Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 4.djvu/250

208 heavens. The modern god is represented as undergoing, for the benefit of mankind, a number of avataras or incar nations, ten of which are especially dwelt upon by the fervid imagination of his followers. The exact time at which these several episodes were incorporated into the cult of Vishnu cannot at present be ascertained. As they are for the most part conceived in a decidedly Brahmanical spirit, the special object for which Vishnu assumes a human form being generally to deliver the people from the oppression of some wicked tyrannous prince, it is pro bable that they were mostly introduced at a time when there was still some danger of the Kshatriyas defying the Brahmanical rule. Of somewhat different origin were, perhaps, two of Vishnu s most popular and important incarnations, viz., those in which he manifests himself in the persons of Krishna and Kama, two heroes vhosc exploits are celebrated in the Maha- bharafca and Ramayana. It is possible that these warriors and their legendary achievements had been favourite subjects of heroic poetry for some time previous to the overthrow of the Kshatriyas, and that, being already regarded by the latter as representatives of Vishnu, they were afterwards recognized as such by the Brahmans, and thus gave rise to the system of Avataras. The male nature of the triad was supposed to require to be supplemented by each of the three gods being associated with a female energy (/Sakti). Thus Vdch or Sarasvati, the goddess of speech and learning, came to be regarded as the fakti, or consort of Brahma ; Sri or Lakshml, &quot; beauty, fortune/ as that of Vishnu ; and Umd or Parvati, the daughter of Himavat, the god of the Himalaya mountain, as that of Siva, On the other hand, it is not improbable that Pdrvatl, who has a variety of other names, such as Kail (&quot;the black one&quot;), Duryd (&quot;the inaccessible, terrible one&quot;), Mahd-devl (&quot; the great goddess&quot;), enjoyed already a somewhat extensive worship of her own, and that there may thus have been good reason for assigning to her a pro minent place in the Brahmanical system. In later times a special sect, that of the Sdktas, or followers of any one of the gaktis, was principally devoted to her service ; and up to our own days an almost national festival, the Durgdpujd or Dasard, accompanied by sanguinary sacrifices, is annually, in September or October, celebrated in her honour in Northern and Western India. A compromise was thus effected between the esoteric doctrine of the metaphysician and some of the most prevalent forms of popular worship, resulting in what was henceforth to constitute the orthodox system of belief of the Brah manical community. Yet the Vedic pantheon could not be altogether discarded, forming part and parcel, as it did, of that sacred revelation (smti), which it had been taught was the divine source of all religious and social law (smriti, &quot; tradition &quot;), and being, moreover, the foundation of the sacrificial ceremonial on which the priestly authority so largely depended. The existence of the old gods is therefore likewise recognized, but recognized in a very different way from that of the triple divinity. For while the triad represents the immediate manifestation of the eternal, infinite soul while it constitutes, in fact, the Brahma itself in its active relation to mundane and seemingly material occurrences, the gods are of this world, are indi vidual spirits or portions of the Brahma like men and other creatures, only higher in degree. To them an intermediate sphere, the heaven of Indra (the svarloka or svarga), is assigned to which man may raise himself by fulfilling the holy ordinances ; but they are subject to the same laws of being ; they, like men, are liable to be born again in some lower state, and therefore, like them, yearn for emancipation from the necessity of future individual existence. It is a sacred duty of man to worship these superior beings by invocations and sacrificial observances, as it is to honour the pitris, the spirits of the departed ancestors. The dead, on being judged by Tama, the Pluto of Hindu mythology. are supposed to be either passing through a term of enjoy ment in a region midway between the earth and the heaven of the gods, or undergoing their measure of punishment in the nether world, situated somewhere in the southern region, before they return to the earth to animate new bodies. In Vedic mythology Yama was considered to have been the first mortal who died, and &quot; espied the way to &quot; the celestial abodes, and in virtue of precedence to have become the ruler of the departed ; in some passages, however, he is already regarded as the god of death. Although the pantheistic system allowed only a subordinate rank to the old gods, and the actual religious belief of the people was probably but little affected by their existence, they continued to occupy an important place in the affections of the poet, and were still represented as exercising considerable influence on the destinies of man. The most prominent of them were regarded as the appointed Lokapalas, or guardians of the world ; and as such they were made to preside over the four cardinal and (according to some authorities) the intermediate points of the compass. Thus Indra, the chief of the gods, was regarded as the regent of the East ; Agni, the fire (ignis), was in the same way associated with the south-east ; Yama with the south ; Surya, the sun(&quot;HAios), with the south-west ; Varuna, originally the representative of the all-embracing heaven (Ovpcu/o s) or atmosphere, now the god of the ocean, with the west; Vdyu (or Pavana) the wind, with the north-west ; Kubera, the god of wealth, with the north ; and Soma (or Chandra] with the north-east. In the institutes of Manu the Lokapalas are represented as standing in close relation to the ruling king, who is said to be composed of particles of these his tutelary deities. The retinue of Indra consists chiefly of the Gandharvas (etym. connected with Kevravpos), a class of genii, considered in the epics as the celestial musicians ; and their wives, the Apsaras, lovely nymphs, who are frequently employed by the gods to make the pious devotee desist from carrying his austere practices to an extent that might render him dangerous to their power. Narada, an ancient sage, is considered as the messenger between the gods and men, and as having sprung from the forehead of Brahma. The interesting office of the God of love is held by Kdmadeva, also called Ananga, the bodyless, because, as the myth relates, having once tried by the power of his mischievous arrow to make Siva fall in love with Parvati, whilst he was engaged in devotional practices, the urchin was reduced to ashes by a glance of the angry god. Two other mytho logical figures of some importance are considered as sons of Siva and Parvati, viz, Kdrttikeya or Skanda, the leader of the heavenly armies, who was supposed to have been fostered by the six Krittikds or Pleiades ; and Gane&i, the elephant-headed god of wisdom, and at the same time the leader of the dii minorum gentium, Orthodox Brahmanical scholasticism makes the attain ment of final emancipation (m-ukti, moksha) dependent on perfect knowledge of the divine essence. This knowledge can only be obtained by complete abstraction of the mind from external objects and intense meditation on the divinity, which again presupposes the total extinction of all sensual instincts by means of austere practices (tapas), The chosen few who succeed in gaining complete mastery over their senses and a full knowledge of the divine nature become absorbed into the universal soul immediately on the dissolution of the body. Those devotees, on the other hand, who have still a residuum, however slight, of ignor ance and worldlinessleft in them at the time of their death, pass to the world of Brahma, where their souls, invested with subtile corporeal frames, await their reunion with the 