One of the various incarnations of this deity is mentioned. in an ancient legend relating to the destruction of the city of Mahabalipuram, or the Seven Pagodas, on the coast of Coromandel, by an earthquake and inundation during an early period of Hindu history. It is stated that Hirinacheren, a gigantic prince or demon, rolled up the earth into a shapeless mass, and carried it down to the abyss, whither Vishnu followed him in the shape of a boar, killed him with his tusk, and replaced the earth in its original position.' A large portion of the magnificent ruins of that city and pagodas is now covered by the sea ; other parts of them (the sculpture of which is still in many places very little injured by tho lapse of ages or the effect of the elements) extend over a space of several miles. One of the cavern temples, now used as a place of worship, is said to contain a fine figure of Vishnu in the Varaha avatar.
In the Rama avatar, Vishnuappears in the person of a courageous and virtuous prince, the son of the puissant sovereign of Hindustan (capital, Ayodliya), to punish a monstrous giant, Ravana, who then reigned over Lanka, or the island of Ceylon. The Grecians bad their Homer to render im perishable the fame acquired by their glorious combats in the Trojan war ; the Latins had Virgil to sing the prowess of Aims ; and the Ilindus have had their Valmiki to immortalize the martial deeds of Rama and his army of monkeys in subduing the giant Ravana and his hosts of many-headed monsters. The Ramayana, one of the finest epic poems (in spite of its many ex travagances) extant, beautifully describes the incidents of Rama's life, and the exploits of the contending foes. Rama, whose fame is thus cele brated, is, in the pictorial representations of him, usually described as a green man, seated beneath an umbrella, the emblem of sovereignty, on a throne. A quiver of arrows hangs at his back ; in one hand he holds his destructive bow, and in the other a flower of the sacred lotus. By his side is placed Sita, who is depicted as a goddess of transcendent beauty, of a deep yellow complexion.
The second of Vishnu's ten grand avata.ra or incarnations was in the form of a tortoise, and hence called the Kurma avatara, the principal incident in which was churning the ocean with the mountain Mandara, the huge serpent Sesha serving as a rope to whirl the mountain round withal, and Vishnu, in the shape of a tortoise, sustained the vast load. The result was fourteen precious articles, called gems or Chaoda ratni (more classically Chatur desa ratna), and one of the fourteen was poison ; but To soften human ills, dread Siva drank The poisonous flood that stained his azure neck.' Whence the epithet Nilakantha or blue-throated is a name of Siva, and with the Saiva sect now not an uncommon name of men.
In the eighth avatara, Vishnu is said byhis sectaries to have manifested himself in a degree of power and glory far exceeding any other of his forms, in which lie assumed only an ansa or portion of his divinity, while Krishna was Vishnu himself in mortal mould. Other tribes of Hindus call Krishna an impious wretch, a merciless tyrant, au incarnate demon, now expiating his crimes in hell. In the Bhagavata it IS mentioned that his votaries say that in this, as in his former descents on the earth, the object of Vishnu's appearance had been the destruction of giants, and the over throw of oppressive and irreligious kings. The Bhagavata relates that Krishna's mortal parents were Vasu-deva (meaning the giver of wealth) and Devaki. It mentions a miraculous escape of the infant over the Yamuna conveyed by his father, and protected by Sesha or immortality. The guards placed by Kansa over his pregnant sister having failed in their vigilance, Kansa, enraged, ordered all newly-born infants to be slain ; but Krishna escaped hia various snarea, one of which was sending a woman named Patnia with a poisoned nipple to nurse him, and he was fostered by an honest herdsman, named Ananda or Happy. The Vaishnava sect regard Vishnu as the Supreme. It is related in the Skanda Parana, that when the whole earth was covered with water, and Vishnu lay asleep on the bosom of Devi, a lotus arose from his navel, and its ascending flower soon reached the surface of the flood ; that Brahma sprang from the flower, and, looking around without seeing any creature on the bound less expanse, he imagined himself the first born.
But the Vaishnava sect of the present day, though nominally worshippers of Vishnu, are in fact votaries of deified heroes. The Goculast'ha (one branch of this sect) adore Krishna, while the Ramanuj worship Rama Chandra. Both have again branched into three sects, one of which, the exclusive worshippers of Krishna, are deemed the only true and orthodox Vaisbnava ; another joins his favourite Radha with the hero ; a third, called Radha-Vallabhi, adores Radha only, considering her as the active power of Vishnu. The followers of these last-mentioned sects are said to present to their own wives the oblations intended for the goddess, and those among them who follow the left-handed path are said to require their wives to be naked when attending them at their devotions. Among the Ramanuj some worship Rama only ; and others, both Rama. and Sita ; and they all, like the Goculastla, as well as the followers of the Bliagavata, delineate on their foreheads a double upright line with chalk or with sandal wood, and a red circlet with red sanders wood or with turmeric and lime ; but the Ramanuj add an up right red line in the middle of the double white one.