Page:The Mythology of All Races Vol 6 (Indian and Iranian).djvu/120

80, cut off the head of the god. The sound ghṛm, with which Viṣṇu's head fell, became the gharma, or sacrificial kettle; and as his strength dwindled away, the mahāvīra, or "pot of great strength," acquired its name. The gods proceeded to offer with the headless sacrifice, or makha, but as they did not succeed they had to secure the restoration of its head either by the Aśvins or by the pravargya rite. It is very curious that this should be so, for Viṣṇu takes only a small part in the ritual and is not closely connected with the Soma offering, which is, after all, the chief feature of the sacrifice; yet we must, no doubt, recognize that the god had a strong body of adherents who secured the growing attention paid to him. The same trait is seen in the relations of Viṣṇu and Indra: Viṣṇu now appears as supporting Indra in his attack on Vṛtra, and we have assurances that Viṣṇu is the chief of the gods. His dwarf shape also assimilated him in cunning to Indra, for it is doubtless nothing but a clever device to secure the end aimed at, just as Indra changes himself, in the version of the Taittirīya Saṁhitā (VI. ii. 4. 4), into a sālāvṛkī (possibly a hyena) and in that form wins the earth for the gods from the Asuras by running round it three times. Otherwise the god develops no new traits: his characteristic feature remains his threefold stride which seems to have been accepted in the sense of striding through the three worlds, though the alternative version of striding through the sky is also recognized.

The name Nārāyaṇa is not yet applied to Viṣṇu in the early texts; yet we hear in the Śatapatha Brāhmaṇa (XIII. vi. 1. 1) of Puruṣa Nārāyaṇa who saw the human sacrifice and offered with it, thus attaining the supremacy which he desired. Here we have, of course, a reflex of the Puruṣa Sūkta of the Ṛgveda, the Puruṣa who there is offered up being transferred into a Puruṣa who sacrifices another, and in this aspect Nārāyaṇa is closely akin to Prajāpati. As early as the Taittirīya Āraṇyaka, however, which can scarcely be placed later than the third century B.C., the name of Nārāyaṇa, together with those of