Cox, George - Aryan Mythology Vol 2.pdf

THE STRIDES OF VISHNU. 103
6 Thou, Agni, art Varuna, when thou art born ; thou art CHAP.
Mitra, when thou art kindled; son of strength, in thee ^—
reside all the gods : thou art Indra to the man who sacri-
fices.'
6 Thou art Aryaman, when thou, self- controlled, possessest
the secret name of the maidens.' 1
Agni, again, although along with Indra, Soma, and Parameshthin
he is a son of Prajapati, 2 is according to the same
writers Prajapati himself.
' The man who became Prajapati is the same as this Agni
who is kindled on the altar.'
This name brings us at once to other equations, for Pra-
japati is Daksha : he is also Time and Death.
4 The gods were afraid of this ender, death, the year which
is Prajapati, lest he should by days and nights bring on the
end of our life.' 3
Elsewhere Prajapati is Brahma.
' Those men who know Brahma know him who occupies
the highest place (Parameshthin) :
he who knows Paramesh-
thin and who knows Prajapati, they who know the ancient
Brahmana (deity?), they know Skambha.' 4
It is scarcely necessary, then, to say that in all the phrases Vishnu the
which describe the attributes of Yishnu, the origin of each
g d.
conception is plainly discernible. He is especially the god
who traverses the heaven in three strides, these strides being
taken by some commentators to denote his manifestations as
fire on the earth, as lightning in the atmosphere, and as the
san in heaven, or in other words, his identity with Agni,
Vayu, and Surya. By others they are regarded as setting
forth the rising, culmination, and setting of the sun ; and
there can be little doubt that the latter idea was at the first
most closely associated with the thought of Yishnu. 5
would seem indeed that these gods are distinguished only
1 B. V. v. 3, 1 ; M\iir, SansJc. Texts, porter or propper, vol i. p. 37. This
pt, iv. ch. ii. sect, 1. function, Dr. Muir remarks, is frequently
2 Satapatha Brahmana, xi. 1, 6; ascribed to Indra, Varuna, Vishnu, and
Muir, ib.
Savitri.
3 The idea is obviously that of the 'Vishnu, thou didst prop asunder
Greek Kronos, who devours all his off- these two worlds ; thou didst envelope
spring. the earth on every side with beams of
4 Ath. V. x. 7, 7 ; Muir, Sanskrit Texts, light,'—i?. V. vii. 99, 3.
part iv. p. 17. Skambha is the sup-
It
a Muir, Sanskrit Texts, part iv. p. 57-
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