The numerous avatars[88] of Vishnu are first given as ten, then as twenty, then as twenty-two,[89] and at last become innumerable. The ten, which are those usually referred to, are as follows: First come the oldest, the beast-avatars, viz., as a fish; as a tortoise;[90] as a boar (rescuing earth from a flood); and as a man-lion (slaying a demon). Next comes the dwarf-avatar, where Vishnu cheats Bali of earth by asking, as a dwarf, for three steps of it, and then stepping out over all of it (the 'three strides' of the Rig Veda). Then come the human avatars, that of Paraçu-R[=a]ma (R[=a]ma with the axe), Krishna, R[=a]ma[91] (hero of the R[=a]m[=a]yana epic), Buddha, and Kalki (who is still to come).
The parallels between the latest Krishna cult and the Biblical narrative are found only in the Pur[=a]nas and other late works, and undoubtedly, as we have said in the last chapter, are borrowed from Christian sources. Krishna is here born in a stable, his father, like Joseph, going with his virgin spouse to pay taxes. His restoring of a believing woman's son is narrated only in the modern J[=a]imini Bh[=a]rata, These tales might have been received through the first distant Christian mission in the South in the sixth century, but it is more likely that they were brought directly to the North in the seventh century; for at that time a Northern king of the V[=a]içya caste, Çil[=a]ditya (in whose reign the Chinese pilgrim, Hiouen Thsang, visited India), made Syrian Christians welcome to his court (639 A.D.).[92] The date of the annual Krishna festival, which is a reflex of Christmastide, is variously fixed by the Pur[=a]nas as coming in July or August.[93]
As Krishna is an avatar of Vishnu[94] in the Bh[=a]rata, and as the axe-R[=a]ma is another avatar in legend (here Vishnu in the form of Paraçu-R[=a]ma raises up the priestly caste, and destroys the warrior-caste), so in the R[=a]m[=a]yana the hero R[=a]ma (not Paraçu-R[=a]ma) is made an avatar of Vishnu. He is a mythical prince of Oude (hence a close connection between the R[=a]m[=a]yana and Buddhism), who is identified with Vishnu. Vishnu wished to rid earth of the giant R[=a]vana,[95] and to do so took the form of R[=a]ma. As Krishnaism has given rise to a number of sects that worship Krishna as Vishnu, so Ramaism is the modern cult of R[=a]ma as Vishnu. Both of these sects oppose the Vishnuite that is not inclined to be sectarian; all three oppose the Çivaite; and all four of these oppose the orthodox Brahman, who assigns supreme godship to Çiva or Vishnu as little as does the devotee of these gods in unsectarian form to Krishna or R[=a]ma.
Çiva is on all sides opposed to Vishnu. The Greek account of the third century B.C. says that he taught the Hindus to dance the kordax, but at this time there appears to have been no such phallic worship in his honor as is recorded in the pseudo-epic. Çiva is known in early Brahmanic and in Buddhistic writings, and even as the bearer-of-the-moon, Candraçekhara, he contrasts with Vishnu, as his lightning-form and mountain-habitat differ from the sun-form and valley-home of his rival. This dire god is conceived of as ascetic partly because he is gruesome, partly because he is magical in power. Hence he is the true type of the awful magical Yogi, and as such appealed to the Brahman. Originally he is only a fearful magical god, great, and even all-pervading, but, as seen in the Brahmanic Çatarudriya hymn, he is at first in no sense a pantheistic deity. In this hymn there is a significant addition made to the earlier version. In the first form of the hymn it is said that Rudra, who is here Çiva, is the god of bucolic people; but the new version adds 'and of all people.' Here Çiva appears as a wild, diabolical figure, 'the god of incantations,' whose dart is death; and half of the hymn is taken up with entreaties to the god to spare the speaker. He is praised, in conjunction with trees, of which he is the lord, as the one 'clad in skins,' the 'lord of cattle,' the 'lord of paths,' the 'cheater,' the 'deceiver.' When he is next clearly seen, in the epic, he is the god to whom are offered human sacrifices, and his special claim to worship is the phallus; while the intermediate literature shows glimpses of him only in his simple Brahmanic form of terror. It has long been known that Çivaite phallic worship was not borrowed from the Southerners, as was once imagined, and we venture with some scholars to believe that it was due rather to late Greek influence than to that of any native wild tribe.[96]
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FOOTNOTES:
[Footnote 1: Parts of the epic are called Pur[=a]nas, as other parts are called Upanishads. These are the forerunners of the extant Pur[=a]nas. The name, indeed, is even older than the epic, belonging to the late Vedic period, where are grouped together Pur[=a]nas and Itih[=a]sas, 'Ancient History' and 'Stories'; to which are added 'Eulogies.' Weber has long since pointed out that even when the 'deeds of kings' were sung at a ceremony they were wont to be so embroidered as to be dubbed 'fiction' by the Hindus themselves. India has neither literary history (save what can be gleaned from genealogies of doubtful worth), nor very early inscriptions. The 'archaeology' of the Pur[=a]nas was probably always what it is in the extant specimens, legendary material of no direct historical value.]
[Footnote 2: Strictly speaking to the present
Allah[=a]b[=a]d, where is the Pray[=a]ga, or confluence of
Yamun[=a] and Gang[=a] (Jumna and Ganges).]
[Footnote 3: M[=a]gadha; called Beh[=a]r from its many
monasteries, vih[=a]ras, in Açoka's time.]
[Footnote 4: So, plausibly, Müller, loc. cit. below.]