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ART. VIII.-Mythological Studies in the Rigveda. By A. A. MACDONELL, M.A.

II. The mythological basis in the Rigveda of the Dwarf and Boar Incarnations of Visnu.

VISNU, the supreme god of one of the two great divisions of the Hinduism of the present day, is already a leading deity in the Rigveda, though he plays a less prominent part there than Varuna, Indra, Agni, or Soma. His essential character as the Preserver in Hinduism is displayed in his Avatars or incarnations, by means of which he appears on earth as the friend and helper of humanity in distress. "For the defence of the good and the suppression of the wicked," he is made to say in the Bhagavadgītā (IV. 7-8), "for the establishment of justice, I manifest myself from age to age." The Brāhmaṇas know nothing of the theory of Avatars, which are not mere transitory manifestations of the deity, but the real presence of the supreme god in mundane beings.2 In the great Epics, however, the Mahābharata and the Rāmāyaṇa, the theory is already fully recognised.3

The origin of this theory, though ultimately to be traced to the frequent identification of one god with another in the Rigveda, is more closely connected with the development of this idea in the Brahmaņas, in which the gods are identified with substances also, and Visnu in particular is constantly identified with the sacrifice. Even in the Rig

1 See Barth, Religions of India, Engl. tr. p. 166.

Ibid. p. 170.

3 The belief in the ten incarnations of Visnu had become an ordinary dogma of Hinduism by 1014 A.D. See Bhandarkar in Transactions of the Ninth

Congress of Orientalists, 1892, vol. i. pp. 425-6.

veda itself there is one passage1 where reference is made in the following words to a form of Visņu different from his ordinary one: 'Do not conceal from us this form, since thou didst assume another form in battle.' The development of the theory of incarnations may also have been assisted by the survival in the Vedic religion of a primitive belief, universally prevalent in the savage stage, in the power of metamorphosis,2 by which men, and consequently gods also, could change themselves or their neighbours into beasts.3

However, though the doctrine of the Avatars is not to be found in the Veda, the enquiry as to how far the origin of any of these creations of later mythology can be traced in Vedic literature is both interesting and important.

Traces of the Hindu Visnu's general character as the Preserver are already to be met with in the Rigveda. He is beneficent (I. 156, 5), is innocuous and bountiful (VIII. 25, 12), a protector (I. 22, 18; III. 55, 10), an innocuous and generous protector (I. 155, 4), a preserver of embryos (VII. 36, 9). He is said to have traversed the earthly regions for Manu or man in his distress (VI. 49, 13), to have traversed this earth to bestow it for a habitation on Manu (VII. 100, 4), to have traversed the earthly regions for wide-stepping existence (I. 155, 4), and with Indra to have taken vast strides as well as stretched out the worlds for our existence (VI. 69, 5. 6). In his footsteps all beings abide (I. 154, 2), and he sustains heaven and earth and all beings (ibid. 4).

As regards the incarnations of Visņu, the sources of four of them are to be found in Vedic literature.

The earliest form of the myths of his tortoise and fish Avatars occurs in the Satapatha Brahmaṇa, though in neither case is Visnu there mentioned as connected with the tortoise or the fish.

1 VII. 100, 6.

2 Thus in RV. VII. 104, 18 demons are spoken of as flying about at night, having assumed the form of birds (vayo ye bhūtvi).

3 Cp. Lang, Myth, Ritual and Religion, vol. i. pp. 38 and 117. 4 Manave badhitaya, explained by Sayaņa as asurair himsitāya.

In the Purāṇas it is Visņu who assumed the form of a tortoise, with the beneficent purpose of recovering objects of value lost in the deluge. With this view he placed himself in the form of a tortoise at the bottom of the ocean of milk as a pivot for a mountain to spin on, while the gods and Asuras were engaged in churning that ocean.'

Comparing this account with that of the Brāhmaṇa period, we find that in SB. VII. 5, 1, 5,2 it is Prajapati who before creating offspring assumes the form of a tortoise, and that in the Taittiriya Āraṇyaka, I. 23, 3, the fluid part of the creative Prajapati becomes a tortoise moving among the waters. Here it is not yet Visņu, the supreme god of the later period, but Prajapati, the chief of the pantheon of the Brahmaņas, who assumes this form; and the purpose he has in view is the creation of the world, not the recovery of lost objects. That the creator should be supposed to have assumed the form of an amphibious animal like the tortoise is natural owing to the notion in the Brāhmaṇas that the universe in the beginning was all water."

The Matsya, Bhāgavata, and Agni Purāņas describe how Manu, the ancestor of the human race, was preserved from destruction in the deluge by a fish, an incarnation of Viṣņu, which by means of its horn drew his ship across the ocean to its resting-place. The tale told in the Mahābhārata is similar, but the fish is there an incarnation of Brahma Prajapati. The story in the SB. (I. 8, 1, 1) is essentially the same, except that it is simply a fish that delivers Manu from the deluge. Nothing is said about it being an incarnation of any deity. But it is natural that both the

1 Bhagavata Purāņa, I. 3, 16; see Muir, OST. vol. iv. p. 27.

2

Cp. Muir, I. p. 54, and IV. p. 27.

3

Cp. Muir, I. p. 32.

Cp. Barth, Religions of India, p. 41.

In the passage of the S'B. just quoted, the tortoise is said to be called kurma, because he made (akarot) what he created.

Apo vă idam agre salilam āsīt: TS. VII. i. 5, 1; TB. I. i. 3, 5.

:

The myth of the deluge occurs in the Avesta also, and may be IndoEuropean see Lindner, Die iranische Flutsage, in Festgruss an Roth, pp. 213-6. The majority of scholars have, however, hitherto regarded this myth as derived from a Semitic source: cp. Oldenberg, Religion des Veda, p. 276, note 3.

tortoise and the fish should have become in the later period appropriated to Visņu as the preserver of mankind.

The mythological germ of two other incarnations of Viṣṇu can be traced right back to the Rigveda; and it is moreover there closely connected with Visņu as well.

Vişnu's Vamana or Dwarf Incarnation.

The essential element of this myth is the three steps taken by Viṣṇu in order to preserve the world from the domination of the Asura or demon Bali.

The form of the legend as narrated in the Rāmāyaṇa 1 is in substance as follows: "Bali, son of Virocana, having conquered Indra, the chief of the gods, enjoyed the empire of the three worlds. Then Indra and the other gods begged Viṣṇu to assume the shape of a dwarf and ask a boon of Bali, who, when performing sacrifice, was willing to bestow on suppliants whatever they requested. Visņu, accordingly appearing as a dwarf before Bali, asked for what he could cover with three of his own paces. On this being granted he assumed a miraculous form and occupied with the first step the whole earth, with the second the air, and with the third the sky. Then removing his enemy to the lower regions, he restored the empire of the three worlds to Indra."

The legend related in the Mahābhārata, where Viṣņu likewise traverses earth, air, and sky with his three steps, as well as in the Purāņas, is substantially the same.2

3

Working backwards we come to a similar tale in the ŚB., where Viṣṇu already figures as a dwarf. In substance it is briefly as follows: "The Asuras on overcoming the gods began dividing the earth. The gods, placing Viṣņu, the sacrifice, at their head, came to them and said, 'Let us also have a share in the earth.' The Asuras replied that they would give the gods as much as this Viṣṇu could

1 I. 32 ff; cp. Muir, IV. pp. 133-5.

2 See Muir, IV. pp. 135–156.

3 I. ii. 5; see Muir, IV. pp. 122-3; cp. also Eggeling's note in SBE. vol. xii.

lie on. Now Viṣṇu was a dwarf.1 The gods accepted the offer, thinking the Asuras have given us much indeed, as they have given what is equal in size to the sacrifice.' Thus by sacrificing with Visņu they acquired the whole earth." No mention is here made of the three steps of Viṣṇu; but in ŚB. I. ix. 3, 9, Viṣṇu is said to have gained their allpervading power for the gods by taking his three strides.

The following is a curious variation of the above story occurring in TS. VI. ii. 4: "This earth formerly belonged to the Asuras, while the gods only had as much as a man can see while sitting. When the gods asked for a share in the earth, the Asuras said, 'How much shall we give you?' The gods replied, 'As much as this she-jackal can go round in three steps.' So Indra, assuming the form of a she-jackal, stepped round the earth in three strides. Thus the gods obtained the earth." 2

Here we have the three steps, but it is Indra, not Visņu, who takes them. This substitution is without doubt due to the intimate association of the two gods in the Rigveda. Thus in RV. VI. 69, where Indra and Viṣṇu are celebrated together as a dual divinity, it is said (v. 5) that they both took wide strides in the exhilaration of Soma.3

In the Aitareya Brāhmaṇa (VI. 15) it is related that Indra and Visņu, engaged in a conflict with the Asuras, agreed with the latter that as much as Visņu could stride. over in three steps should belong to the two deities. Viṣņu accordingly strode over these worlds, the Vedas, and speech. Here we have the three steps of Viṣṇu as well as his close association with Indra.

Coming finally to the RV., we find that Viṣṇu's main characteristic there is that he took three steps. This action is expressly referred to twelve or thirteen times in the RV.

As there is some division of opinion regarding the interpretation of these three steps, it seems worth while here to

Cp. TS. II. i. 3, 1, where Visnu in the conflict of the gods and Asuras, having seen a dwarf and having taken him for his own divinity, conquered the three worlds. Cp. also TB. I. vi. 1, 5.

2 See Muir, IV. p. 40.

3 Indrāvisni tát panayayyam vām sómasya máda urú cakramāthe.