, one of the most beautiful and fine original antique samurai war helmets, kabuto, we have seen for a jolly long time. Helmets of such beauty and quality as this can be prized and valued as much as a complete original samurai armour.

The imposing beauty of the helmet is entrancing, and the menpo {the moustached, grimacing expression face armour} sets it off superbly with a most intimidating presence. When this was worn by its fierce-some armoured samurai he must have looked spectacularly impressive.

A 21 plate goshozan sujibachi kabuto, with ressei {fierce face } mempo face armour, that has just returned from having the mempo's moustache expertly conserved, and it looks as good as new.

Probably a 17th-18th century, 21 ken plate, Sujibachi, which is a multiple-plate type of Japanese helmet skull bowl with raised ridges or ribs showing where the 21 tate hagi-no-ita (helmet plates) come together creating the main skull bowl bachi, and culminating at the multi stage tehen kanamono finial, with the fukurin metal edges on each of the standing plates.
The mabisashi peak is lacquered and it has a four-tier lacquered iron hineno-jikoro neck-guard laced with gold, and the skull is surmounted by a gilt-lacquered wood leaping animal, the maedate (forecrest), possibly a rabbit or deer, the Fukigaeshi small front wings shows the mon crest symbol of a plain form katabami mon {the wood sorrel flower}.

It's one of popular kamon that is a design of the flower of oxalis corniculata.
The founder of the clan that chose this flower as their mon had wished that their descendants would flourish well. Because oxalis corniculata is renown, and fertile plant.
the mon form as used by clans such as the Sakai, including daimyo lord Sakai Tadayo

One of the great Sakai clan lords was Sakai Tadayo (酒井 忠世, July 14, 1572 – April 24, 1636). He was a Japanese daimyō of the Sengoku period, and high-ranking government advisor, holding the title of Rōjū, and later Tairō. You can see his image in the gallery wearing the very same form of war helmet kabuto.

The son of Sakai Shigetada, Tadayo was born in Nishio, Mikawa Province; his childhood name was Manchiyo. He became a trusted elder (rōjū) in Toyotomi Hideyoshi's government, alongside Tokugawa Ieyasu. Under Hideyoshi, he was made lord of Kawagoe Castle (in Musashi Province, today Saitama Prefecture) and later of Nagoya Castle in Kyūshū's Hizen Province. In 1600, in the lead-up to the decisive Sekigahara campaign, he fought against the Tokugawa at Aizu, and submitted to them at the siege of Ueda. Thus, having joined the Tokugawa prior to the battle of Sekigahara itself, Sakai was made a fudai daimyō, and counted among the Tokugawa's more trusted retainers. He served under Ieyasu for a time, and under the second shōgun, Tokugawa Hidetada, as a hatamoto.
The lacquered iron menpo (face mask) with four-lame yodarekake face armour. The kabuto is signed on the interior Nobutada saku Nobutada made this

After the introduction of firearms, smoke blanketed many battlefields, causing confusion for the troops. So they could be more readily identified, samurai began to wear helmets with elaborate ornaments at the front, back, or sides, often featuring an intricate crest (maedate).

In their quest for unique and meaningful armour, samurai turned to nature, folklore, or religion for inspiration. Whatever the source, they selected designs for their armor that would set them apart and communicate their personality and beliefs, whether whimsical, frightening, or spiritual.

An antique woodblock print in the gallery, likely of Sakai Tadayo, showing his same form of war helmet kabuto, decorated with his same Sakai clan mon of the katabami, and he also has a leaping animal, gold covered carved wood, as his maedate helmet crest as has ours. And he has the same 'fierce face' mempo face armour with the very same style of elaborate, pronounced moustache.

The Fukigaeshi on the left facing side of the helmet shows the mon crest symbol of a plain katabami mon but small surface lacquer area partly missing. There are very small age nicks to the helmet lacquer. It has its original helmet lining but most removed back to reveal the signature

Every single item from The Lanes Armoury is accompanied by our unique Certificate of Authenticity. Part of our continued dedication to maintain the standards forged by us over the past 100 years of our family’s trading, as Britain’s oldest established, and favourite, armoury and gallery  read more

Code: 25056

A Quite Rare Danish M1889 Krag-Jorgensen Knife Bayonet, Early Model by Weyersberg

Single-fullered spear point blade, forged together with the entire hilt as one piece of steel. Chequered black leather grips secured by two steel rivets. Black leather scabbard with steel mounts at the throat and chape. Unique locking mechanism, consisting of an integral locking catch on the scabbard, and sprung release lever on the hilt.

The ricasso of the blade is stamped with a ‘king’s head’ and ‘knight’s helm’ marks, over ‘W. K & C’, which stands for the maker Weyersberg, Kirschbaum & Co. of Solingen, Germany. Below this on the rim of the grip is stamped a crown over ‘91’, which means this bayonet was produced in 1891.

The pommel is stamped on one side with a unit mark ‘. to the th Battalion, over a cancelled unit mark ‘B ’ to the th Battalion, and on the other side with the item number ‘’. The chape finial of the scabbard is stamped ‘B’ to the rd Battalion and on the other side with ‘’.

The leather grips mark this out as the early version of this bayonet, which was made in Germany. The later and more common version was introduced in 1892: made in Denmark, it had wooden grips, which held up better to heavy use and wet conditions. Those bayonets of the early model whose grips wore out also received wooden replacements. The Danes were the first nation to adopt the Norwegian-designed Krag-Jorgensen rifle, followed by the United States and Norway. The blade is superbly bright The hilt and pommel have light, even patination. The leather grips have some light handling wear to the chequering. overall in great condition for age.  read more

Code: 25180

19th Century, Antique, Mandingo Mandinka Chief's Slave and Gold Trader's Sword With Tattooed-Leather Covered Wooden Scabbard

A most scarce and original African slave and gold trader chieftain's sword

The Manding (Mandingo) are West African people. Their traditional slaver's sword comprises a sabre like blade, a guardless leather grip and wide expanded scabbard with exquisite tattooed leather work.
This example is a fine example of very nice quality and most finely tattooed.

It has a 16 inches long curved blade, leather grip and leather scabbard with leaf shaped widening tip, entirely tooled tattooed and decorated. Of special interest is the finely bound and decorated leather work. These weapons are well known for their rare leather-work and the tattooing applied to the leather of the scabbards. The iron work skills are of black-smith quality.

Slave raiding, capture and trading in the Mandinka regions existed in significant numbers long before the European colonial era, as is evidenced in the memoirs of the 14th century Moroccan traveller and Islamic historian Ibn Battuta. Slaves were part of the socially stratified Mandinka people, and several Mandinka language words, such as Jong or Jongo refer to slaves. There were fourteen Mandinke kingdoms along the Gambia River in the Senegambia region during the early 19th century, for example, where slaves were a part of the social strata in all these kingdoms.

Scholars have offered several theories on the source of the transatlantic slave trade of Mandinka people. According to Boubacar Barry, a professor of History and African Studies, chronic violence between ethnic groups such as Mandinka people and their neighbours, combined with weapons sold by slave traders and lucrative income from slave ships to the slave sellers, fed the practice of captives, raiding, manhunts, and slaves. The victimised ethnic group felt justified in retaliating. Slavery was already an accepted practice before the 15th century. As the demand grew, states Barry, Futa Jallon led by an Islamic military theocracy became one of the centres of this slavery-perpetuating violence, while Farim of Kaabu (the commander of Mandinka people in Kaabu) energetically hunted slaves on a large scale. Martin Klein (a professor of African Studies) states that Kaabu was one of the early suppliers of African slaves to European merchants

Many blades were taken by the Mandingo and fitted from European weapons, such as sabres and short cutlasses. .

In general, these remain primarily considered Mandingo weapons, and from regions in Mali. These were of course invariably mounted with European sabre blades. Mandingo Tribe (also known as the Mandinka, Mande, or the Malinke Tribes) were the traders of the African West Coast, trading primarily in gold and slaves.
In 1324, Mansa Musa who ruled Mali, went on Hajj pilgrimage to Mecca with a caravan carrying gold. Shihab al-Umari, the Arabic historian, described his visit and stated that Musa built mosques in his kingdom, established Islamic prayers and took back Maliki school of Sunni jurists with him. According to Richard Turner – a professor of African American Religious History, Musa was highly influential in attracting North African and Middle Eastern Muslims to West Africa

Picture in the gallery of a Mandingo Slave Trader Chieftain, standing next to his boy sword bearer, carrying his very same form of 'tattooed' sword. One, from an original collection of weapons we recently acquired.

Overall the leather on this sword in in exceptional condition and beautifully decorated.

Early medeavil painting in the gallery of Mansa Musa's visit to Mecca in 1324 CE with large amounts of gold, that not unsurprisingly attracted many Middle Eastern Muslims and Europeans to Mali.  read more

Code: 17969

A Stunning Antique, 19th Century, Colonial Walking Stick of Carved and Turned Horn, Inlaid With Circular Pattern Design

A heavy quality stick of most attractive form and fine quality. Every other portrait of a Georgian, Victorian, or Edwardian gentleman, shows some nattily dressed fellow with a walking stick pegged jauntily into the ground or a slim baton negligently tucked under the elbow. The dress cane was the quintessential mark of the dandy for three centuries, part fashion accessory, part aid to communication, part weapon, and of course, a walking aid. A dandy, historically, is a man who places particular importance upon physical appearance, refined language, and leisurely hobbies, pursued with the appearance of nonchalance in a cult of self. A dandy could be a self-made man who strove to imitate an aristocratic lifestyle despite coming from a middle-class background, especially in late 18th- and early 19th-century Britain.

Previous manifestations of the petit-maitre (French for "small master") and the Muscadin have been noted by John C. Prevost, but the modern practice of dandyism first appeared in the revolutionary 1790s, both in London and in Paris. The dandy cultivated cynical reserve, yet to such extremes that novelist George Meredith, himself no dandy, once defined cynicism as "intellectual dandyism". Some took a more benign view; Thomas Carlyle wrote in Sartor Resartus that a dandy was no more than "a clothes-wearing man". Honore De Balzac introduced the perfectly worldly and unmoved Henri de Marsay in La fille aux yeux d'or (1835), a part of La Comedie Humaine, who fulfils at first the model of a perfect dandy, until an obsessive love-pursuit unravels him in passionate and murderous jealousy.

Charles Baudelaire defined the dandy, in the later "metaphysical" phase of dandyism, as one who elevates esthetics to a living religion, that the dandy's mere existence reproaches the responsible citizen of the middle class: "Dandyism in certain respects comes close to spirituality and to stoicism" and "These beings have no other status, but that of cultivating the idea of beauty in their own persons, of satisfying their passions, of feeling and thinking Dandyism is a form of Romanticism. Contrary to what many thoughtless people seem to believe, dandyism is not even an excessive delight in clothes and material elegance. For the perfect dandy, these things are no more than the symbol of the aristocratic superiority of mind."

The linkage of clothing with political protest had become a particularly English characteristic during the 18th century. Given these connotations, dandyism can be seen as a political protest against the levelling effect of egalitarian principles, often including nostalgic adherence to feudal or pre-industrial values, such as the ideals of "the perfect gentleman" or "the autonomous aristocrat". Paradoxically, the dandy required an audience, as Susann Schmid observed in examining the "successfully marketed lives" of Oscar Wilde and Lord Byron, who exemplify the dandy's roles in the public sphere, both as writers and as personae providing sources of gossip and scandal. Nigel Rodgers in The Dandy: Peacock or Enigma? Questions Wilde's status as a genuine dandy, seeing him as someone who only assumed a dandified stance in passing, not a man dedicated to the exacting ideals of dandyism.

36.5 inches  read more

Code: 15659

A Good Original Imperial German Pickelhaube German Spiked Helmet Case

In pressed fibreboard and leather strapping. Overall in very nice condition but the straps have either partially of fully seperated. A rare collectable that is now very scarcely seen. Ideal to accompany any good pickelhaube, either spike or ball topped. The Pickelhaube was originally designed in 1842 by King Frederick William IV of Prussia, perhaps as a design based on similar helmets that were adopted at the same time by the Russian military. It is not clear whether this was a case of imitation, parallel invention, or if both were based on the earlier Napoleonic cuirassier. The early Russian type (known as "The Helmet of Yaroslav Mudry") was also used by cavalry, which had used the spike as a holder for a horsehair plume in full dress, a practice also followed with some Prussian models.
Frederick William IV introduced the Pickelhaube for use by the majority of Prussian infantry on October 23, 1842 by a royal cabinet order. The use of the Pickelhaube spread rapidly to other German principalities. Oldenburg adopted it by 1849, Baden by 1870, and in 1887, the Kingdom of Bavaria was the last German state to adopt the Pickelhaube (since the Napoleonic Wars, they had had their own design of helmet, called the Raupenhelm.

From the second half of the 19th century onwards, the armies of a number of nations besides Russia, (including Bolivia, Colombia, Chile, Ecuador, Mexico, Portugal, Norway, Sweden and Venezuela,) adopted the Pickelhaube or something very similar.

The Russian version initially had a horsehair plume fitted to the end of the spike, but this was later discarded in some units. The Russian spike was topped with a grenade motif. At the beginning of the Crimean War, such helmets were common among infantry and grenadiers, but soon fell out of place in favour of the fatigue cap. After 1862 the spiked helmet ceased to be generally worn by the Russian Army, although it was retained until 1914 by the Cuirassier regiments of the Imperial Guard and the Gendarmerie. The Russians prolonged the history of the pointed military headgear with their own cloth Budenovka in the early 20th century. All helmets produced for the infantry before and during 1914 were made of leather. As the war progressed, Germany's leather stockpiles dwindled. After extensive imports from South America, particularly Argentina, the German government began producing ersatz Pickelhauben made of other materials. In 1915, some Pickelhauben began to be made from thin sheet steel. However, the German high command needed to produce an even greater number of helmets, leading to the usage of pressurized felt and even paper to construct Pickelhauben.
During the early months of World War I, it was soon discovered that the Pickelhaube did not measure up to the demanding conditions of trench warfare. The leather helmets offered virtually no protection against shell fragments and shrapnel and the conspicuous spike made its wearer a target. These shortcomings, combined with material shortages, led to the introduction of the simplified model 1915 helmet described above, with a detachable spike. In September 1915 it was ordered that the new helmets were to be worn without spikes, when in the front line  read more

Code: 20806

A Beautiful Antique African Tribal Carved Paddle-Spear Possibly of the Itsekiri People Or Even Benin

One of a matched pair we acquired but we are selling separately. In carved native wood with geometric carving covering one paddle side, the other side is different . This is a dance paddle of the kind used in ceremonies by the Itsekiri people of the Niger delta. The river was at the centre of tribal society and economy – it provided food and transport for the communities who lived in the area. Canoes were an extremely important part of traditional society and so the paddle was an important symbol for prosperity. Local people relied on the river for their quality of life and believed in water spirits. This paddle is decorated with intricate carving and may have been used in ceremonial dances. Alternatively, it may have been made for trading with Europeans as ethnic objects became fashionable possessions. Although African, like Oceanic art it is often infused with ancestral spirits, as well as spirits of water, air and land. These spirits are contacted in ceremonies to ensure fertility, or invoke protection from famine, disease or enemies.

Sometimes these invocations serve extremely practical purposes. There was a ceremony in Papua New Guinea where ancestral spirits were activated in a carved wooden crocodile. Men carrying the crocodile were then led, like people holding a divining rod are led, to the home of a local murderer.
African and Oceanic art is not only made for decoration. It is made to be used as a tool in the culture. Cubist painters, and especially Surrealists, were moved by the power of Oceanic abstractions, as they were by traditional African art . This wonderful piece would make a stunning additional display of object d’art in any setting, albeit traditional or contemporary  read more

Code: 17919

A Good 19th Century, Heavy Grade, Antique 'Berber's' Jambiya or Koummya

Two ring mounting with beautiful and finely scroll engraved panelled front decoration The koummya is the characteristic traditional dagger of the Berber and Arabic peoples of Morocco. Stone classifies these as being one localised variant of the Arabic jambiya, and the contoured handles, curved double-edged blades and exaggeratedly upturned scabbard tips are all features consistent with such an interpretation. In the context of the traditional regional manner of dress, the koummya is worn visibly at the left side, generally about at the level of the waist and is suspended vertically, with the scabbard tip forward, by a long woolen baldric, attached at either end to one of the two scabbard rings, and worn crossing in front and back of the torso and over the right shoulder. A much greater diversity in forms and decoration exists than is represented by the examples presented here and presumably such features could be used to place particular examples geographically and temporarily.
Koummya blades are curved and double edged with the portion nearer the hilt remaining relatively straight while the curvature becomes pronounced in the half towards the tip. The length of the blade which is bevelled and sharpened is longer along the concave side than along the opposite convex side. Blade thickness tapers from the base of the blade, where it is thickest, to the tip. While the edge bevels may give the blade a flattened diamond or lenticular cross-section towards the tip, the cross-section is rectangular at the forte. These blades are characteristically relatively thin and utilitarian and the presence of fullers or ridges is not typical.  read more

Code: 23296

A Most Scarce Edwardian Hampshire Yeomanry Carabiniers Regimental Silver Place Badge With 'Battle Honour' Scroll, South Africa 1900-1901

The Hampshire rose to the centre of a crowned oval bearing the title, Hampshire Yeomanry, backed by a pair of crossed rifles, with the 'Carabiniers' scroll across the rifle butts and surmounted by Edward VIIth's King's crown, with the regimental 'Battle Honour' scroll of South Africa 1900-1. Tension sprung silver half hoop at the rear to insert a card, menu or regimental seating place name. In very good condition for age.

Between 1794 and 1803, a large number of cavalry units such as the North Hampshire Yeomanry Cavalry, the New Forest Volunteer Cavalry, the Fawley Light Dragoons and the Southampton Cavalry were raised in southern England as independent groups of Yeomanry. The Prime Minister, William Pitt the Younger, proposed that the English Counties form a force of Volunteer Yeoman Cavalry that could be called on by the King to defend the country against invasion or by the Lord Lieutenant to subdue any civil disorder within the country. These units were brought together under the collective title of North Hampshire Regiment of Yeomanry Cavalry in 1834, renamed Hampshire Regiment of Yeomanry Cavalry by 1848. The Regiment adopted the title 'Carabiniers' in 1887.

On 13 December 1899, the decision to allow volunteer forces serve in the Second Boer War was made. Due to the string of defeats during Black Week in December, 1899, the British government realized they were going to need more troops than just the regular army, thus issuing a Royal Warrant on 24 December 1899. This warrant officially created the Imperial Yeomanry. The Royal Warrant asked standing Yeomanry regiments to provide service companies of approximately 115 men each. In addition to this, many British citizens (usually mid-upper class) volunteered to join the new regiment.

The first contingent of recruits contained 550 officers, 10,371 men with 20 battalions and 4 companies, which arrived in South Africa between February and April, 1900. Upon arrival, the regiment was sent throughout the zone of operations. The Hampshire Yeomanry raised the 41st Company, 12th Battalion, and the first company left Southampton on 31 January 1900, bound for Cape Town  read more

Code: 25190

A Most Interesting & Beautiful Quality Victorian Walking Cane. With a Florid Repousse Silver Top, Carved Spiral Haft With Carved Bullet Inlays

Carved spiral twist body with a cross-hatched top section. The dress cane was the quintessential mark of the dandy for three centuries, part fashion accessory, part aid to communication, part weapon, and of course, a walking aid. A dandy, historically, is a man who places particular importance upon physical appearance, refined language, and leisurely hobbies, pursued with the appearance of nonchalance in a cult of self. A dandy could be a self-made man who strove to imitate an aristocratic lifestyle despite coming from a middle-class background, especially in late 18th- and early 19th-century Britain.

Previous manifestations of the petit-maitre (French for "small master") and the Muscadin have been noted by John C. Prevost, but the modern practice of dandyism first appeared in the revolutionary 1790s, both in London and in Paris. The dandy cultivated cynical reserve, yet to such extremes that novelist George Meredith, himself no dandy, once defined cynicism as "intellectual dandyism". Some took a more benign view; Thomas Carlyle wrote in Sartor Resartus that a dandy was no more than "a clothes-wearing man". Honore De Balzac introduced the perfectly worldly and unmoved Henri de Marsay in La fille aux yeux d'or (1835), a part of La Comedie Humaine, who fulfils at first the model of a perfect dandy, until an obsessive love-pursuit unravels him in passionate and murderous jealousy.

Charles Baudelaire defined the dandy, in the later "metaphysical" phase of dandyism, as one who elevates esthetics to a living religion, that the dandy's mere existence reproaches the responsible citizen of the middle class: "Dandyism in certain respects comes close to spirituality and to stoicism" and "These beings have no other status, but that of cultivating the idea of beauty in their own persons, of satisfying their passions, of feeling and thinking Dandyism is a form of Romanticism. Contrary to what many thoughtless people seem to believe, dandyism is not even an excessive delight in clothes and material elegance. For the perfect dandy, these things are no more than the symbol of the aristocratic superiority of mind."

The linkage of clothing with political protest had become a particularly English characteristic during the 18th century. Given these connotations, dandyism can be seen as a political protest against the levelling effect of egalitarian principles, often including nostalgic adherence to feudal or pre-industrial values, such as the ideals of "the perfect gentleman" or "the autonomous aristocrat". Paradoxically, the dandy required an audience, as Susann Schmid observed in examining the "successfully marketed lives" of Oscar Wilde and Lord Byron, who exemplify the dandy's roles in the public sphere, both as writers and as personae providing sources of gossip and scandal. Nigel Rodgers in The Dandy: Peacock or Enigma? Questions Wilde's status as a genuine dandy, seeing him as someone who only assumed a dandified stance in passing, not a man dedicated to the exacting ideals of dandyism. 31.5 inches long  read more

Code: 23242

A Superb & Very Rare Sword, From the Indian Sub Continent. A Beautiful 18th Century Kora With Krishna Inlay

All steel inlaid with brass bronze embellishments of with chased brass and copper-overlaid figural decoration, depicting Krishna playing the flute inside a domed shrine chhajjas, domed pavillion-shaped structure,

The Kora is the second best known weapon of Nepal, the first being the legendary Kukri (Khukuri), both are national weapons of Nepal. The third forward curved blade of Nepal is the Ram Dao, it is only used in religious affairs and was doubtfully used in times of war. Like Nepal, the Kora & Kukri are strongly associated with the Gurkhas and was firstly illustrated in Col. William Kirkpatrick's work "An Account of the kingdom of Nepaul" published in London, 1811 based on his travels in 1793 to Nepal.
There both the Kukri and Kora is for the first time illustrated to the wider worlds public. The Kora was traditionally used warfare and personal protection, but also played and still plays a function in the religious sphere where it is used to behead sacrificial animals in one blow, otherwise believed to bring bad fortune and the sacrifice is considered useless. Thus both a skilled man and a formidable blade is needed, the Kora certainly passes the criteria! Lord Egerton and Rawson share the main idea that the forward curved blade most likely goes back to the Egyptian Khopesh and from there over to the Grecco-Roman world where it was called Kopis. Most authors, collectors and people with knowledge will agree on this, so far it's the best option we have. So much of the past, its history is forgotten, unrecorded and often only minor fragments remain.

Krishna
Krishna, Sanskrit Kṛṣṇa, one of the most widely revered and most popular of all Indian divinities, worshipped as the eighth incarnation (avatar, or avatara) of the Hindu god Vishnu and also as a supreme god in his own right. Krishna became the focus of numerous bhakti (devotional) cults, which have over the centuries produced a wealth of religious poetry, music, and painting. The basic sources of Krishna’s mythology are the epic Mahabharata and its 5th-century-CE appendix, the Harivamsha, and the Puranas, particularly Books X and XI of the Bhagavata-purana. They relate how Krishna (literally “black,” or “dark as a cloud”) was born into the Yadava clan, the son of Vasudeva and Devaki, who was the sister of Kamsa, the wicked king of Mathura (in modern Uttar Pradesh). Kamsa, hearing a prophecy that he would be destroyed by Devaki’s child, tried to slay her children, but Krishna was smuggled across the Yamuna River to Gokula (or Vraja, modern Gokul), where he was raised by the leader of the cowherds, Nanda, and his wife Yashoda.

The child Krishna was adored for his mischievous pranks; he also performed many miracles and slew demons. As a youth, the cowherd Krishna became renowned as a lover, the sound of his flute prompting the gopis (wives and daughters of the cowherds) to leave their homes to dance ecstatically with him in the moonlight. His favourite among them was the beautiful Radha. At length, Krishna and his brother Balarama returned to Mathura to slay the wicked Kamsa. Afterward, finding the kingdom unsafe, Krishna led the Yadavas to the western coast of Kathiawar and established his court at Dvaraka (modern Dwarka, Gujarat). He married the princess Rukmini and took other wives as well.

Krishna refused to bear arms in the great war between the Kauravas (sons of Dhritarashtra, the descendant of Kuru) and the Pandavas (sons of Pandu), but he offered a choice of his personal attendance to one side and the loan of his army to the other. The Pandavas chose the former, and Krishna thus served as charioteer for Arjuna, one of the Pandava brothers. On his return to Dvaraka, a brawl broke out one day among the Yadava chiefs in which Krishna’s brother and son were slain. As the god sat in the forest lamenting, a huntsman, mistaking him for a deer, shot him in his one vulnerable spot, the heel, killing him.  read more

Code: 23295