[Footnote 17: It is rather difficult to compress the list into this number. Some of the names are perhaps later additions.]
[Footnote 18: In contrast one may note the frequent boast
that a king 'fears not even the gods,' e.g., i. 199. 1.]
[Footnote 19: Later there are twenty-one worlds analogous lo
the twenty-one hells.]
[Footnote 20: Elsewhere, oh the other hand, the islands are
four or seven, the earlier view.]
[Footnote 21: iii. 142. The boar-shape of Vishnu is a favorite one, as is the dwarf-incarnation. Compare V[=a]mana, V[=a]manaka, Vishnupada, in the list of holy watering-places (iii. 83). Many of Vishnu's acts are simply transferred from Brahm[=a], to whom they belonged in older tales. Compare above, p.215.]
[Footnote 22: In i. 197, Praj[=a]pati the Father-god, is the highest god, to whom Indra, as usual, runs for help. Çiva appears as a higher god, and drives Indra into a hole, where he sees five former Indras; and finally Vishnu comes on to the stage as the highest of all, "the infinite, inconceivable, eternal, the All in endless forms." Brahm[=a] is invoked now and then in a perfunctory way, but no one really expects him to do anything. He has done his work, made the castes, the sacrifice, and (occasionally) everything. And he will do this again when the new aeon begins. But for this aeon his work is accomplished.]
[Footnote 23: Thus in XII. 785. 165: "Neither Brahm[=a] nor
Vishnu is capable of understanding the greatness of Çiva.">[
[Footnote 24: Or "three eyes.">[
[Footnote 25: Compare III. 39. 77: "The destroyer of Daksha's sacrifice." Compare the same epithet in the hymn to Çiva, X. 7. 3, after which appear the devils who serve Çiva. Such devils, in the following, feast on the dead upon the field of battle, though, when left to themselves, 'midnight is the hour when the demons swarm,' III. 11. 4 and 33. In X. 18 and XIII. 161 Çiva's act is described in full.]
[Footnote 26: Çiva, called Bhava, Çarva, the trident-holder, the Lord ([=I]ç[=a]na), Çankara, the Great God, etc., generally appears at his best where the epic is at its worst, the interpolations being more flagrant than in the case of Vishnuite eulogies. The most devout worshipper of Vishnu is represented as an adherent of Çiva, as invoking him for help after fighting with him. He is "invincible before the three worlds." He is the sun; his blood is ashes. All the gods, with Brahm[=a] at their head, revere him. He has three heads, three faces, six arms (compare iii. 39. 74 ff.; 83. 125); though other passages give him more.]