Page:Life in India or Madras, the Neilgherries, and Calcutta.djvu/413

Rh, the self-existent, sprang Brahma, the creator, Vishnu, the preserver, and Siva, the destroyer. Then again, there were produced or created three female deities to be companions to the three males of the Hindu triad. These three are Sarasvathy, the goddess of arts and sciences; Lachmy, the goddess of riches and plenty; and Parvathy, the goddess of destruction.

From Brahma emanated a vast host of gods and demons, male and female. These bore others. The higher gods assumed innumerable forms, and thus the number of their deities is swelled beyond conception, until, in round numbers, we are told that there are thirty-three times ten million gods, or three hundred and thirty millions in all.

Of the principal gods, each has his own heaven, where, surrounded by inferior gods and favoured mortals, he holds his court, and enjoys the delights of music, flowers, dances, and other sensual enjoyments. All the extravagance of oriental imagination has been tasked to portray the joys of these heavens, but the result only adds to the proofs of the weakness and vileness of man. Sin, in every shape; sorrow, in its bitterest forms; violence, rapine, lust, fraud, and