Page:The Mythology of All Races Vol 6 (Indian and Iranian).djvu/121

Rh Vāsudeva and Narasiṁha, is ascribed to Viṣṇu, which shows that at the end of the Vedic period the conception of Viṣṇu had been enlarged to include the traits which appear in the epic, where Viṣṇu is not identified merely with Nārāyaṇa, but also with the Vāsudeva Kṛṣṇa and is revealed as the "Man-Lion," Narasiṁha.

None the less it is certain that in the Brāhmaṇas Śiva is really a greater figure than Viṣṇu, perhaps because he is a terrible god, an aspect never congenial to Viṣṇu. Thus he is implored to confer long life, the triple life of Jamadagni and Kaśyapa and the gods, and taking his bow, clad in his tiger's skin, to depart beyond the Mūjavants in the far north. Still more significant is the Śatarudriya, or "Litany to Rudra by a Hundred Names," which occurs in variant but nearly identical versions in the several texts of the Yajurveda. He here appears as many-coloured and as the god who slips away, even though the cowherds and the drawers of water catch a glimpse of him; he is treated as lord of almost everything conceivable, including thieves and robbers. He is a mountain dweller and, above all, is the wielder of a terrible bow; he has hosts of Rudras who are his attendants and who, like himself, are terrible; moreover he has his abode in everything. Other names are given which are not merely descriptive—Bhava, Śarva, Paśupati—as well as such as Nīlagrīva ("Blue-Necked") and Śitikaṇṭha ("White-Throated"). Of these names we find Bhava and Śarva repeatedly connected in the Atharvaveda, both as archers, and brought into conjunction with Rudra; while in another passage of that Veda (xv. 5) appellatives of the same deity under different forms are not merely Bhava and Śarva, but also Paśupati, Ugra, Rudra, Mahādeva, and Īśāna. In the Śatapatha Brāhmaṇa (I. vii. 3. 8) we are told that Rudra is Agni and that among the eastern people his name is Śarva, but that among the westerners (the Bāhīkas) he is called Bhava; and he is also termed "Lord of Cattle." Another account (VI. i. 3. 7) says that from the union of the