VISHNU (4vish,)) to work, encompass, or "vis,0 to penetrate, related to the Latin °Iris,* energy, activtty), the second god of the Hindu triad or tritnurti, but worshipped as the supreme deity by the Vaishnava sect, which numbers about 60,000,000. Their .behef, however, does not prevent them being votaries of deified heroes, and of thus presenting various atti. tudes toward their supreme deity and of di viding themselves into numerous sub-sects, in accordance with their various interpretation of his activities. Vishnu was originally one of the nature gods, probably the sun, but as he progressed from the position of one of a vast number of deities to that of the supreme god of the Vaishnava, he gathered to himself most of the powers and attributes of the other gods of his own pantheon, and in addition to these other attributes of deities belonging to tribes of India possessing other rehgious ideas, org-anizatiou and myths. It seems probable that the numerous incarnations of Vishnu, which are variously defitiitely given as from 10 to 24, had their origin in attempts to ex plain the many and contradictory forms in which the god is said to have appeared upon earth at various times. This, too, would ex plain the more than a thousand epithets, phrases and names applied to him to describe or define his power, grandeur, attributes and spheres of action, to which numerous tribal myths contributed. There are at present 20 distinct Vaishnava sects scattered throughout India, out of the 43 sects of the Hindu religion; and thereare 42 towns and cities that have famous shrines looked upon as sacred places. Of these 20 are especially sacred as directly connected with incarnations of Vishnu. The orthodox Vaishnava adherents hold to 10 incarnations of Vishnu, but they do not all agree as to what these incarnations were. How ever the general Vaishnava opinion now Rives them as follows in their order of happening: Fish, Tortoise, Boar, Man-lion, Dwarf, Parasu Rama, Rama Chandra, Krishna, Buddha and Kalki or white horse. Under each of these incarnations Vishnu is said to have appeared with some definite object in view, and so about them has grown up a vast amount of legendary and religious lore, myth, tradition and poetry which have woven themselves into the life of the Indian people, whether or not they be of the Viashnava sect.
Vishnu is a personification of the preserv ing power and of the sun; though some claim that the sun is the type of Vishnu. Nine of his incarnations have talcen place, but his tenth, that of the white horse, is still to be assumed.
When this shall have been accomplished, he will have assumed five different animal and five different human forms—Vishnu, Brahma and Siva together form the trinity of the Hindu religion. At one time these were dis tinct Hindu deities. Their rival claims for recognition were finally met by malting them three forms of the one supreme god. This was, however, a creation of the priests and ecclesiastical students; while the great mass of people continued to retain their belief in a multiplicity of deities. As the worship of Vishnu spread more widely over India it took in tribes formerly unaffected by the so-called Hindu religion. These brought with them into the faith myths, religious ideas, superstitions and traditions to many of which they continued to cling tenaciously, All this added vastly to the body of traditional lore connected with Vishnu and undoubtedly was the cause of the popular belief in his many incarnations, each of which, in all probability, represented some tribal deity or some mythological character of an older faith. Thus Vishnu is sometimes time. at others, the earth, water, air, space. He is the creative power, and even of him was born Brahma. Vishnu is thus a manifestation of himself. He :s represented either in his own person or in that of his incarnation or avatara. Quite frequently he is repre sented as having four arms and bearing in each of his hands one of his four symbols, a disc, conch-shell, mace, lotus (or sometimes a sword). These have been variously inter preted; but now the shell (or trumpet) is the sign of batt/e; the disc is emblematic of his solar origin; the lotus of his creative power, since from the lotus that sprung from Vishnu was born Brahma; the mace, emblem of physical power and the punishment of the wicked. One representation of Vishnu presents him as resting on a huge, coiled, many-headed serpent; others picture him as reclining upon the lotus while above his face rise the many heads of the serpent that guards and shades him.. Again he is seated upon a throne in dicative of his supreme power, or as the culture god, he drives the plough or handles the tools of the artisan; or he rides on the swift Garuda, an animal with the body of a man and the head, beak, wings and talons of an eagle. In the Rig-Veda he is represented as °striding through the seven regions of the earth° and ((planting his feet in three ways." This metaphorical language is explained as being a picture of the sun at rising, at midday and at setting.