Great Indian Religion

Author(s): G T Bettany
Publisher: Ward Lock Bowden and Co

Page 85

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IVCARVATIONS OF VISHVU. scribe the other gods as submitting to Vishnu, who is termed omniscient and almighty. In pictorial representations Vishnu usually appears as a black man with four arms: in one hand a club is held, in a second a shell, in the third a discus, in the fourth a lotus, and he rides upon the Garuda bird.
Sir Monier-Williams describes both Vishnuism and Sivaism as forms of monotheism, because they set aside the coequal trinity Brahma, Vishnu and Siva in favour of their special god : but it may be doubted whether many of the Vishnuites can be called intelligent monotheists, rather than superstitious worshippers of they know not what. The opinion of this great Indian scholar, that Vishnuism is the only real religion of the Hindu peoples, and has more common ground with Christianity than any other non-Christian faith," must be taken as having but a limited application when he has to qualify it by referring to the gross polytheistic superstitions and hideous idolatry to which it gives rise." We must acknowledge the distinguishing merit of Vishnuism to be, that it teaches intense devotion to a personal god, who exhibits his sympathy with human suffering and his interest in human affairs by frequent descents (avatars) upon earth. Of these we must give a brief account.
As many as twenty-eight avatars of Vishnu have been enumerated in the Puranas. They represent the descent into human bodies, by birth from earthly Incarnations parents, of a portion or the whole of the divine of Vishnu. essence of the god; they do not interfere with the divine body of the god, which remains unchanged. Of these we may enumerate (1) the Fish, whose form Vishnu took to save Manu, the progenitor of mankind, from the universal deluge. Manu obtained the favour of Vishnu by his piety, was warned of the coming deluge, and commanded to build a ship, wherein he was to take the seven Rishis or patriarchs and the seeds of all living things. When the flood came, Vishnu, as the Fish, dragged the ship, by a cable fixed to a horn on his head, to a high crag where it was secured till the flood went down. The avatars of the tortoise, the boar, the man-lion, the dwarf,