TELL AND SARPÊDÔN. II. 341 kingdom should belong to the man who could shoot a ring from the CHAP. breast of a child without hurting him. The tale is here inverted, and the shot is to be aimed at the child who lies exposed like Oidipous on Kithairon, or Romulus among the reeds of the Tiber, but who is as sure to escape the danger as Tell and the others are to avoid the trap in which their enemies think to catch them. To say more is but to slay the slain. "William Tell, the good The farshooting archer, whose mythological character has been established beyond god. contradiction, is the last reflexion of the sun-god, whether we call him Indra, or Apollo, or Ulysses."1 SECTION XII-THE VIVIFYING SUN. character of Vishnu. In strictness of speech the Vedic Vishnu is nothing but a name. Flexible The writers of the Aïtareya-brahmana could still say, "Agni is all the deities, Vishnu is all the deities." Hence he rises sometimes to a dignity greater even than that of Dyaus and Indra, while at others he is spoken of as subordinate to them, or is regarded as simply another form of the three deities Agni, Vayu, and Sûrya. In some hymns he is associated with Indra as Varuņa is linked with Mitra, and Dyaus with Prithivî. "All divine power, like that of the sky, was completely communicated to thee, Indra, by the gods (or worshippers), when thou, O impetuous deity, associated with Vishnu, didst slay Vritra Ahi, stopping up the waters."" In truth, it may almost without exaggeration be said that the whole Vedic theology may be resolved into a series of equations, the result being one quite consistent with a real monotheism. Thus Vishnu is himself Agni and Indra. "Thou, Agni, art Indra, bountiful to the excellent; thou art Vishnu, the wide-stepping, the adorable." These are again identified with other gods: "Thou, Agni, art Varuna, when thou art born; thou art Mitra, when thou art kindled; son of strength, in thee reside all the gods : thou art Indra to the man who sacrifices." 1 Max Müller, Chips, &c., ii. 233. Professor Max Müller now prefers the term Henotheism to denote the condition of mind which, owning a "Thou art Aryaman, when thou, self-controlled, possessest the secret name of the maidens." 1 Agni, again, although along with Indra, Soma, and Parameshthin he is a son of Prajâpati, is according to the same writers Prajapati himself. "The man who became Prajâpati is the same as this Agni who is kindled on the altar." This name brings us at once to other equations, for Prajâpati is Daksha he is also Time and Death. "The gods were afraid of this ender, death, the year which is Prajapati, lest he should by days and nights bring on the end of our life." Elsewhere Prajapati is Brahma. "Those men who know Brahma know him who occupies the highest place (Parameshthin): he who knows Parameshthin and who knows Prajapati, they who know the ancient Brahmana (deity ?), they know Skambha." " It is scarcely necessary, then, to say that in all the phrases which describe the attributes of Vishņu, the origin of each conception is plainly discernible. He is especially the god who traverses the heaven in three strides, these strides being taken by some commentators to denote his manifestations as fire on the earth, as lightning in the atmosphere, and as the sun in heaven, or in other words, his identity with Agni, Vayu, and Sûrya. By others they are regarded as setting forth the rising, culmination, and setting of the sun; and there can be little doubt that the latter idea was at the first most closely associated with the thought of Vishnu. It would seem indeed that these gods are distinguished only when the worshipper wishes to add to the titles of the being whom he invokes in his litanies. "Agni, Varuna, Mitra, ye gods, give us strength, and ye hosts of Maruts, and Vishņu. May both the Asvins, Rudra, and the wives of the deities, with Pushan, Bhaga, and Sarasvati, be pleased with us. "I invoke for our protection Indra and Agni, Mitra and Varuna, Aditî, heaven, earth and sky, the Maruts, the mountains, the waters, Vishņu, Pushan, Brahmanaspati, Bhaga, Samsa, and Savitri. THE THREE PACES. 343 II. "And may Vishņu and the wind, uninjuring, and Soma, the CHAP. bestower of riches, give us happiness. And may the Ribhus, Asvins, Tvashtri, and Vibhvan be favourable to us, so as to grant us wealth. "1 simply a veil The fire at its carnation. Much of the later mythology respecting Vishnu turns on the Dwarf InDwarf Incarnation, which may be compared with the myth of the maimed Hephaistos. In both cases the defect is putting out of view the irresistible power of the god. birth is weak, and its flame puny; the sun sheds but little warmth as he rests on the horizon at his rising; and it might well be said that none could tell how vast a power lay in these seemingly weak and helpless beings. So Vishņu, manifesting himself as the Dwarf, obtains from the Asuras as much as he can lie upon, or as much as he can cover in three strides. It is thus that Bali, the great enemy of the gods, is overcome. Having conquered the three worlds, Bali terrifies Indra, who, with other deities, beseeches Vishņu to take the shape of a dwarf and deceive their conqueror. Having in this shape approached the son of Virochana and obtained the boon of the three paces, "the thrice-stepping Vishņu assumed a miraculous form, and with three paces took possession of the worlds. For with one step he occupied the whole earth, with a second the eternal atmosphere, and with a third the sky. Having then assigned to the Asura Bali an abode in Patala (the infernal region), he gave the empire of the three worlds to Indra. "2 In the Mahâbhârata this fact is ascribed to Krishna, who, having become the son of Aditi, was called Vishnu. In the Bhagavata Purana the story assumes proportions almost as vast as those of the god whom it seeks to glorify. No sooner has Bali granted the seemingly moderate request of Hari or Vishnu, than the body of the dwarf begins to expand and fills the whole universe, and Bali is bound with the chains of Varuna. This dwarf appears elsewhere in the person of the child Kumâra, the son of Aushasî, the daughter of the dawn." Thus throughout we are dealing with phrases which the Hindu commentators knew to be mere phrases; and thus also without a thought of injustice done to the deities whom he seemed to II. BOOK disparage, the worshipper could say that Varuna himself and the Asvins do the bidding of Vishnu, and that Vishnu is more beneficent than his chosen companion Indra. Majesty of "King Varuna and the Asvins wait on the decree of this ruler, attended by the Maruts: Vishnu possesses excellent wisdom, which knows the proper day, and with his friend opens up the cloud. "The divine Vishņu who has chosen companionship with the beneficent Indra, himself more beneficent, the wise god has gratified the Arya."1 And again, "Thou, Agni, art Indra, bountiful to the good; thou art Vishnu, the wide-stepping, the adorable." a So when Indra is about to smite Vritra, he is at once represented as bidding his friend Vishnu to stride vastly. "Friend Vishņu, stride vastly: sky, give room for the thunderbolt to strike; let us slay Vritra and let loose the waters." Yet although in some passages Vishnu is described as having established the heavens and the earth, and as sustaining the world by his own inherent force, still he is said in others to make his three strides through the power of Indra. "When, Indra, the gods placed thee in their front in the battle, then thy dear steeds grew. "When, thunderer, thou didst by thy might slay Vritra who stopped up the streams, then thy dear steeds grew. "When by thy force Vishņu strode three steps, then thy dear steeds grew." 4 Elsewhere we are told that mortal man cannot comprehend his majesty. "No one who is being born, or has been born, has attained, O divine Vishnu, to the furthest limit of thy greatness." " The palace The personality of the mythical Vishnu is, in short, as transparent of Vishnu. as that of Helios or Selênê. He dwells in the aerial mountains, in a gleaming palace where the many-horned and swiftly moving cows abide. "Here that supreme abode of the wide-stepping vigorous god shines intensely forth." These cows are in some places the clouds, in others, the rays which stream from the body of the sun. But on the whole it must be admitted that the place of Vishnu in the Rig Veda, as compared with the other great deities, is in the background; and the institutional legends of later Brahmanic literature throw but little light 1 R. V. i. 156; Muir, Sanskrit R. V. viii. 89, 12; Muir, ib. p. 68. R. V. viii. 12; Muir, ib. p. 77. 5 Muir, ib. p. 63. VISHŅU AND KRISHNA. 345 II. on the mythical idea of this deity, and perhaps none on the mythology CHAP. of any other people. As the supreme spirit, whose ten Avatars or Incarnations are Avatars of Vishnu. among the later developements of Hindu theology, Vishnu is associated or identified not only with Siva or Mahâdeva, but with Rama in the Ramayana, and with Krishna in the Mahâbhârata.1 But the Mahâdeva, with whom he is thus identified, is himself only Varuna or Dyaus, under another name. "He is Rudra, he is Siva, he is Agni, he is Saiva, the all-conquering; he is Indra, he is Vayu, he is the Asvins, he is the lightning, he is the moon, he is Iswara, he is Sûrya, he is Varuna, he is time, he is death the ender; he is darkness, and night, and the days; he is the months and the half-months of the seasons, the morning and evening twilight, and the year." Krishna, again, is said to be sometimes a partial, sometimes a perfect manifestation of that god; but the phrases in which Krishna is spoken of are as indefinite and elastic as those which speak of Agni, Indra, or Vishņu. In some passages Krishna is simply a son of Devaki. is also Brahma, so is Krishna also the supreme deity. is said that Brahma and Mahâdeva themselves proceed from Krishna, who again identifies himself with Rudra, although in other passages Rudra is described as mightier; and in each case commentators, as we might expect, are ready with the reasons which reconcile the seeming inconsistency. Like Vishnu, Krishna rises to greater importance in later times, and in far more abundant measure. The popular affections were more and more fixed on the bright god who was born in a cave, at whose birth the exulting devas sang in the heavens, whose life was sought by a cruel tyrant, and who, like Zeus or Heraklês, had many loves in many lands. But as Vishņu associated In this later theology the idea which regarded the sun as the Emblems generator of all life left the attributes of Vishņu by comparison in with the the shade; and the emblem thus especially associated with this worship of Vishņu. deity marks a singular stage in the history of religion. If the subject is one which must be approached with the utmost caution, it is also one in which we are especially bound not to evade or misrepresent the facts. If the form of faith, or rather it should be said, of worship, with which we have now to deal, has prevailed in all lands and still prevails amongst a large majority of mankind, it becomes our duty to trace fairly, to the best of our power, its origin and growth, and to 1 Muir, Sanskrit Texts, pt. iv. ch. ii. sect. 5. 2 Muir, ib. * Id. ib. p. 152. "Do you not know,' says Krishna to Balarama, "that you and I are alike the origin of the world, who 4 |