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VISHN'U. 



VISHN'U. 



Personi6cation of the preserving principle. There is no doubt that his 

 worship is of a very ancient date ; but at the same time it is evident 

 that it has experienced successive and considerable changes, and that 

 the forms under which Vishn'u is now worshipped in India are far from 

 being authorised by the ancient scriptures of the Hindus. (For his 

 place among Vaidik deities, see VEDA.) 



There is no trace of Vishn'u or anything relating to him in the 

 Institutes of Manu, although the allusions which are made to idolaters 

 and the worship of inferior gods (book iii., v. 152, 164) might possibly 

 have some reference to him also. However, we might be led to expect 

 that more notice would have been taken of him by Mauu, since the 

 two heroic poems, the Mahabhdrata and the Rdmdyan'a, which are 

 generally believed to belong to the same period of Hindu literature as 

 the Dharmma-S'dstra, or Institutes, have for their subjects two of the 

 latest incarnations of this god, who therein assumes the attributes of 

 the one supreme god. He is stated to have appeared before the other 

 celestials, and to have agreed, at their humble request, to become mail 

 for the purpose of destroying the demon Ravan'a [SANSKRIT LANGUAGE 

 AND LITERATURE], and to remain incarnate among men for the space 

 of eleven thousand years in order to protect the world after saving it. 

 (' Rdmdyan'a,' book i., sect, xiii., s'L 23.) The Mahabharata relates 

 the exploits of Vishn'u as Krishna; and the Hari-Vansa, a sort of 

 supplement to that poem, details his genealogy, and a variety of 

 legends exalting his power and recommending his worship. From the 

 numerous allusions v/hich these poems make to the other Avatdras, 

 descents or incarnations of Vishn'u (' Ramayan'a,' i., xxiv. 22 ; xxvii. 2; 

 Ixvii. 15, &c.), we may safely conclude that at the time of their compo- 

 sition his history had already been brought into a system, where the 

 miraculous deeds which he performs seem calculated to call forth the 

 special adoration of the Hindus. 



The order in which these different AvatAras are supposed to have 

 taken place is by no means fixed, and the discrepancy in the different 

 authorities with regard to Vishn'u's actions on earth is sometimes very 

 great. The ' Vishn'u Purana, a System of Hindu Mythology and 

 Tradition,' translated by the late H. H. Wilson, and published in 1840, 

 contains a full account of them. The last Avatar is yet to come. 

 These Avatars, there can be little doubt, represent some physical force 

 or power. Professor Max Muller, in his paper on ' Comparative 

 Mythology,' published in the 'Oxford Essays' in 1856, has shown, 

 from philological deductions, that much of the early mythology of 

 most nations has been formed from " the absence of merely auxiliary 

 words ; " and that " there are many mythes in Hesiod, of late origin, 

 where we have only to replace a full verb by an auxiliary in order to 

 change mythical into logical language." But, he observes, the Puranas 

 offer no assistance to the comparative mythologist. " The stories of 

 S'iva, Vishn'u, Mahadeva, Pdrvati, Kali, Krishna, ic., are of late 

 growth, indigenous to India, and full of wild and fanciful conceptions." 



Still, as the believers in Vishn'u are numerous in India, it may be 

 interesting to give a slight sketch of the various sects. First, we must 

 state that Vishn'u's heaven ia called Vaikun't'a ; for a description of 

 which we refer to the first volume of Ward's ' View of the Religion, 

 Literature, &c., of India.' 



His names are as numerous as those of S'iva, and may be found 

 f -numerated in the Krlshn'a nAmasahaaram, or " the thousand names of 

 Kri-hn'a :" they are also partly given in the Amarakosha (i. i. 1.), and 

 of these we shall adduce those which occur most frequently, and are 

 sometimes the cause of a good deal of confusion. They are Kes'ava, 

 Damodara, Hrishlkes'a, Madhava and Madhuripu, Janarddan'a, Achyuta, 

 Govinda, Padmanabhi, Vasudeva, Trivikrama, Purushottama, &c. 



By his wife Lakalimi, the goddess of beauty, he had Kama or 

 Mamnatha, the god of love. The Purdn'as, which are the text-books 

 for the Vaishn'avas, are the Vishn'u, Naradiya, Bhdgavata, Garud'a, 

 Padma, and Vardha, which are called Sdtwika, or pure and true. 



Secit of \'aukn'ava. The first authentic records we have of the 

 ilifferent worshippers of Vishn'u date from the 8th or 9th century of 

 our era. At that time the two great divisions of Vaishn'avas and 

 S'aivas were in a flourishing condition, and each embraced six sub- 

 divisions; those which belonged to the Vaishn'ava faith are the 

 following : 



1 . The Bhaktas, who worshipped Vishn'u as Vasudeva, and wore no 

 characteristic marks ; their worship was that of the one supreme lord 

 of the universe. 



2. The Bhdyavataf, who thus called themselves from a name of 

 VUhn'u, and impressed upon their persons the Vaishn'ava insignia, 

 representing the discus, club, conch, &c., of their divinity. But they 

 had an admixture of superstition in then: religious creed, and 

 reverenced the Tulatt plant and the Sdlarp'dma stone, of which more 

 will be said hereafter. The authorities of both these sects were the 

 rpanishacto and the Bhagavad-Gita. 



3. The Vaishn'ara differed only from the preceding sect by pro- 

 mising themselves a sort of sensual paradise after death in Vaikun't'a. 



4. The Panchardtrakas, who worshipped the female personifica- 

 tions of Vishn'u. 



Besides these there were, 5, the Vaikhdnui'a*, and, 6, the Karmma- 

 Mndt, who abstained from all ritual observances. 



These six sects, of which some have disappeared, have given rise to 

 about twenty different schools, which for the greater part exist to this 

 day. Amongst other divisions of less importance, the Vaiahn'avas are 



usually distinguished into four principal Sampradayos, or sects, of 

 which the most ancient and respectable is the S'rt Sampradaya, 

 founded by the Vaishn'ava reformer Ramdnuja Acharya, who lived 

 about the middle of the 12th century. The establishments of the 

 Kamanujtyds are still numerous in the Deccan, and the same country 

 comprehends the site of the Gaddi, or the pillow-seat of the primi- 

 tive teacher ; his spiritual throne, to which his disciples are success- 

 ively elevated; and this circumstance gives a superiority to the 

 Achdryas of the south over those of the north of India. The worship 

 of this sect is addressed to Vishn'u and to Lakshml, and their 

 respective incarnations, either singly or conjointly; and this causes 

 many subdivisions according as these Vaishu'a\as adore either Nara- 

 yan'a or Lakshmi, or Lakshmt Narayim'a, or Rama or Sita, or Sita- 

 Rdma, &c. Images of metal or stone are usually set up in the houses 

 of the private members of this sect, which are daily worshipped, and 

 the temples and dwellings are all decorated with the Salagrdma stone 

 and the Tulasl plant. A peculiarity of this sect is that they always 

 cook for themselves, and observe the most scrupulous privacy in eating 

 their meals. 



The chief ceremony of initiation in all Hindu sects is the com- 

 munication by the teacher to the disciple of the Mantra, which 

 generally consists of the name of some deity, or a short address to him. 

 It is communicated in a whisper ; that of the Ramanuja sect is, Om 

 Rdmdya namah, that is, Om Salutation to Rama ! 



The Hindu sects are usually discriminated from each other by 

 various streaks ( Hliaktichchiieda) on their faces, breasts, and arms ; for 

 this purpose all the Vaishn'avas employ a white earth called (iopt- 

 chandana, which should be brought from Uwarakd, it being said to be 

 the soil! of a pool at that place, in which the Gopis drowned them- 

 selves when they heard of Krishn'a's death. (This word means the 

 ' sandal- wood of the Gopls," and is nothing but a kind of calcareous 

 clay.) The followers of Ramanuja have for their authorities the S'rt 

 Bhdthya, the Gtta-Bhds/iya, the Vedasht'a-Sanyraha, and the eight 

 Satwika Puran'as ; besides numerous other works which are still cur- 

 rent in various parts of India. The doctrine contained in these 

 books is called the " Vis'isht'ddwaita," or doctrine of unity with 

 attributes ; for although the Ratninujas maintain that Vishn'u and 

 the universe are one, yet, in opposition to the Veddnta school of 

 philosophy, they deny that the deity is void of form or quality, and 

 regard him as endowed with all good qualities, and with a twofold 

 form the supreme spirit, Paramdtmd, or cause, and the gross one, the 

 effect, the universe : and in these assertions they are followed by most 

 of the Vaishn'ava sects. 



The members of this sect are in the north of India called S'rt- 

 Vaishn'avas, and are decidedly hostile to the S'aivas ; nor are they on 

 friendly terms with those Vaishn'avas who worship Krlshu'a, although 

 they acknowledge that deity to be an incarnation of Vishn'u. 



Towards the end of the thirteenth century of our era, Ramdnanda, 

 originally one of the earliest teachers of the tenets professed by the 

 preceding sect, retired from the society, and established a schism of his 

 own at Benares. The principal object of worship of Ramdnanda's 

 followers is Vishn'u as Rdmachandra : they of course reverence also 

 the other Avatdras, but they maintain the superiority of Rama in the 

 present or Kali yuga ; hence they are collectively known as Jtdmavata. 

 They also reverence the Salagrdma stone and the Tulasi plant, and 

 their forms of worship correspond with those of the Hindus in general ; 

 but some mendicant members of the sect consider all forms of adora- 

 tion superfluous, beyond the incessant invocation of the name of 

 Krlshn'a, and Rama. They are known as Vairdyis or Viraktai. There 

 are many subdivisions of this school, which it would be tedious to 

 enumerate. 



A sect of great influence, to which the most opulent part of the 

 population of India belongs, is that of the Hudra-Sainpradaya, or 

 Vallabhdchdris. They attach themselves to the worship of Krlshu'a 

 and his mistress Riidhd, one of the Gopis of Vrindavana, either singly 

 or conjointly. There is, however, another form which is more popular 

 still, although much interwoven with the other. This is the Bdla 

 Gopdla, or the Infant Gopdla (Cowherd a name of Krlshn'a), the 

 worship of whom is very widely diffused amongst all ranks of Hindu 

 society, and which originated with the founder of the Rudra Sam- 

 praddya, Vallabha Achdrya. The worship of Krishn'a as one with 

 Vishu'u dates evidently from the Mahd-Bhdrata, and his juvenile 

 forms are brought pre-eminently to notice in the account of his 

 infancy in the Vishn'u and other Purdn'as; but none of these works 

 discriminate him from Vishn'u, nor do they recommend his infantine 

 or adolescent state to peculiar veneration. Eight times a day ceremo- 

 nial worship is paid, and the procession of Juggandtha is (or was) held 

 in his honour. The most popular festival at Benares is the Jauamash- 

 t'ami, the nativity of Krlshn'a, on the eighth day of Bhadra (August). 

 Another is the Rdsa-ydtra, or annual commemoration of the dance of 

 the frolicksome deity with the sixteen Gopls. This last is a very 

 popular festival, and is celebrated with the greatest solemnity. 



The Brahma Sampraddya is a sect instituted in the south of India 

 by MAdhava Achirya, who was born in the Saka year 1121 (A.D. 1199). 

 The doctrine of the members of this sect is similar to that of the 

 Rudra Sampraddya, with the exception that they deny the Moksha, 

 or final emancipation ; they also hold the Yoga to be impracti- 

 cable : for according to them life is one and eternal, dependent upon 



