BOOK II. cultus of the full-grown and branching tree. In its earliest form the symbol is everywhere a mere stauros, or pole; and although this stock or rod budded in the shape of the thyrsos and the shepherd's staff, yet even in its latest developements the worship is confined to small bushes and shrubs and diminutive plants of a particular kind. Nor is it possible again to dispute the fact, that every nation at some stage or other of its history has attached to this cultus precisely that meaning which the Brahman now attaches to the Linga and the Yoni. That the Jews clung to it in this special sense with vehement tenacity is the bitter complaint of the prophets; and the crucified serpent, adored for its healing powers, stood untouched in the temple until it was removed and destroyed by Hezekiah. This worship of serpents 'void of reason,' condemned in the Wisdom of Solomon, probably survived even the Babylonish captivity. Certainly it was adopted by the Christians who were known as Ophites, Gnostics, and Nicolaitans. In Athenian mythology the serpent and the tree are singularly prominent. Kekrops, Erechtheus, and Erichthonios, are each and all serpentine in the lower portion of their bodies. The sacred snake of Athênê had its abode in the Akropolis, and her olive-tree secured for her the victory in her rivalry with Poseidon. The health-giving serpent lay at the feet of Asklepios, and snakes were fed in his temple at Epidauros and elsewhere.' That the ideas of mere terror and death, suggested by the venomous or the crushing reptile, could never have given It is, in fact, the healer, under the many names, Iasôn, Iasion, &c., which bear the equivocal meaning of saving or destroying life, as they are referred to iós, poison, or iáoua, to heal. It is the means by which the waste caused by death is repaired. Daher die Phallusschlange, auch die Heilschlange 'Ayadodaíuwv daher der mit Schlangen umgürtete Phallusstab in der Hand des Hermes i0upaλXixós, und des Aesculap, dessen weibliche Hälfte, Hygiea ihm die Schale entgegen trägt, welche ein Symbol des Mutterbeckens ist.'-Nork, s. v. Arzt.' This shell is the shell of Aphrodite. It is scarcely necessary to add that serpents played a prominent part in the rites of Zeus Sabazios, whose worship was practically identical with that of the Syrian Tammuz or Adonis. The epithet Sabazios, which, like the words Adonai and Melkarth, was imported into Greek mythology, is applied not less to Dionysos than to Zeus; but the stories told of this deity remained vague and shadowy. Sometimes he is a son of Zeus and Persephonê, and is nursed by the nymph Nyssa, whose name reappears in Dionysos: sometimes Dionysos is himself the father of Sabazios, who is, again, a child also of Kabeiros or of Kronos. THE BULL AND THE SERPENT. 129 II. way thus completely before those of life, healing, and safety, СНАР. is obvious enough; and the latter ideas alone are associated with the serpent as the object of adoration. The deadly beast always was, and has always remained, the object of the horror and loathing which is expressed for Ahi, the choking and throttling snake, the Vritra whom Indra smites. with his unerring lance, the dreadful Azidahaka of the Avesta, the Zohak or biter of modern Persian mythology, the serpents whom Herakles strangles in his cradle, the Python, or Fafnir, or Grendel, or Sphinx, whom Phoibos, or Sigurd, or Beowulf, or Oidipous, smite and slay. That the worship of the serpent has nothing to do with these evil beasts is abundantly clear from all the Phallic monuments of the East or West. In the topes of Sanchi and Amravati the disks which represent the Yoni predominate in every part of the design; the emblem is worn with unmistakeable distinctness by every female figure carved within these disks, while above the multitude are seen, on many of the disks, a group of women with their hands resting on the Linga, which they uphold. It may, indeed, be possible to trace out the association which connects the Linga with the bull in Sivaism, as denoting more particularly the male power, while the serpent in Jainaism and Vishnavism is found with the female emblem the Yoni. So again in Egypt, some may discern in the bull Apis or Mnevis the predominance of the male idea in that country, while in Assyria or Palestine the serpent or Agathos Daimon is connected with the altar of Baal. These are really questions of no moment. The historical inquiry is ended when the origin of the emblems has been determined. man. For the student who is willing to be taught by the facts The eduwhich he regards as ascertained, this chapter in the history cation of of human thought will involve no more perplexity than the fact that there was a time when human speech had none but sensuous words, and mankind, apparently, none but sensuous ideas. If from these sensuous words have been evolved terms capable of expressing the highest conceptions to which the human mind has yet risen, he may be well content to accept the condition of thought which fastened on the processes of BOOK II. Vishņu as Parentage of Krishna. natural reproduction as a necessary stage in the education of man. If our limbs are still shackled and our movements hindered by ideas which have their root in the sensuousness of the ancient language, we shall do well to remember that a real progress for mankind might in no other way have been possible. If the images of outward and earthly objects have been made the means of filling human hearts and minds with the keenest yearnings for Divine truth, beauty, and love, the work done has been the work of God. SECTION XIII.-THE SUN-GODS OF LATER HINDU MYTHOLOGY. If it be urged that the attribution to Krishna of qualities or powers belonging to other deities is a mere device by which his devotees sought to supersede the more ancient gods, the answer must be that nothing is done in his case which has not been done in the case of almost every other member of the great company of the gods, and that the systematic adoption of this method is itself conclusive proof of the looseness and flexibility of the materials of which the cumbrous mythology of the Hindu epic poems is composed. As being Vishnu, Krishna performs all the feats of that god. 'And thou, Krishna, of the Yâdava race, having become the son of Aditi and being called Vishnu, the younger brother of Indra, the all-pervading, becoming a child, and vexer of thy foes, hast by thy energy traversed the sky, the atmosphere, and the earth in three strides.'1 He is thus also identified with Hari or the dwarf Vishnu, a myth which carries us to that of the child Hermes as well as to the story of the limping Hephaistos. As the son of Nanda, the bull, he is Govinda, a name which gave rise in times later than those of the Mahâbhârata to the stories of his life with the cowherds and his dalliance with their wives; but in the Mahâbhârata he is already the protector of cattle, and like Herakles slays the bull which ravaged the herds. His name Krishna, again, is connected with another parentage, which makes him the progeny of the black hair of Hari, Muir, Sanskrit Texts, part iv. p. 118. 2 Ib. 206. KRISHNA, RUDRA, AND VISHŅU. the dwarf Vishnu.' But he is also Hari himself, and Hari is Narayana, the god who transcends all, the minutest of the minute, the vastest of the vast, the greatest of the great.' In short, the interchange or contradiction is undisguised, for 'he is the soul of all, the omniscient, the all, the all-knowing, the producer of all, the god whom the goddess Devaki bore to Vishnu.2 Elsewhere Krishna speaks of himself as the maker of the Rudras and the Vasus, as both the priest and the victim, and adds, 'Know that Dharma (righteousness) is my beloved firstborn mental son, whose nature is to have compassion on all creatures. In his character I exist among men, both present and past, passing through many varieties of mundane existence. I am Vishnu, Brahma, Indra, and the source as well as the destruction of things, the creator and the annihilator of the whole aggregate of existences. While all men live in unrighteousness, I, the unfailing, build up the bulwark of righteousness, as the ages pass away.' As such he is not generated by a father. He is the unborn. 131 CHAP. II. The character of Rudra, thus said to be sprung from Krishna Krishna, is not more definite. As so produced, he is Time, and Rudra. and is declared by his father to be the offspring of his anger. But in the character of Mahadeva, Rudra is worshipped by Krishna, and the necessary explanation is that in so adoring him Krishna was only worshipping himself.5 Rudra, however, is also Narayana, and Siva the destroyer. There is no difference between Siva who exists in the form of Vishnu, and Vishnu who exists in the form of Siva, just as in the form of Hari and Hara Vishnu and Mahadeva are combined. 'He who is Vishnu is Rudra; he who is Rudra is Pitâmaha (Brahma, the great father); the substance is one, the gods are three, Rudra, Vishnu and Pitâmaha... Just as water thrown into water can be nothing else than water, so Vishnu entering into Rudra must possess the nature of Rudra. And just as fire entering into fire can be nothing else but fire, so Rudra entering into Vishnu must possess the nature of Vishnu. Rudra should be understood to 1 Muir, Sanskrit Texts, pt. iv. p. 221. * Ib. 235. ↑ Ib. 205. 2 Tb. 224. BOOK Vishnu and Rama. Hindu possess the nature of fire: Vishnu is declared to possess the nature of Soma (the Moon); and the world, moveable and immoveable, possesses the nature of Agni and Soma.'' 2 It is the same with Rama, who is sometimes produced from the half of Vishnu's virile power, and sometimes addressed by Brahma as 'the source of being and cause of destruction, Upendra and Mahendra, the younger and the elder Indra.' He is Skambha, the supporter, and Trivikrama, the god of three strides. But the story of his wife Sita who is stolen away and recovered by Rama after the slaughter of Ravana runs parallel with that of Saramâ and Pani, of Paris and Helen. 3 This cumbrous mysticism leads us further and further mysticism. from the simpler conceptions of the oldest mythology, in which Rudra is scarcely more than an epithet, applied sometimes to Agni, sometimes to Mitra, Varuna, the Asvins, or the Maruts. The story of Krishna. Thou, Agni, art Rudra, the deity of the great sky. Thou art the host of the Maruts. Thou art lord of the sacrificial food. Thou, who hast a pleasant abode, movest onwards with the ruddy winds.'4 It was in accordance with the general course of Hindu mythology that the greatness of Rudra, who is sometimes regarded as self-existent, should be obscured by that of his children. The two opposite conceptions, which exhibit Herakles in one aspect as a self-sacrificing and unselfish hero, in another as the sensual voluptuary, are brought before us with singular prominence in the two aspects of Krishna's character. The being who in the one is filled with divine wisdom and love, who offers up a sacrifice which he alone can make, who bids his friend Arjuna look upon him as sustaining all worlds by his inherent life, is in the other a being not much more lofty or pure than Aphroditê or Adonis. If, like the legends of the Egyptian Isis and Osiris, the myth seems to lend itself with singular exactness to an astronomical interpretation, it also links itself with many stories of other Aryan gods or heroes, and thus throws on them a light all 1 Muir, Sanskrit Texts, pt. iv. p. 237. 2 Ib. 146, 250. 3 8 Ib. 151. |