Chapter XVI (2)

It cannot be imagined, however, that the cult of the Gangetic Krishna originated with that vague personage whose pupilage is described in the Upanishad. But this account may still be connected with the epic Krishna. The epic describes the overthrow of an old Brahmanic Aryan race at the hands of the P[=a]ndavas, an unknown folk, whose king's polyandrous marriage (his wife is the spouse of his four brothers as well as of himself) is an historical trait, connecting the tribe closely with the polyandrous wild tribes located north of the Ganges. This tribe attacked the stronghold of Brahmanism in the holy land about the present Delhi; and their patron god is the Gangetic Krishna. In the course of the narrative a very few tales are told of Krishna's early life, but the simple original view of Krishna is that he is a god, the son of Devak[=i]. The few other tales are late and adventitious additions, but this is a consistent trait. Modern writers are fain to see in the antithesis presented by the god Krishna and by the human hero Krishna, late and early phases. They forget that the lower side of Krishna is one especially Puranic. In short, they read history backwards, for theirs is not the Indic way of dealing with gods. In Krishna's case the tricky, vulgar, human side is a later aspect, which comes to light most prominently in the Genealogy of Vishnu and in the Vishnu Pur[=a]na, modern works which in this regard contrast strongly with the older epic, where Krishna, however he tricks, is always first the god. It is not till he becomes a very great, if not the greatest, god that tales about his youthful performances, when he condescended to be born in low life, begin to rise. An exact parallel may be seen in the case of Çiva, who at first is a divine character, assuming a more or less grotesque likeness to a man; but subsequently he becomes anthropomorphized, and is fitted out with a sheaf of legends which describe his earthly acts.[87] And so with Krishna. As the chief god, identified with the All-god, he is later made the object of encomiums which degrade while they are meant to exalt him. He becomes a cow-boy and acts like one, a god in a mask. But in the epic he is the invading tribe's chief god, in process of becoming identified with that god in the Brahmanic pantheon who most resembles him. For this tribe, the (Yadavas) P[=a]ndavas, succeeded in overthrowing the Brahmanic stronghold and became absorbed into the Brahmanic circle. Their god, who, like most of the supreme gods of this region among the wild tribes, was the tribal hero as sun-god, became recognized by the priests as one with Vishnu. In the Upanishad the priest-philosopher identifies Krishna with the sun as the 'dark side' (_k[r.][s.][n.]a_, 'dark') of Vishnu, the native name probably being near enough to the Sanskrit word to be represented by it. The statement that this clan-god Krishna once learned the great truth that the sun is the All-god, at the mouth of a Brahman, is what might be expected. 'Krishna, the son of Devaki,' is not only the god, but he is also the progenitor of the clan, the mystic forefather, who as usual is deified as the sun. To the priest he is merely an _avatar_ of Vishnu. The identity of Krishna with the Gangetic god described by Megasthenes can scarcely be disputed. The latter as represented by the Greek is too great a god to have passed away without a sign except for a foreigner's account. And there is no figure like his except that of Krishna.

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]

* * * * *

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.]

[Footnote 5: The tribes became Hinduized, their chiefs became
R[=a]jputs; their religions doubtless affected the ritual
and creed of the civilized as much as the religion of the
latter colored their own. Some of these un-Aryan peoples
were probably part native, part barbaric. There is much
doubt in regard to the dates that depend on accepted eras.
It is not certain, for instance, that, as Müller claims,
Kanishka's inauguration coincides with the Çaka era, 78 A.D.
A great Buddhist council was held under him. Some
distinguished scholars still think with Bühler that
Vikram[=a]ditya's inauguration was 57 B.C. (this date that
used to be assigned to him). From our present point of view
it is of little consequence when this king himself lived. He
is renowned as patron of arts and as a conqueror of the
barbarians. If he lived in the first century B.C. his
conquest amounted to nothing permanent. What is important,
however, is that all Vikram[=a]ditya stands for in legend
must have been in the sixth century A.D. For the drama, of
which he is said to have been patron, represents a religion
distinctly later than that of the body of the epic
(completed in the sixth or seventh century, Bühler, _Indian
Studies_, No. ii.). The dramatic and astronomical era was
but introductory to Kum[=a]rila's reassertion of Brahmanism
in the seventh century, when the Northern barbarian was
gone, and the Mohammedan was not yet rampant. In the rest of
Northern India there were several native dynasties in
different quarters, with different eras; one in Sur[=a]shtra
(Gujar[=a]t), one again in the 'middle district' or 'North
Western Provinces,' one in Kutch; overthrown by Northern
barbarians (in the fifth century) and by the Mohammedans (in
the seventh and eighth centuries), respectively. Of these
the Guptas of the 'middle district,' and the Valabh[=i]s of
Kutch, had neither of the eras just mentioned. The former
dated from 320-321 (perhaps 319), the latter from 190
(A.D.). The word _samvat_, 'year,' indicates that the time
is dated from either the Çaka or Vikram[=a]ditya era. See
IA. xvii. 362; Fergusson, JRAS. xii. 259; Müller, _India,
What Can It Teach Us_? p. 282; Kielhorn, IA. xix. _24;_
xxii. 111. The Northern barbarians are called Scythians, or
Huns, or Turanians, according to fancy. No one really knows
what they were.]

[Footnote 6: The first host was expelled by the Hindus in
750. After a period of rest Mahmud was crowned in 997, who
overran India more than a dozen times. In the following
centuries the land was conquered and the people crushed by
the second great Mohammedan, Ghori, who died in 1206,
leaving his kingdom to a vassal, Kutab, the 'slave sultan'
of Delhi. In 1294, thus slave dynasty having been recently
supplanted, the new successor to the throne was slain by his
own nephew, Allah-ud-din, who is reckoned as the third
Mohammedan conqueror of India. His successor swept even the
Dekhan of all its Hindu (temple) wealth; but his empire
finally broke down under its own size; preparing the way for
Timur (Tamerlane), who entered India in 1398.]

[Footnote 7: Çankara himself was not a pure Brahman. Both
Vishnuites and Çivaites lay claim to him.]

[Footnote 8: Coy as was the Brahman in the adoption of the
new gods he was wise enough to give them some place in his
pantheon, or he would have offended his laity. Thus he
recognizes K[=a]l[=i] as well as Çr[=i]; in fact he prefers
to recognize the female divinities of the sects, for they
offer less rivalry.]

[Footnote 9: There was a general revival of letters
antedating the Brahmanic theological revival. The drama,
which reflects equally Hinduism and Brahmanism, is now the
favorite light literature of the cultured. In the sixth
century the first astronomical works are written
(Var[=a]hamihira, who wrote the _B[r.]hat Sa[.m]hit[=a]_),
and the group of writers called the Nine Gems (reckoned of
Vikram[=a]ditya's court) are to be referred to this time.
The best known among them is K[=a]lid[=a]sa, author of the
_Çakuntal[=a]_. An account of this Renaissance, as he calls
it, will be found in Müller's _India, What Can It Teach Us_?
The learned author is perhaps a little too sweeping in his
conclusions. It is, for instance, tolerably certain that the
Bh[=a]rata was completed by the time the 'Renaissance'
began; so that there is no such complete blank as he assumes
prior to Vikram[=a]ditya. But the general state of affairs
is such as is depicted in the ingenious article referred to.
The sixth and seventh centuries were eras that introduced
modern literature under liberal native princes, who were
sometimes not R[=a]jputs at all. Roughly speaking, one may
reckon from 500 B.C. to the Christian era as a period of
Buddhistic control, Graeco-Bactrian invasion, and Brahmanic
decline. The first five centuries after the Christian see
the two religions in a state of equilibrium, under Scythian
control, and the Mah[=a]-Bh[=a]rata, the expanded
Bh[=a]rata, is written. From 500 to 1000 is an era of native
rulers, Brahmanic revival in its pure form, and Hindu
growth, with little trouble from the Mohammedans. Then for
five centuries the horrors of Moslem conquest.]

[Footnote 10: Har. 10,662. Compare the laudation of 'the two
gods' in the same section.]

[Footnote 11: As the Jains have Angas and Up[=a]ngas, and as
the pseudo-epic distinguishes Nishads and Upanishads, so the
Brahman has Pur[=a]nas and Upapur[=a]nas (K[=u]rma
Pur[=a]na, i. p. 3). Some of the sects acknowledge only six
Pur[=a]nas as orthodox.]

[Footnote 12: As an example of a Puranic Smriti (legal) we
may cite the trash published as the
V[r.]ddha-H[=a]rita-Sa[.m]hit[=a]. Here there is polemic
against Çiva; one must worship Jagann[=a]th with flowers,
and every one must be branded with the Vishnu disc
(_cakra_). Even women and slaves are to use _mantras_, etc.]

[Footnote 13: The lateness of this law-book is evident from
its advocacy of _suttee_ (XXV. 14), its preference for
female ancestors (see below), etc.]

[Footnote 14: Manu, III. 89; XII. 121.]

[Footnote 15: As, for example, in K[=u]rma Pur[=a]na, XVI.
p. 186, where is found a common epic verse description of
battle.]

[Footnote 16: A good instance of this is found in Brihan
N[=a]rad[=i]ya Pur[=a]na, X., where the _churik[=a]_ and
_drugha[n.]a_ (24) appear in an imitative scene of this
sort; one of these being later, the other earlier, than the
epic vocabulary.]

[Footnote 17: Perhaps the most striking distinction between
Vedic and Puranic, or one may say, Indic Aryan and Hindu
religions, is the emphasis laid in the former upon Right; in
the latter, upon idols. The Vedic religion insists upon the
law of right (order), that is, the sacrifice; but it insists
also upon right as rectitude, truth, holiness. Puranic
Hinduism insists upon its idols; only incidentally does it
recommend rectitude, truth, abstract holiness.]

[Footnote 18: KP. i. p. 29.]

[Footnote 19: K[=u]rma, xii. p. 102. Contrast _ib_. xxii. p.
245, _caturvy[=u]hadhara Vishnur avy[=u]has procyate_
(elsewhere _navavy[=u]ha_). Philosophically, in the doctrine
of the epic P[=a]ñcar[=a]tras (still held by some
sectaries), Vishnu is to be revered as Krishna, Balar[=a]ma,
Pradymana, Aniruddha (Krishna's brother, son, and grandson),
representing, respectively, _[=a]tm[=a], j[=i]va,_ supreme
and individual spirit, perception, and consciousness.
Compare Mbh[=a]. xii. 340. 8, 72.]

[Footnote 20: KP. xxi. p. 236; xxii. p. 238, etc.]

[Footnote 21: _ib._ I, p. 23.]

[Footnote 22: Compare Brihan N[=a]radiya Pur[=a]na, xiv. 10,
_bah[=u]ni k[=a][s.][t.]hay[=a]ntr[=a][n.]i_ (torture
machines) in hell. The old tale of N[=a]çiketas is retold at
great length in the Var[=a]ha Pur[a=]na. The oldest
Pur[=a]na, the M[=a]rkandeya, has but seven hells, a
conception older than Manu's twenty-one (compare on MP. x.
80 ff., Scherman, _loc. cit_. p. 33), or the later lists of
thousands. The Padma Pur[=a]na, with celebrates R[=a]ma, has
also seven hells, and is in part old, for it especially
extols Pushkara (Brahm[=a]'s lone shrine); but it recommends
the _taptamudra_, or branding with hot iron.]

[Footnote 23: Nar. xiv. 2.]

[Footnote 24: xiv. 54 and 70.]

[Footnote 25: KP. xxii. pp, 239-241.]

[Footnote 26: As will be shown below, it is possible that
this may be a ceremony first taken from the wild tribes. See
the 'pole' rite described above in the epic.]

[Footnote 27: Compare for instance _ib_. xxviii. 68, on the
strange connection of a Ç[=u]dr[=a] wife of a Guru.]

[Footnote 28: KP. xxxvi. It is of course impossible to say
how much epic materials come from the literary epic and how
much is drawn from popular poetry, for the vulgar had their
own epoidic songs which may have treated of the same topics.
Thus even a wild tribe (Gonds) is credited with an 'epic.'
But such stuff was probably as worthless as are the popular
songs of today.]

[Footnote 29: KP. xxx. p. 305; xxxvii. p. 352.]

[Footnote 30: _ib._ p. 355.]

[Footnote 31: Compare N[=a]rad[=i]ya, xi. 23,27,31 'the one
whom no one knows,' 'he that rests in the heart,' 'he that
seems to be far off because we do not know,' 'he whose form
is Çiva, lauded by Vishnu,' xiii. 201.]

[Footnote 32: Even Vishnu as a part of a part of the Supreme
Spirit in VP. is indicated by Vishnu's adoration of
_[=a]tm[=a]_ in the epic (see above).]

[Footnote 33: Compare Williams' _Brahmanism and Hinduism_.]

[Footnote 34: Çankara's adherents are chiefly Çivaite, but
he himself was not a sectary. Williams says that at the
present day few worship Çiva exclusively, but he has more
partial adherents than has Vishnu. _Religious Thought and
Life,_ pp. 59, 62.]

[Footnote 35: The two last are just recognized in Brahmanic
legal works.]

[Footnote 36: See Wilson's sketch of Hindu sects. The author
says that there were in his day two shrines to Brahm[=a],
one in [=A]jm[=i]r (compare Pushkara in the epic), and one
on the Ganges at Bithur. The Brahma Pur[=a]na is known also
as S[=a]ura (sun). This is the first in the list; in its
present state it is Vishnuite.]

[Footnote 37: Sun-worship (Iranian?) is especially
pronounced in the Bhav[=i]shya(t) Pur[=a]na. Of the other
Pur[=a]nas the L[=i]nga is especially Çivaite (_linga_ is
phallus), as are the Matsya and older V[=a]yu. Sometimes
Çiva is androgynous, _ardhan[=a]r[=i]çvara_, 'half-female.'
But most of the Pur[=a]nas are Vishnuite.]

[Footnote 38: On the Ganeça Pur[=a]na see JRAS. 1846, p.
319.]

[Footnote 39: The worshippers of Bhagavat were originally
distinct from the P[=a]ñcar[=a]tras, but what was the
difference between them is unknown. The sect of this name in
the pseudo-epic is not Ç[=a]kta in expression but only
monotheistic. Probably the names of many sects are retained
with altered beliefs and practices. The Vishnu Pur[=a]na, i.
11. 54, gives a model prayer which may be taken once for all
as the attitude of the Vishnuite: "Glory to V[=a]sudeva, him
of perfected wisdom, whose unrevealed form is (known as)
Brahm[=a], Vishnu, and Çiva" (Hira[n.]yagarbha, Purusha,
Pradh[=a]na).]

[Footnote 40: Weber shows for instance, _loc. cit_., that
Indra takes the place of older Varuna; that the house-priest
yields to the Brahm[=a]; that in this feast in honor of the
king he]

[Footnote 41: Gover, JRAS. v. 91; IA. xx. 430.]

[Footnote 42: In Hinduism itself there is a striking example
of this. The Jagann[=a]th ('Juggernaut') temple was once
dedicated to Buddha as _loka-n[=a]th_ or _jagan-n[=a]th_,
'saviour of the world' Name, temple, and idol-car are now
all Vishnu's!]

[Footnote 43: That is, Rain and Sun, for all Indra's warlike
qualities are forgotten, absorbed into those of Çiva and his
son, the battle-god. The sun crosses the equator at noon of
the second day, the 'Mah[=a] Pongol.']

[Footnote 44: "Now every neck is bent, for the surface of
the waters disturbed. Then with a heave, a hiss, and a surge
of bubbles, the seething milk mounts to the top of the
vessel. Before it has had time to run down the blackened
sides, the air resounds with the sudden joyous cry of
'Pongol, oh Pongol, S[=u]rya, S[=u]rya, oh Pongol,' The word
Pongol means "boiling," from the Tamil word _pongu_, to
boil; so that the joyous shout is, 'It boils, oh S[=u]rya,
it boils.' In a moment a convulsion of greetings animates
the assembly. Every one seizes his neighbor and asks, 'Has
it boiled?' Both faces gleam with delight as the answer
comes--'It has boiled.' Then both shout at the top of their
voices--'Oh Pongol, Pongol, oh S[=u]rya, oh Indra, Pongol,
Pongol.'" Gorer, _loc. cit_.]

[Footnote 45: The Crocodile, _makara_, like the parrot, is
sacred to K[=a]madeva, Love. But as Ganges also is holy it
is difficult to say for which divinity the offering was
intended. Some, indeed, interpret _makara_ as dolphin.]

[Footnote 46: A feast now neglected, though kept up by
strict Brahmans, occurs on or about the 20th January. The
orthodox adherents of the Çivaite sects and Ç[=a]ktas also
observe it. It is a Çr[=a]ddha, or funeral feast to the
Manes. Also on the 26th and 30th January there are rites
nearly obsolete, the first being signalized by offerings to
Yama; the second, a Çivaite feast (to his spouse, as 'giver
of bridegrooms'). The list is more celebrated in the South
than in the North. It is interesting chiefly as a parallel
to St. Valentine's day, or, as Wilson says, the nearer feast
of St. Agnes (21st January) on the eve of which divination
is practiced to discover future husbands. It is this time
also that the Greeks call 'marriage-month' (Gamelion); and
the fourth day from the new moon (which gives the name to
this Hindu festival, _caturth[=i]_, "fourth day") is the day
when Hesiod recommends the bringing home of the bride.]

[Footnote 47: In case any writing has to be done on this day
it is done with chalk, not with the pens, "which have a
complete holiday" (Wilson).]

[Footnote 48: The invocations show very well how the worship
of Brahm[=a] has been driven out in honor of his more
powerful rivals. For Sarasvat[=i] is invoked first as "Thou
without whom Brahm[=a] never lives"; but again as "Thou of
eight forms, Lakshm[=i], Medh[=a], Dhav[=a], Pusht[=i],
G[=a]ur[=i], Tusht[=i], Prabh[=a], Dhriti, O Sarasvat[=i]."
The great festivals, like the great temples, are not very
stricly sectarian. Williams says that in Çiva's temple in
Benares are kept monkeys (sacred to Vishnu).]

[Footnote 49: Between this and the last occur minor
holidays, one to avert small-pox; one (February the 4th)
sacred to the sun (Sunday, the seventh day of each lunar
fortnight, is strictly observed); and one to the Manes.]

[Footnote 50: Fasting is not necessarily a part of civilized
religion alone. It is found in the Brahmanic and Hindu
cults, but it obtains also among the American Indians. Thus
the Dacotahs fast for two or three days at the worship of
sun and moon. Schoolcraft, _Histor. and Statist_., iii.
227.]

[Footnote 51: The last clause (meaning 'common historical
origin') were better omitted.]

[Footnote 52: Except the mystic syllable _[=O]m_, supposed
to represent the trinity (_[=O]m_ is _a, u, m_), though
probably it was originally only an exclamation.]

[Footnote 53: A small Vishnu festival in honor of Vishnu as
'man-lion' (one of his ten _avatars_) is celebrated on the
13th of March; but in Bengal in honor of the same god as a
cow-boy. On the 15th of March there is another minor
festival in Bengal, but it is to Çiva, or rather to one of
his hosts, under the form of a water pot (that is to
preserve from disease).]

[Footnote 54: The bonfire is made of fences, door posts,
furniture, etc. Nothing once seized and devoted to the fire
may be reclaimed, but the owner may defend his property if
he can. Part of the horse-play at this time consists in
leaping over the fire, which is also ritualistic with same
of the hill-tribes.]

[Footnote 55: Compare the Nautch dances on R[=a]macandra's
birthday. Religious dances, generally indecent, are also a
prominent feature of the religions of the wild tribes (as
among American and African savages, Greeks, etc., etc.).]

[Footnote 56: The 'Easter bonnet' in Indic form.]

[Footnote 57: In sober contrast stands the yearly orthodox
Çráddha celebration (August-September), though Brahmans join
in sectarian fêtes.]

[Footnote 58: Wilson draws an elaborate parallel between the
Hol[=i] and the Lupercalia, etc. (Carnival). But the points
of contact are obvious. One of the customs of the Hol[=i]
celebration is an exact reproduction of April-Fool's day.
Making "Hol[=i] fools" is to send people on useless errands,
etc. (Festum Stultorum, at the Vernal Equinos, transferred
by the Church to the first of November, "Innocents' Day").]

[Footnote 59: Stevenson, JRAS. 1841, p. 239; Williams,
_loc. cit._; Wilkins, _Modern Hinduism_, ch. III.]

[Footnote 60: The daily service consists in dressing,
bathing, feeding, etc It is divided into eight ridiculous
ceremonies, which prolong the worship through the day.]

[Footnote 61: The brilliant displays attracted the notice of
the Greeks, who speak of the tame tigers and panthers, the
artificial trees carried in wagons, the singing,
instrumental music, and noise, which signalized a fête
procession. See Williams, _loc. cit_.]

[Footnote 62: Such, for instance, is the most holy temple of
South India, the great temple of Çr[=i]rangam at
Trichinopoly. The idol car, gilded and gaudy, is carved with
obscenity; the walls and ceilings are frescoed with
bestiality. It represents Vishnu's heaven.]

[Footnote 63: From this name or title comes the Gita
Govinda, a mystic erotic poem (in praise of the cow-boy god)
exaltedly religious as it is sensual (twelfth century).]

[Footnote 64: VP.l. 2. 63. The 'qualities' or 'conditions'
of God's being are referred to by 'goodness' and
'darkness.']

[Footnote 65: All this erotic vulgarity is typical of the
common poetry of the people, and is in marked contrast to
the chivalrous, but not love-sick, Bh[=a]rata.]

[Footnote 66: Compare Duncker, LII^5. p. 327, More doubtful
is the identification of Nysian and Nish[=a]dan, _ib_. note.
Compare, also, Schroeder, _loc. cit._ p. 361. Arrian calls
(Çiva) Dionysos the _[Greek: oitou dotêra Iudêis]_
(Schwanbeck, Fig. 1.).]

[Footnote 67: This remains always as Çiva's heaven in
distinction from Goloka or V[=a]ikuntha, Vishnu's heaven.
Nowadays Benares is the chief seat of Çivaism.]

[Footnote 68: The doctrine of the immaculate conception,
common to Vishnuism and Buddhism (above, p.431), can have no
exact parallel in Çivaism, for Çiva is not born as a child;
but it seems to be reflected in the laughable ascription of
virginity to Um[=a] (Civa's wife), when she is revered as
the emblem of motherhood.]

[Footnote 69: In RV. v. 41. 4, the Vedic triad is Fire,
Wind, and (Tr[=i]ta of the sky) Indra; elsewhere Fire, Wind,
and Sun (above, p. 42), distinct from the triune fire.]

[Footnote 70: In the Rig Veda the three steps are never thus
described, but in the later age this view is common. It is,
in fact, only on the 'three steps' that the identity with
the sun is established. In RV. 1. 156. 4, Vishnu is already
above Varuna.]

[Footnote 71: Çat. Br. xiv. 1. 1. 5.]

[Footnote 72: For other versions see Mulr, _Original
Sanskrit Texts_, iv. p. 127 ff.]

[Footnote 73: Later interpreted as wives or eyes.]

[Footnote 74: For an epic guess at the significance of the
title _n[=i]laka[n.][t.]ha_, 'blue-throated,' see Mbh[=a] i.
18. 43.]

[Footnote 75: AV. iv. 28; viii. 2; xi. 2. Thus even in the
Rig Veda pairs of gods are frequently besung as one, as if
they were divinities not only homogeneous but even
monothelous.]

[Footnote 76: Brahm[=a]'s mark in the lotus; Vishnu's, the
discus (sun); Çiva's, the Linga, phallic emblem.]

[Footnote 77: The grim interpretation of later times makes
the cattle (to be sacrificed) _men_. The theological
interpretation is that Çiva is the lord of the spirit, which
is bound like a beast.]

[Footnote 78: The commenter, horrified by the murder of the
Father-god, makes Rudra kill 'the sin'; but the original
shows that it is the Father-god who was shot by this god,
who chose as his reward the lordship over kine; and such
exaltation is not improbable (moreover, it is historical!).
The hunting of the Father-god by Rudra is pictured in the
stars (Orion), Ait. Br. iii. 33.]

[Footnote 79: See Weber. _Ind. St._ ii. 37; Muir, iv. 403.
Çarva (Çaurva) is Avestan, but at the same time it is his
'eastern' name, while Bhava is his western name. Çat. Br. i.
7. 3. 8.]

[Footnote 80: The epic (_loc. cit_. above), the Pur[=a]nas,
and the very late Atharva Çiras Upanishad and M[=a]itr. Up.
(much interpolated). Compare Muir, _loc. cit_. pp. 362-3.]

[Footnote 81: According to the epic, men honor gods that
kill, Indra, Rudra, and so forth; not gods that are passive,
such as Brahm[=a], the Creator, and P[=u]shan (xii. 15. 18),
_ya eva dev[=a] hant[=a]ras t[=a]l loko 'rcayate
bh[=r.]ça[=.m], na Brahm[=a][n.]am_.]

[Footnote 82: Barth seems to imply that Harihara (the name)
is later than the _trim[=u]rti_ (p. 185), but he has to
reject the passage in the Hari-va[.n]ça to prove this. On
Ayen[=a]r, a southern god said to be Hari-Hara
(Vishnu-Çiva), see Williams, _loc. cit_.]

[Footnote 83: RV. viii. 6. 30; 1. 50. 10. Weber refers
Krishna further back to a priestly Vedic poet of that name,
to whom are attributed hymns of the eighth and tenth books
of the Rig Veda (_Janm[=a][s.][t.]am[=i]_, p. 316). He
interprets Krishna's mother's name, Devak[=i], as 'player'
_(ib)_ But the change of name in a Vedic hymn has no special
significance. The name Devak[=i] is found applied to other
persons, and its etymology is rather _deva_, divine, as
Weber now admits (Berl. Ak. 1890, p. 931).]

[Footnote 84: In the epic, also, kings become hermits, and
perform great penance just as do the ascetic priests.
Compare the heroes themselves, and i. 42. 23 _raja
mah[=a]tap[=a]s_; also ii. 19, where a king renounces his
throne, and with his two wives becomes a hermit in the
woods. In i. 41. 31 a king is said to be equal to ten
priests!]

[Footnote 85: In fact, the daily repetition of the
S[=a]vitr[=i] is a tacit admission of the sun god as the
highest type of the divine; and Vishnu is the most
spiritualized form of the sun-god, representing even in the
Rig-Veda the goal of the departing spirit.]

[Footnote 86: Skanda (Subrahmanya) and Ganeça are Çiva's two
sons, corresponding to Krishna and R[=a]ma. Skanda's own son
is Viç[=a]kha, a _graha_ (above, p. 415).]

[Footnote 87: Çiva at the present day, for instance, is
represented now and then as a man, and he is incarnate as
V[=i]rabhadra. But all this is modern, and contrasts with
the older conception. It is only in recent times, in the
South, that he is provided with an earthly history. Compare
Williams, _Thought and Life,_ p. 47.]

[Footnote 88: _Ava-t[=a]ra_, 'descent,' from _ava_, 'down,'
and _tar_, 'pass' (as in Latin in-_trare_).]

[Footnote 89: In the _Bh[=a]gavata Pur[=a]na_.]

[Footnote 90: The tortoise _avatar_ had a famous temple two
centuries ago, where a stone tortoise received prayer. How
much totemism lies in these _avatars_ it is guess-work to
say.]

[Footnote 91: Balar[=a]ma (or Baladeva), Krishna's elder
brother, is to be distinguished from R[=a]ma. The former is
a late addition to the Krishna-cult, and belongs with Nanda,
his reputed father. Like Krishna, the name is also that of a
snake, Naga, and it is not impossible that Naga worship may
be the foundation of the Krishna-cult, but it would be hard
to reconcile this with tradition. In the sixth century
Var[=a]hamihira recognizes both the brothers.]

[Footnote 92: Edkins, cited by Müller, _India_, p. 286.]

[Footnote 93: Weber, _Janm[=a][s.][t.]am[=i]_, pp. 259, 318.
Weber describes in full the cult of the "Madonna with the
Child," according to the Pur[=a]nas.]

[Footnote 94: On the subsequent deification of the Pandus
themselves see 1A. VII. 127.]

[Footnote 95: Hence the similarity with Herakles, with whom
Megasthenes identifies him. The man-lion and hero-forms are
taken to rid earth of monsters.]

[Footnote 96: Greek influence is clearly reflected in
India's architecture. Hellenic bas-reliefs representing
Bacchic scenes and the love-god are occasionally found.
Compare the description of Çiva's temple in Orissa, Weber,
_Literature_, p. 368; _Berl. Ak._, 1890, p, 912. Çiva is
here associated with the Greek cult of Eros and Aphrodite.]

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