Handbook of History of Religions

SR No.: 007634
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: Edward Washburn
Publisher: Sanmati Tirth Prakashan Pune
Total Pages: 678
Language: English
Classification: Book_English
File Size: 2 MB

Page 409

finds the climax of sectarianism, in so far as it is represented by the epic; although in earlier books isolated passages of late addition are sporadically to be found which have much the same nature. Everywhere in these last additions Brahm[=a) is on a plane which is as much lower than that of the Supreme God as it is higher than that of Indra. Thus in viii. 33.45, Indra takes refuge with Brahm[=a], but Brahm[=a) turns for help to Çiva (Bhava, Sth[=a]nu, Jishnu, etc.) with a hymn sung by the gods and seers. Then comes a description of Çankara's[32] (Çiva's) war-car, with its metaphorical arms, where Vishnu is the point of Civa's arrow (which consists of Vishnu, Soma, Agni), and of this war-car Brahm[=a] himself is the charioteer (ib.34. 76). With customary inconsistency, however, when Çiva wishes his son to be exalted he prostrates himself before Brahm[=a], who then gives this youth (kum[=ara), called K[=a]rtikeya, the 'generalship' over all beings (sl=alin(=a]patyam, ix. 44. 43-49). There is even a 'celebration of Brahm[=a],' a sort of harvest festival, shared, as the text tells, by all the castes; and it must have been something like the religious games of the Greeks, for it was celebrated by athletic contests.[33] Brahms=a], as the old independent creator, sometimes keeps his place, transmitting posterity through his 'seven mind-born sons,' the great seers (iii. 133; xii. 166. 11 ff.). But Brahm[=a] himself is born either in the golden egg, as a secondary growth (as in xii. 312. 1-7), or, as is usually the case, he is born in the lotus which springs from the navel of musing[34] Vishnu (iii. 203. 14). In this passage Brahm[=a] has four faces (Vedas) and four forms, caturm[=uJrtis (15), and this epithet in other sections is transferred to Vishnu. Thus in vii. 29. 26, Vishnu(Vishu in the original) says caturm[=u]rtir aham, "I have four forms," but he never says trim[=u]rtir aham ('l have three forms'). There is one passage, however, that makes for a belief in a trinity. It stands in contrast to the various Vishnuite hymns, one of which may well be reviewed as an example of the regular Vishnuite laudation affected by the Krishna sect (iii. 12. 21 ff.): "Krishna is Vishnu, Brahm[=a), Soma, the Sun, Right, the Creator ('founder'), Yama, Fire, Wind, Çiva, Time, Space, Earth, and the cardinal points. Thou, Krishna, art the Creator ('emitter'); thou, chief of gods, didst worship the highest; thou, Vishnu called, becamest Indra's younger brother, entering into sonship with Aditi; as a child with three steps thou didst fill the sky, space, and earth, and pass in glory.... At the