CHAMBERS'S INFORMATION FOR THE PEOPLE. 



as eating and drinking ; and the loss of caste is 

 usually the penalty of some kind of ceremonial 

 impurity, as associating with improper persons, or 

 eating improper food. Caste distinctions, how- 

 ever, are so congenial to the Hindu mind, that 

 the burden of caste, as now existing, is lightly 

 borne. Even those who have lost their caste, 

 the Pariahs, are said to form castes among 

 themselves. 



Of the three deities who may now be said to 

 divide among them the worship of the Hindus in 

 all their sects, the name of Vishnu alone appears 

 in the Vedas, but there he is only a representation 

 of the sun, and though highly extolled, is repre- 

 sented as deriving his power from Indra. In 

 the worship of Vishnu we have the more joyous 

 and benignant aspect of Hinduism. The names 

 under which he is chiefly worshipped are those 

 connected with his incarnations or avatars. 

 Though avatars are not entirely absent from the 

 mythological history of Siva, they are specially 

 characteristic of that of Vishnu. The god, it is 

 believed, descended from time to time whenever 

 a great disorder, physical or moral, disturbed the 

 world, ' in a small portion of his essence ' upon 

 earth, to restore order in the world, and thereby 

 to preserve it. The form he assumed was that 

 of some wonderful animal or superhuman being, 

 or he was born of human parents in a human 

 form, and he always possessed miraculous prop- 

 erties. Some of these avatars are of an entirely 

 cosmical character ; others appear to be based 

 on historical events, the leading personage of 

 which was gradually endowed with divine attri- 

 butes, until he came to be regarded as the incar- 

 nation of the deity. Besides the past avatars of 

 Vishnu, one, it is believed, is yet to come. Ten 

 avatars are generally enumerated, namely I. 

 The fish-; 2. the tortoise-; 3. the boar-; 4. the 

 man-lion-; 5. the dwarf-; 6. the Parasu-Rama-; 

 7. the Ramachandra-, or, briefly, Rama-; 8. the 

 Krishna and Balarama-; 9. the Buddha-; and 10. 

 the Kalki or Kalkin-avatar. The legends in 

 which these avatars are related, throw a strong 

 light upon the religious ideas of the popular 

 Hindu creed. This will be seen from the one or 

 two specimens of them which are all our space 

 permits us to give. 



A powerful monarch, named Bali, had, by the 

 practice of austerities and costly ceremonies, 

 raised himself to the rank of Indra, and usurping 



Rdvana, who, out of revenge, carried off Sita to- 

 his residence in Lanka (Ceylon). Rama, with 

 the monkey-hero Hanuman, and a whole army of 

 apes, pursued him, and making a bridge across 

 the straits to Ceylon, by throwing in mountains, 

 overcame the demons, and recovered Sita. This, 

 it may be observed, is probably a mythical account 

 of the extension of the Brahman dominion and 

 religion into Southern India. As Rama, Vishnu 

 has numerous temples, where his wife, Sita, and 

 the heroic monkey, Hanuman, are associated 

 with him in worship. Let us now take the most 

 famous and popular of all the avatars, in which 

 Vishnu appears on earth in the form of Krishna. 

 It being necessary to deliver the earth from a 

 mighty demon, Kansa (a prince, most likely, of 

 infidel or anti-Brahmanic tendencies), a portion 

 of Vishnu descended into the womb of Devaki, 

 the wife of Vasudeva, and was born in the form 

 of man as Krishna. Kansa being informed that 

 a child was to be born that would overthrow his 

 power, and failing to catch the right one, Herod- 

 like, ordered a general massacre of young boys. 

 Krishna, the young god, however, had been sent 

 away from Mathura, the capital of Kansa, to be 

 educated in a pastoral district as the son of a. 

 cow-herd. While yet in the cradle, he performed 

 feats of strength to which those of Hercules are 

 nothing. As a child he delighted in playing tricks 

 on his companions, and even on the god Indra. 

 Grown up to be a youth, he captivated the hearts 

 of all the milkmaids, and in his sports and dances 

 with them, he so divided himself, that each of them 

 believed herself the favoured partner of Krishna^ 

 Among many martial deeds he afterwards per- 

 formed, was, of course, the destruction of the 

 demon, Kansa, which had been the end of the 

 avatar. Seven principal wives are assigned to- 

 him, besides 16,000 of less note, and he had 

 180,000 sons. After a life full of adventure, he 

 was killed by a hunter, and Vishnu ' united him- 

 self with his own unborn, inconceivable, and uni- 

 versal spirit.' It is under the form of Krishna 

 that Vishnu is most popular in modern India, and 

 from what has been said of the life of Krishna, 

 it need cause no surprise that the worship 

 addressed to Vishnu, though characterised by 

 much license, is, as a rule, free from terrible rites. 

 It is fabled that the famous idol Jaggernaut (under 

 the wheels of which multitudes of Hindus used 

 to sacrifice themselves annually, in assurance of 



the dominion of the three worlds (the sky, the eternal bliss) was made to contain the bones of 



earth, and patala, or the under-world), he filled 

 the gods with dismay. The gods implored the aid 

 of Vishnu, but even Vishnu could not withdraw 

 the power which Bali had, by legitimate means, 

 obtained without his consent He gained it by 

 a trick. In the form of a poor Brahman dwarf, 

 he appeared before the monarch, and begged of 

 him a piece of ground on which to build a hut 

 for himself ; and his request being granted, with 



Krishna, and Jaggernaut (lord of the world) re- 

 presents Vishnu as the dead Krishna. In this- 

 instance the worship differs much in character 

 from that usually addressed to Vishnu in any of 

 his forms. 



Siva, who, like Vishnu, is to his worshippers 

 not only the greatest of gods, but the god who 

 comprises in himself all other deities, though his 

 function in the triad was destruction, is chiefly 



three strides he compassed the three regions of regarded in modern times as the energy of re- 



the universe, and the power of Bali was gone. 

 This is the dwarf-avatar. Again, as Rama or 

 Ramachandra, Vishnu is the hero of the Rama- 

 yana. Rama, the son of the monarch of Oude, 

 being banished by a court intrigue, had, with his 

 wife Sita, to wander in the Deccan, then a savage 

 region, under the dominion of demons (princes 

 hostile to the Aryan race, no doubt). He made 

 himself hateful to the prince of the demons, 



426 



production. He is most commonly worshipped 

 under the form of the lingam (the male principle- 

 in generation), emblematic of creation, which 

 follows destruction. Of his multitudinous names,, 

 those in most frequent use are Isa or Iswara 

 (lord) ; Rudra (the terrible), or Maharudra (the 

 very terrible) ; and Mahadeva (the great god). 

 His worship is more gloomy and terrible than 

 that of Vishnu, and is characterised by bloody 



