The most important of these avatars are those in human form. As Rama or as Krishna, the god Vishnu is worshiped by millions of Hindus, whereas in other forms he has only a restricted circle of worshipers, generally limited to a local cult. Especially is this true of the speculative avatars, such as Buddha in the group of ten. or as Kapila (the reputed inventor of the San khya philosophy) in the later group of twenty two. In regard to these forms it may be said that the god is not really worshiped under them, but they are postulated merely on the general theory that the greatest men of the race, unless positively antagonistic to the Vishnu cult, must have been incarnations of the deity.
All these legends have resulted in swelling enormously the sectarian literature which clus ters about Vishnu, and almost every legend has received its special gospel in the shape of a I'uraua (q.v.) or two.
When freed from all avatars, Vislum as the su preme god, or as a member of the Trimurti and not as a mere name for the pantheistic All-god. is eompived as having a special heaven, called Vaikuntha. llis wife is Lakshini (q.v.). or the goddess of good fortune, and he is represented as dark in color. with four• hands, his emblems being a disk (due to his solar attributes), a conch shell or trumpet (swell as he bore in battle), a lotus (from the of which Brahma is sup posed to have been born), and a mace o• sword. Other representations picture his avatars as a beautiful youth, to typify Krishna or Rama. The epic gives him a thousand names, most of which are epithets describing him as all-glorious, powerful, the savior, the preserver, or the very great one.
There is, however, another aspect of Vishnu, which may he called his philosophical form. In this form Vishnu becomes a Were 11a111(. (inter changeable with Brahma or Siva) of the All-god philosophically conceived. As such Vishnu is not a deminrge, which in all sectarian forms is his real position, but a being without parts or passions, having no attributes save those of being and knowledge. He is the mime of the world spirit out of which comes and into which returns all the transient group of plummacua which have no real existence and are due inertly to ignorance on the part of those who live conditioned by those phenomena. This is the Vishnu of the Vedanta (q.v.), differing both from the Krishna-Vishnu of the sectary and from the Vishnu of the Tri murti, or triad of the co-equal supreme gods. Since Vishnu may be and is worshiped under any of these conceptions, he comes nearest to the all sufficing notion of clod, and his cult appeals alike to the grosser intellect of the sectary and to the most refined thought of the logician. In all of
these phases may be seen a survival of the primi tive son-god. On the one hand the identification of the place with the place of departed spirits led to a mystic conception of the god, whose tribute of light was further identified with that of goodness. On the other hand, the frrietifying power of the son led to the apotheosis of the gent erative power in man as in nature, and it is this function which is the chief clement in Krishna worship, Krishna being renowned as the amorous shepherd whose thousand wives or mistresses are hi-s principal delight.
In sharp contrast to Siva, Vishnu is at all times a kindly god, and his cult is indicative of this fact. To him are offered no bloody sacrifices. He desires only the sacrifice of fruit and vege tables, milk and honey. The esoteric rites in honor of his human incarnations are also blood less, though licentious in their debased form. On the whole he is a deity of light and joy. Gay banners and brilliant illuminations are seen at his feasts, and his many temples are crowned with flowers, not with the skulls of victims. Under the form of Juggernaut, or Jag,ann5th (q.v.), the savior of the world, he has been credited with taking pleasure in Inman sacrifice, but this is a gross error.
The sacred scriptures of Vishnu are of two sorts. The first are the few early texts which express a belief in Vishnu as the supreme god. Such expressions of belief are always incidental in the first instance, and they would not be of influence if it were not for the later evolution of Vishnu into the II-god. The earliest Upanishads (q.v.) and the still earlier Brahmanas (q.v.) do not recognize Vishnu as in any way a supreme deity. The second class of scriptures includes the Rhagarad-gita (q.v.), in which for the first time Krishna appears as Vishnu incarnate on earth, and the Vim?, Arrange. of which there are several, the oldest being called simply Pura(m, and the most popular being the Rhu(r rata Parana. These, together with a supplement to the called the Ilariran.4a (q.v.) or genealogy of Krishna (a, Vishnu), in which are told marvelous tales of youthful exploits, are the classic texts in honor of the god, though each of the Vishnu sects' (see VAIsti NAVAS ) has scripture, of its own. Consult: Muir, Origi»al Sanskrit Texts (London, 1858 63 ) ; Hopkins, Religions of India ( Boston, 1805) ; nicdoncll, Vedic Mythology (Strassburg, 1807), and see Visuxu in Plate of Illxnu DEITIES, in the article INDIA.