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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 15 March 2011
Viṣṇu, the supreme god of one of the two great divisions of the Hinduism of the present day, is already a leading deity in the Rigveda, though he plays a less prominent part there than Varuṇa, Indra, Agni, or Soma. His essential character as the Preserver in Hinduism is displayed in his Avatārs or incarnations, by means of which he appears on earth as the friend and helper of humanity in distress. “For the defence of the good and the suppression of the wicked,” he is made to say in the Bhagavadgītā (IV. 7–8), “for the establishment of justice, I manifest myself from age to age.” The Brāhmaṇas know nothing of the theory of Avatārs, which are not mere transitory manifestations of the deity, but the real presence of the supreme god in mundane beings. In the great Epics, however, the Mahābhārata and the Rāmāyaṇa, the theory is already fully recognised.
page 165 note 1 See Barth, , Religions of India, Engl. tr. p. 166Google Scholar.
page 165 note 2 Ibid. p. 170.
page 165 note 3 The belief in the ten incarnations of Viṣṇu had become an ordinary dogma of Hinduism by 1014 a.d. See Bhandarkar, in Transactions of the Ninth Congress of Orientalists, 1892, vol. i. pp. 425–6Google Scholar.
page 166 note 1 VII. 100, 6.
page 166 note 2 Thus in RV. VII. 104, 18 demons are spoken of as flying about at night, having assumed the form of birds (vayo ye bhūtvī).
page 166 note 3 Cp. Lang, , Myth, Ritual and Religion, vol. i. pp. 38 and 117Google Scholar.
page 166 note 4 Manave bādhitāya, explained by Sāyaṇa as asurair hiṃsilāya.
page 167 note 1 Bhāgavata Purāṇa, I. 3, 16; see Muir, , OST. vol. iv. p. 27Google Scholar.
page 167 note 2 Cp. Muir, I. p. 54, and IV. p. 27.
page 167 note 3 Cp. Muir, I. p. 32.
page 167 note 4 Cp. Barth, , Religions of India, p. 41Google Scholar.
page 167 note 5 In the passage of the S'B. just quoted, the tortoise is said to be called kūrma, because he made (akarot) what he created.
page 167 note 6 Apo vā idam agre salilam āsít: TS. VII. i. 5, 1; TB. I. i. 3, 5.
page 167 note 7 The myth of the deluge occurs in the Avesta also, and may be Indo-European: see Lindner, , Die iranische Flutsage, in Festgruss an Roth, pp. 213–6Google Scholar. The majority of scholars have, however, hitherto regarded this myth as derived from a Semitic source: cp. Oldenberg, , Religion des Veda, p. 276, note 3Google Scholar.
page 168 note 1 I. 32 ff; cp. Muir, IV. pp. 133–5.
page 168 note 2 See Muir, IV. pp. 135–156.
page 168 note 3 I. ii. 5; see Muir, IV. pp. 122–3; cp. also Eggeling's note in SBE. vol. xii. p. 59.
page 169 note 1 Cp. TS. II. i. 3, 1, where Viṣṇu in the conflict of the gods and Asuras, having seen a dwarf and having taken him for his own divinity, conquered the three worlds. Cp. also TB. I. vi. 1, 5.
page 169 note 2 See Muir, IV. p. 40.
page 169 note 3 Indrāviṣṇu tát panayāyyaṃ vāṃ sómasya máda urú cakramāthe.
page 170 note 1 For instance, Müller, Max, Vedic Hymns, SBE. XXXII. p. 133Google Scholar; Kaegi, Rigveda, note 213 (Arrowsmith's translation); cp. Oldenberg, , Religion des Veda, p. 228Google Scholar.
page 170 note 2 Hardy, , Vedisch-Brahmanische Periode, p. 33Google Scholar, thinks that Viṣṇu halts twice during the day, morning and evening, then assuming the functions of the moon(!) as his third step.
page 170 note 3 A trace of this notion is to be found in the Rāmāyaṇa, IV. 40, 57 (cp. Muir, IV. p. 440). As Oldenberg, , Religion des Veda, p. 228Google Scholar, observes, this view cannot be made to agree with several passages of the RV., nor can any at all definite connection with morning, noon, and night be found there. Oldenberg, who does not touch on the alternative view, is inclined to think that Viṣṇu is conceived as taking three strides merely owing to the favour shown to the number three in mythology.
page 170 note 4 Bergaigne, , Religion Védique, II. p. 414Google Scholar, thinks that a satisfactory explanation can only be obtained from the conception of the three places of Agni, of which one is the sun.
page 170 note 5 Cp. Roth, , ZDMG. 1882, p. 68Google Scholar; Wallis, , Cosmology of the Rigveda, p. 114Google Scholar.
page 170 note 6 Cp. Nirukta, VII. 5.
page 170 note 7 VS. II. 25, xii. 5, xxiii. 49; TS. I. vii. 5, 4; II. iv. 12, 2.
page 170 note 8 S'B. I. ix. 3, 9; VI. vii. 4, 7.
page 171 note 1 Generally a form of vi-kram (eight times).
page 171 note 2 Trīṇi padāni (four times).
page 171 note 3 Once ‘stepped widely,’ uruhramiṣṭa; twice ‘traversed’ (the earth), vi-mame.
page 171 note 4 Triḥ (twice), tredhā (twice), tribhiḥ padebhiḥ (once), tribhir vigāmabhiḥ (once).
page 171 note 5 Triṣadhastha (I. 156, 5), an epithet otherwise applied only to Agni and Soma.
page 171 note 6 Trīṇi éka urugāyó ví cakrame yátra devāso mádanti.
page 172 note 1 See below, p. 173.
page 172 note 2 See Oldenberg, op. cit., p. 228.
page 172 note 3 See yatra in Grassmann's Lexicon.
page 172 note 4 The place whence Viṣṇu strides is referred to in I. 22, 16: ‘May the gods preserve us from the place whence Visṣṇ strode over the seven places of the earth’ (ato devā avantu no yato Viṣṇur vicakrame pṛthivyāḥ sapta dhāmabhiḥ; SV. pṛthivyā adhi sānavi, ‘over the surface of the earth’). This would refer to the region of the dawns, where the pious dead are sometimes supposed to dwell (cp. X. 15, 7, ‘seated in the lap of the dawns’). In V. 87, 4 the wide-striding god, it is said, strode from the great common abode, and issues from his own abode on the ridges (adhi ṣṇubhiḥ) when he has yoked his steeds.
page 172 note 5 I.e. guards the clouds, the mystic name of which is ‘cows’; cp. ‘the many-horned swiftly-moving cows’ in the mansions of Viṣṇu (I. 154, 6); see below, p. 174.
page 173 note 1 In III. 55, 10 it is said: ‘Viṣṇu, the guardian (gopāh), protects the highest abode (pāthaḥ), maintaining the dear immortal dwellings’; cp. I. 154, 5, where pious men rejoice in the dear abode (priyam pāthaḥ) of Viṣṇu.
page 173 note 2 Cp. I. 72, 2. 4.
page 173 note 3 The sun is frequently called the eye of heaven, e.g. in I. 164, 14.
page 173 note 4 Cf. III. 55, 10, quoted in note 1.
page 173 note 5 The place of the sun in his strength would naturally be regarded as the meridian; hence the zenith is called viṣṇupada, the step of Viṣṇu (Nirukta, XII. 19).
page 173 note 6 The highest heaven is their regular abode; cp. Oldenberg, p. 228.
page 173 note 7 VI. 44, 23; cp. Oldenberg, p. 183.
page 173 note 8 Tā vām vāstūni uśmasi gámadhyai. Roth, , Nirukta, , Erläuterungen, p. 19Google Scholar (quoted by Muir, IV. p. 74), thinks that the use of the dual here is a proof that verses have been inserted in wrong places and that the verse is addressed to Mitra-Varuṇa (the reading of this verse in VS. 6, 3 has a singular pronoun: Tā te dhāmāni uśmasi). But this seems an unnecessary assumption. Why should the dual vām not refer to Viṣṇu (to whom the words urugāyásya vṛṣaḥ obviously apply, as in v. 3 of the same hymn) and Indra, his frequent associate, as both are addressed in the next two verses (I. 155, 1. 2)? The verse is also closely related in sense to the preceding one, besides being in the middle of a group of three hymns (I. 154–6) specially devoted to the praise of Viṣṇu. Under these circumstances an indirect reference to Viṣṇu's friend Indra seems quite natural.
page 173 note 9 Cp. vicakrame yátra devāso mádanti (VIII. 29, 7)=we wish to go thither where is the third step of Viṣṇu.
page 174 note 1 These cows are doubtless the same as those which Agni guards in the third step of Viṣṇu (see p. 172, note 5). The cows are the clouds, which are called many-horned (= many-peaked) to keep up the metaphor; note also the use of vṛṣan in the same verse.
page 174 note 2 In v. 3 Viṣṇu is called ‘the mountain-dwelling, wide-stepping bull.’ The epithet girikṣit here probably refers to the conception of Viṣṇu's characteristic abode being in the highest heavens, whence he would look down from the tops of the cloud-mountains in the zenith. Cp. Oldenberg, p. 230, footnote. Viṣṇu is in TS. III. iv. 5, 1 spoken of as the lord of mountains (parvatānām).
page 174 note 3 Cp. I. 22, 20 (quoted above), where the highest step of Viṣṇu is like an eye fixed in heaven. Both passages naturally refer to the sun in the meridian.
page 174 note 4 Asya rajasaḥ parāke, VII. 100, 4.
page 174 note 5 VIII. 12, 16.
page 174 note 6 VI. 44, 23; cp. Oldenberg, p. 183.
page 174 note 7 Dharmāṇi dhārayan, I. 22, 18.
page 174 note 8 Pūrvya ṛtasya garbhaḥ, I. 156, 3.
page 174 note 9 I. 156, 4.
page 174 note 10 I. 156, 2.
page 174 note 11 Yaḥ pārthivāni vimmne … rajāṃsi devaḥ savitā, V. 81, 3. Oldenberg, p. 65, thinks Savitṛ is an abstraction of the notion of instigation (des Antreibens).
page 174 note 12 I. 154, 1; VI. 49, 13. The same expression (vi-mame) is used of Varuṇa, ‘who measured out the earth with the sun’ (V. 85, 5).
page 174 note 13 The four seasons of the later Rigvedic period; cp. Zimmer, , AIL. p. 41Google Scholar.
page 175 note 1 Cp. I. 164, 48: ‘the twelve fellies, the one wheel, the three naves—who understands that? In it together are fixed, as it were, 360 moving and not moving spokes’; and v. 11 of the same hymn: ‘the twelve-spoked wheel of eternal order rolls around the sky, and wears not out; in it stand, O Agni, 720 twin sous.’ Cp. Zimmer, , AIL. p. 368Google Scholar.
page 175 note 2 Conversely the epithet distinctive of Viṣṇu, urugāya, seems to be applied to Agni in III. 6, 4; cp. Muir, IV. p. 77.
page 175 note 3 Sakhi, yujya; I. 22,19; I. 156, 4; IV. 18, 11; VIII. 89, 12.
page 175 note 4 VI. 20, 2.
page 175 note 5 VII. 99, 4. 5.
page 176 note 1 IV. 18, 11=VIII. 89, 12.
page 176 note 2 Vālakhilya, 4, 3.
page 176 note 3 VIII. 12, 27.
page 177 note 1 Ueber Entwickluttgsstufen der Mythenbildung, p. 128.
page 177 note 2 Muir, vol. IV. p. 122, has pointed out that the story related in the S'B. I. ii. 5 (quoted above, p. 168), contains the germ of the story of Viṣṇu's Dwarf Incarnation. I have here endeavoured to show that the main elements of the myth are already to be found in the Rigveda.
page 178 note 1 Cp. Muir, IV. pp. 33–4.
page 179 note 1 Cp. Indische Studien, I. p. 78.
page 179 note 2 Cp. Muir, I. p. 53.
page 179 note 3 Cp. S'B. III. 9, 4, 20.
page 180 note 1 Emūṣo nāmāyaṃ varāhaḥ.
page 180 note 2 Tam āhara.
page 180 note 3 Tam ebhyo yajña eva yajñam āharat.
page 180 note 4 Cp. Muir, IV. pp. 39–40.
page 180 note 5 Probably a Brāhmaṇa of a lost S'ākhā of the Black Yajur Veda. Cp. Müller, Max, ASL. p. 369Google Scholar.
page 181 note 1 Ekaviṃśatyāḥ purām pāre 'śmamayīnām, the identical words of the Kāṭhaka, except that pāre here comes last; cp. RV. IV. 30, 20: śatam aśmamayīnām purām Indro vyāsyat. Weber, in his edition of the TS. (Indische Studien, xi. p. 161), quotes the corresponding passage of the Kāṭhaka as far as the boar is concerned. The version there is: ‘this boar, named Emūṣa, remains with all the valuable goods of the Asuras on the other side of twentyone citadels of stone.’
page 181 note 2 The Kāṭhaka has yat hiṃ cāsurāṇāṃ vāmaṃ vasu tena tiṣṭhati.
page 181 note 3 Cp. Muir, IV. pp. 92–3.
page 183 note 1 Indra's mother is also referred to six or seven times in RV. IV. 18; cp. Pischel, , Vedische Studien, II. pp. 51–54Google Scholar.
page 183 note 2 RV. VI. 20, 2, etc. (see above, p. 175).
page 183 note 3 VI. 69.
page 183 note 4 In V. 87, 1 (= SV. i. 462) Viṣṇu is called great (mahe Viṣṇave).
page 183 note 5 With regard to the sense overriding the caesura, see Pischel, , Vedisehe Studien, II. 91Google Scholar, and Göttinger gelehrte Anzeigen, 1890, p. 540.
page 184 note 1 Cp. Müller, Max, Vedic Hymns, SBE. vol. xxxii. p. 134Google Scholar.
page 184 note 2 RV. VI. 20, 2; I. 156, 4. 5; I. 22, 19.
page 184 note 3 Both Sāyaṇa and Ludwig, on the strength of the distinction made in TS. VI. ii. 4, 2. 3, understand sahīyān to mean Indra.
page 184 note 4 The collocation Pūṣan Viṣṇu occurs also in RV. I. 90, 5; V. 46, 3; VI. 21, 9; VII. 44, 1; X. 66, 5. Cp. VII. 35, 9.
page 184 note 5 Pácac chalám mahiṣān, Indra, túbhyam Púṣā Víṣṇus, trīṇi sárāṃsi dhāvan vṛtrahaṇam madirám aṃśúm asmai. In V. 29, 7 it is Agni, Indra's great ally, who performs a similar service: ‘Agni for his friend cooked 300 buffaloes, and Indra for Vṛtra's slaughter drank three lakes of pressed Soma; and Indra, after eating the flesh of the 300 buffaloes and drinking the three lakes, slew the dragon.’ Cp. also RV. X. 27, 2; 28, 3; 86, 14. Indra is thus a great eater as well as a great drinker.
page 184 note 6 Vájram ‥ vṛtrásya cid vidád yéna márma.
page 185 note 1 See my article on Trita, J.R.A.S., 1893, pp. 430–1.
page 185 note 2 Vipa varāhám áyoagrayā han. Bergaigne, , Religion Védique, II. p. viiGoogle Scholar. note, would render ‘with iron-pointed prayer,’ but this is too far-fetched.
page 185 note 3 Tváṃ Vṛtrám āśáyānaṃ sirāsu mahó vájreṇa siṣvapo varahum. In X. 99, 6 (quoted above) the boar is clearly identical with the three-headed demon. Besides here and in I. 61, 7, VIII. 77, 10, varāhá occurs four times and varāhu once in the RV. In X. 28, 4 it is used in the literal sense; in IX. 97, 7 Soma, rushing to the vats, is compared with a boar; lightnings, probably as tearing up the ground (cp. Zimmer, , AIL. p. 86Google Scholar), are called boars in X. 67, 7 (‘Brahmaṇas pati, with boars glowing with sweat, obtained the treasure'= the cows of Paṇi) and in I. 88, 5 (the golden-wheeled, iron-tusked boars rushing hither and thither on the path of the Maruts); and in I. 114, 5 the terrible god Rudra is called the ‘ruddy boar of heaven’ (divó varāhám aruṣám), perhaps lightning in its destructive aspect.
page 185 note 4 Parvate, I. 32, 2.
page 185 note 5 I. 30, 7; IV. 30, 14; VI. 26, 5; cp. Muir, V. p. 97.
page 185 note 6 VI. 17, 5.
page 185 note 7 Pari gāḥ santam.
page 185 note 8 Nír āvidhyad giribhya ā—dhārāyat pakvám odanám—I'ndro bundáṃ súātatam.
page 186 note 1 Thus in v. 3 he is described as having drunk thirty lakes of Soma at a single draught.
page 186 note 2 Cp. I. 156, 4, where Viṣṇu, accompanied by his friend (i.e. Indra), opens the stable (of the cows).
page 186 note 3 The same root is used in RV. III. 48, 4, where Indra is said, after overcoming Tvaṣṭṛ and appropriating (ā-muṣya) his Soma, to have drunk it. This seems to indicate that Tvaṣṭṛ withheld the Soma from Indra (who, as Bergaigne, , Religion Védique, III. 58Google Scholar, shows, was his son), and thus incurred the latter's hostility. Cp. Vedische Studien, II. p. 51.
page 186 note 4 E.g. in I. 62, 9.
page 186 note 5 Cp. Vāl. 4, 3, where Viṣṇu is said to have taken his three strides for Indra, and VIII. 12, 27, where he is said to have taken them by the energy (ojasā) of Indra.
page 186 note 6 Sāyaṇa's explanation is that, by a Vedic substitution of e for ā, emuṣam stands for āmuṣam=udakasya moṣakam (āmuṣam presumably therefore =ām-muṣam for āp-muṣam). In the TS. passage, quoted above, the boar is spoken of as a vāma-moṣá, and in the TB. as vāma-muṣa. These epithets suggest that emuṣam was understood to contain the root muṣ, ‘to steal.’ The Kāṭhaka and the S'B. have, as we have seen, the corrupt form emūṣa.
page 187 note 1 This stanza is commented on in Nirukta, V. 4, where the etymology of varāha (=megha) is given asvara-ãhāra, ‘bringing boons.’
page 188 note 1 Cp. Barth, , Religions of India, p. 166Google Scholar.
page 189 note 1 Cp. Lang, Andrew, Myth, Ritual and Religion, vol. i. pp. 238–9Google Scholar.