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the letters A U M united in the mystic syllable O'M, which the Hindoo always pronounces with the profoundest veneration. These three powers are separately imbodied in Bra ma, Vishnu, and Siva, whose names, according to the phi losophers, express only attributes of the one Supreme Mind; but the popular theology views them as distinct persons, with visible, human, and even fantastic forms, mixing with mortals, committing extravagant and often scandalous actions, controlled and oppressed by inferior deities, giants, and even by men. Their history accordingly presents a strange collection of the loftiest and the meanest, the purest and most corrupted features in moral nature.*

*In the engraving here given of the principal' Hindoo deities, the figure in the centre, with four heads, is Brama. On his right, in front, is Vishnu, and behind, Indra. On the left, Rama is seated in front, while Siva stands behind. These figures are taken from Sir William Jones, Asiatic Researches, vol. i,, except Siva, the representation of whom is borrowed from Sonnera.

VISHNUHIS AVATARS.

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To Brama, the first and highest person in the Hindoo trinity, is assigned the work of creation. Mr. Ward thinks that he is considered by the Indian sages as the Soul of the world; yet, from the examination of their writings, it does not appear that they took so refined a view of the subject. They represent him rather as having produced or drawn the universe out of himself, so that all that ever was, or is, once formed a part of his essence. His own origin was very singular. The Supreme Mind, it is said, having by a thought created the waters, laid in them an egg, which remained inactive for many millions of years, till Brama, by the energy of his own thought, caused it to divide, and from it he himself was born in the shape of the divine male, famed in all worlds as the great forefather of spirits.

Brama, among the Indian deities, holds decidedly the pre-eminence, sharing even the essence of the Supreme Mind; yet, perhaps from the very circumstance of this lofty position, he attracts comparatively little attention or worship. He has neither temples erected, nor sacrifices offered to him, nor festivals celebrated in his honour. He gives name indeed to the great caste of the Bramins or priests; but no sects derive from him their appellation, or specially devote their lives to his service. In return the priests in regard to him have indulged less in those scandalous and indecent fictions which crowd the history of inferior divinities.

Vishnu, in the sacred annals of India, makes a much more frequent and conspicuous figure. In his character of preserver, or more properly deliverer, he is represented as having interposed whenever the world and the race of men were threatened with any peculiar danger. The avatars of Vishnu, his descents to the earth in various animated forms, furnish the most fertile theme of Hindoo legend and poetry. The chiefs and heroes whose exploits appeared to indicate a celestial origin were considered as incarnations of this deity. These illustrious personages, in becoming Vishnu, did not lose altogether their own identity; they acquired a sort of compound existence, and had worship paid to them under both characters.

It were tedious as well as disgusting, to trace at any length the many marvellous and ridiculous transformations ascribed to this god. A few instances will afford a suffi

This

cient idea of the wild, though sometimes sublime, ravings in which the framers of the Hindoo pantheon indulge. Vishnu made his first appearance on earth as a fish, so small as to be conveniently placed in a vase of water. wonderful animal, however, successively expanded his dimensions, till not the vase only, but a cistern, a pool, a lake, became insufficient to contain him. Being at length thrown into the ocean, he appeared, blazing like gold, a million of leagues in extent. The narrative concludes

with an account of the fish rising and destroying a giant. Vishnu assumed secondly the figure of a boar, who grew always larger and larger, till with his tusks he raised up the earth from the bottom of the waters into which it had sunk.

The third presentation of this deity was to act a conspicuous part in that extraordinary process called the Churning of the Ocean. There is no theme on which Hindoo poetry and mythology have thrown out such a crowd of wildly luxuriant images. The scene opens on Mount Meru, "a most exalted mass of glory, reflecting the sunny rays from the splendid surface of its gilded horns. Many celestial medicinal plants adorn its sides, and it stands piercing the heaven with its aspiring summit,-a mighty hill, inaccessible even by the human mind. It is adorned with trees and pleasant streams, and resoundeth with the delightful songs of various birds." On its pinnacle the angels and deities began to meditate on the means of procuring the Amreeta juice, the grand draught which confers immortality. It was then arranged between Vishnu, here called Narayan, and Brama, that the ocean should be churned like a pot of milk by the united strength of Soors and Asoors, the good and evil powers, till it should throw up the precious liquid. Thereupon Ananta, king of the serpents, raised up Mount Mandar, and placed it upon the back of Koornaraj, king of the tortoises. Another mighty serpent, named Vasoakee, was then fastened to the mountain to be employed as a rope; whereupon angels and demons united in grasping the serpent by the head and tail, and whirling it with such violence, that "the roaring of the ocean, while violently agitated, was like the bellowing of a mighty cloud. Thousands of the various productions of the waters were torn to pieces by the mountain, and

CHURNING OF THE OCEAN.

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confounded with the briny flood; and every specific being of the deep, and all the inhabitants of the great abyss which is below the earth, were annihilated. The forest trees were dashed against each other, and precipitated from its utmost height with all the birds thereon." Such at length was the effect of this tremendous agitation, that the whole of the mighty deep was converted into one mass of butter. The performers, being by this time completely exhausted, were endowed with fresh strength by Narayan; and after the movement had been for some time continued under his direction, “there arose from out the troubled deep, first the moon, with a pleasing countenance, shining with ten thousand beams of gentle light; then Soora Devee, the goddess of wine, and the white horse called Oochisrava." Other similar apparitions followed, till at length the Dew Dhanwantaree, in human shape, came forth, holding in his hand a white vessel filled with the immortal juice Amreeta.

The successful termination of this grand experiment was not immediately attended with the happy effects that had been anticipated. A combat on the most immense scale arose between the Soors and Asoors. The imagery employed to describe it is certainly not without grandeur, though tinctured with bombast and exaggeration. "Millions of sighs and groans arise on every side, and the sun is overcast with blood, as they clash their arms, and wound each other with their dreadful instruments of destruction. Now the dauntless Asoors strive with repeated strength to crush the Soors with rocks and mountains, which, whirled in vast numbers into the heavens, appeared like scattered clouds, and fell with all the trees thereon in millions of fear-exciting torrents, striking violently against each other with a mighty noise; and in their fall the earth, with all its fields and forests, is driven from its foundation. They thunder furiously at each other as they roll along the field, and spend their strength in mutual conflict." Victory at length declared in favour of the benevolent powers, and Narayan was intrusted with the Amreeta, to be preserved for the use of the immortals.

Vishnu, in his fourth appearance as half-man, half-lion, subdued a band of giants who had conquered the earth, and even dethroned Indra, the king of heaven. His fifth deVOL. II.-T

scent was to vanquish Bali, an earthly king, who, by the mysterious sacrifice of a hundred horses, had acquired supernatural powers, and threatened the conquest of the celestial regions. But the manner in which the deity is made to effect this grand object is silly in the extreme. He appeared as a Bramin of very diminutive stature, and sought merely the gift of so much ground as he could pass over in three steps. Having received this small boon, he suddenly resumed his natural dimensions, placed one foot on heaven, and another on earth; a third then projected from his belly, for which Bali, being unable to furnish a place, was obliged to atone for this failure by descending to the world beneath.

The sixth, seventh, and eighth avatars were in the characters of Parasu Rama, Rama, and Bala Rama, to deliver the world from successive monsters and giants. His exploits as the second of these personages furnish the subject of the celebrated sacred epic called the Ramayana. But the transmutation upon which the Hindoo writers most fondly dwell is that into their favourite Krishna, who has already been alluded to as a powerful sovereign and formidable warrior. Tradition represents him as having passed his youthful days in a pastoral retirement, and the extravagant fancy of the Hindoo poets caught hold of this legend. They exhibit him at this period as the lover of sixteen thousand milkmaids; to gain whose favour he converted himself into an equal number of sighing swains, while each fond maiden fancied herself the sole object of Krishna's tenderness. Under this character, much more than by those warlike attributes which enabled him to vanquish the giant Kungsu, this deity has acquired numerous and devoted worshippers, and become the chief theme of lyric and amorous poetry among the Hindoos.

In the ninth avatar, Vishnu assumed the form of Boodh, the author of a rival creed, distinct from that of Brama, but which, notwithstanding, by this incarnation was admitted into a certain alliance with it. More will be said hereafter on this subject. The tenth avatar, when Vishnu will descend mounted on a white horse, and armed with a scimitar, to root out evil from the earth, is as yet only the object of fond expectation.

Siva, the third member of the Hindoo triad, is represented

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