The growth of the divine attributes given to Vishnu is clearly exhibited in the sacred Hindu writing. In the Rig-Veda he is a repre sentation of the personified sun; and, there are internal evidences to show that his worship must have stretched back into an age when the sun was looked upon as a powerful living personage. Here he represents solar light, fire and lightning and he has not yet grown to be the supreme deity, nor is he even re garded as the equal of the other great Hindu gods of the Vedic period. But the literature constantly gathering about the Ilindu pantheon began to be of very great extent and to take to itself an epic character. In this literature Vishnu begins to play a very important rOle, and in the Sanskrit writings the Mahabbharata and Ramayana he occupies the centre of the stage as the figure of chief interest. In fact the latter of these writings may be considered one long epic in praise of Vishnu, the supremely powerful and illustrious of the gods, the incomparable, the all-wise, all-seeing, the eternal presence, the maker of heaven and earth, the supreme ruler of the spacious firmament. As the war god, he commands an innumerable host of monkey-warriors. Almost countless are the attributes of his majesty, and boundness the extent of his dominion and power. Yet behind this pre-eminent position attained by Vishnu in comparatively modern times in which the Hindu mind approaches the position of monotheism, where one deity takes the supreme place, and the others become helpers in the work of looking after the uni verse, and are ultimately softened down into saints and other less heathen-sounding names, there constantly appear the g-rotesque faces and attributes of the ancestral nature deity and imaginative mythology of a primitive race. Vishnu appears in animal incarnations. From the depths of the waters of generation he sends forth from his navel the lotus from which Brahma is born ; as the ever-existing tortoise he bears on his back the universe; as the filler ot all space he has the power to contract himself into the form of a dwarf. In the so-called in
carnations accounting for the many attributes gathered to himself by Vishnu from the other deitiest the suprethe god is said to be the champion and defender of gods and men. This talcing over the powers and attnbutes of other deities made it easy for other creeds to • come under the wing of Vishnu: The .loiral deity became an incarnation of the' supreme deity and as such continued to hold his place in the hearts of his people, often to the extent* of making Vishnu himself a somewhat shadOwYt character; and it led. as already stated, to.the• growth of a great number of sects in whieb there are really wider diffeeences of faith and. practices than between the different branches ot the religions whit* have their origin in the Jewish taith, so far is the Hindu religion front being a unity. Vishnu makes. his hotne in his glorious paradise, Vaikint., where he is sue. rounded by the 1,000 Gopis or shepherdesses who are eternally and passionately in love with him. There, too, with him is his matchless wife Sita or Sri (q.v.).
Vishnu is represented as a very kind deity, and to this, undoubtedly, is due the increase of his popularity throughout India. His festivals, are joyous and sonic of them tend to be. licentious. Flowers are his most characteristic offerings and his crowded temples are decorated with them.
Bibliography.— Balfour, E., (Vishnu) (in Encycloptedia of India,' London 1E85) Bournouf, (La Bbogavata-Pueana) (Paris 1840) ,• Hillebrandt, Wedische Mythologic' (Breslau 1910) ; Hoplcins, E. W., (Religions, of India' (Boston 1E95) ; Langlois, (Harivansa) (1-'aris 1834) ; Lassen, (Trniisehe Alter thurn skunde ) ( Bon n 1852-06) ; Macdon 11, A. A., (Vedic Mythology) (Strassburg 1897); Moor, (Hindu Pantheon' ; Muir, W. (Original Sanscrit Texts' (London 1858-63j; Mtiller, M., (Chips from a German Workshop) (New York 1872) • Willeins, W. J., (Hindu My thology' (London 1901) ; VVIlliams, W. J., (Hinduism' (London 1877) ; Wilson, (Trans lations of the Vishnu Ptirana) (London 1864) ; (Hindu Sects.) See INDIA; HINDUISM ;