VISHNU is the second god of the Hindu triad, but is considered by his worshipers to be the supreme deity of the Hindu pantheon. See TitimtitTr and VAISIIN'AVAS. The word is derived, by S'ankara (q.v.), in his commentary on the thousand names of Vishnu, and by other commentators after him, from 'risk encompass, or Ws', penetrate; when according to them, it would imply the deity who encompasses or penetrates the whole universe, both as regards its exterior appearance and its inward essence. A similar ety mology is assigned to the word by Ydska (q.v.) iu his gloss on the R'igveda; but as in this Veda, Vishnu does not yet embody the notions connected with him at the epic and Puranic period of Hinduism (see INDIA, sec. Religion), Yaska does not impart to the name the implied sense given to it by the commentators just mentioned. In the R'ig veda, Vishnu is a representation of the sun, who "strides through the seven regions of the earth," and "in three ways plants his step' (or, as Yilska explains, plants his steps so as to become threefold). And, according to one predecessor of Yilska, these three steps mean the manifestation of the sun at its place of rising, on the meridian, and at its place of setting; or, according to another, its manifestation on earth, in the intermediate space, and in heaven; when—a§ a later commentator observes—in the first of these manifestations, Vishnu represents fire; in the second, lightning; and in the third, the solar light. From this position which Vishnu holds in the R'igveda (see VEDA), it results that he was not regarded there as supreme, or even as equal, to other deities, who, at the Vedic period, occupied a foremost rank. He is extolled in several hymns as having " established the heavens and the earth," as " being beyond mortal comprehension," and so forth; but be is there.also described as having derived his power of striding over the world from Indra (q.v.), and as celebrating the praises of this god. He is frequently 6 invoked together with the latter, but apparently always as inferior to him; and often, too, he occurs in company with a number of other gods, such as Varun'a, the Rudra, Vilyn, the luminous deities called Adityas, and others, without any distinction being drawn in their respective rank. Fewer hymns, moreover, are separately devoted to his praise than to that of Agni, Indra, or other prominent gods of the Vedic period; and it deserves notice, too, that at that period he was not yet included among the Adit yas, for only at the epic period, when the number of these deities, originally varying from six to eight, was raised to twelve, Vishnu was included in it-L-he then being named as the foremost of these luminous offsprings of Aditi, or space.
Although some of the Brahman'as of Vedas (q.v.) already show the progress which the solar Vishn'n had made in the imagination of the people, and although they contain the germ of several legends, which, at a later time, became fully developed, the really mythological character of this god, as the basis of the divine worship now paid him by a large class of the Hindu population, belongs to the epic poems—the aintayan'a and 3fahabharata (q.v.)—and to the Purdn'as (q.v.). In the Maluiblarata, Vislin'u
is often identified with the supreme spirit; but while in some portions of this poemthe different parts of which belong to different epochs of Hindu antiquity—he is thus regarded as the most exalted deity; he is again, in others, represented as paying homage to S'iva (q.v.), the third person of the Trimfirti, and as acknowledging the of this god over himself. Taking, therefore, the Mahabhfirata as a whole, he does not occupy, in this epos, the exclusive supremacy which is assigned to him in the RAin5yan'a, and still more in those Puran'as devoted to his praise.
The large circle of myths relating to Visliniu, in the epic poems and Puran'as, is dis tinguished by a feature which, though not quite absent from the mythological history of Siva, especially characterizes that of Vishn'u. It arose from the idea, that whenever a great disorder, physical or moral, disturbed the world, Vishn'u descended " in a small portion of his essence " to set it right, to restore the law, and thus to preserve cre ation. Such descents of the god are called his Avataras (from ova and tr'i, descend); and they consist in Vishn'u's being supposed to have either assumed the form of some won erful animal or superhuman being, or to have been born of human parents, in a human orm, always, of course, possessed of miraculous properties. Some of these Avatilras e of an entirely comical character; others, however, are probably based on historical ems, the leading personage of which was gradually endowed with divine attributes, ntil he was regarded as the incarnation of the deity itself. With the exception of the st, all these Avataras belong to the past; the last, however, is yet to come. Their umber is generally given as ten, and their names in the following order: I. The fish-: The tortoise-; 3. The boar-; 4. The man-lion-; 5. The dwarf-; 6. The Paras'u-R5ma-; 7. The Thimachandra, or, briefly, Rhma-; 8. The Kr'ishn'a and Balarrimas; 9. The Buddha-; and 10, The Kalki- or Kalkin-Avathra. This number and enumeration of Avatar:is, however, was not at all times the seine. The Maliciblifirata, though also men tioning ten names, successively the Hansa-, tortoise-, fish-, hour-, man-lion-, dwarf-, Panisiu-Rana•, Rana-, Savant-, and Kalkin-Avataras. The 131laga vata-Purania speaks twenty-two Avathras of Vishnu, which, for instance, also comprise Pr'ithu (q.v.), of Dhativantari, the god of medicine, and Kapila, the reputed founder of the Pankhya (q.v.) philosophy. Other works have twenty-four Avataras, or i even call them number less; less; but the generally-received Avathras are those ten mentioned before, an idea of which may be afforded by the following brief account.