Chapter XLIX: The Hindū Triad (2)

Rukmeni bore to Krishna a son, who was named Pradyamna, and was no other than Kama, the God of Love. He was stolen by Sambara, a Rājā, cast into the sea, and swallowed by a fish; which being caught and presented to the Rājā, was opened by his cook, Reti, who discovered and preserved the child. A talisman was given which rendered the infant invisible at pleasure. He was nurtured by Kam-dhenū, the holy cow, one of the fourteen gems of the ocean. The god of Love attained manhood, and delusion (maya) being removed, he was restored to his delighted mother, Rukmeni.

He is represented as a beautiful youth, sometimes conversing with his mother and consort in the midst of his gardens and temples; sometimes riding by moonlight on a parrot or lory, and attended by dancing girls or nymphs, the foremost of whom bears his banner, a fish on a red ground. His favourite place of resort was a tract of country around Agra, and the plains of Matra; where Krishna also, and the Gopia, usually spent the night singing and dancing. Pushpa-dhanva, the god with the flowery bow, is one of his many appellations. His bow is represented of flowers, or of sugar-cane, with a string formed of bees, and his five arrows, each pointed with an Indian blossom of love-inspiring quality.

“Hail, god of the flowery bow; hail, warrior, with a fish on thy banner; hail, powerful divinity, who causest the firmness of the sage to forsake him, and subduest the guardian deities of the eight regions!

“Glory be to Madana; to Kama; to him who is formed as the god of gods; to him by whom Brahma, Vishnŭ, Siva, Indra, are filled with emotions of rapture!”

JAGANA’TH, OR JAGANAT’HA.

On the festival of the Rat’ha-jattra, or the festival of the Chariot, the images of Krishna and Bala-Rāma are borne about in a car by day: on this occasion Krishna is worshipped as Jagana’th, or Lord of the Universe. At the temple of that name the concourse of people is very great: the rising of the moon is the sign of the commencement of the feast, which must end when it sets. A legend is given of Krishna having hid himself in the moon, in consequence of a false accusation of stealing a gem from Prasena, who had been killed by a lion. To see the moon on the fourth day after full, and the fourth day after new, of the month Bhadra, is hence deemed inauspicious; and is consequently avoided by pious Vaishnavus, or followers of Vishnŭ. Further particulars relative to this deity will be found in the chapter that records my visit to the far-famed temple of Jagana’th.

Having thus traced Vishnŭ the Preserver through the various forms he assumed on earth in the ten avatars, in his appearance as Krishna, and the latter in the form of Jaganat’ha, let us return to the third personage of the Hindū triad.

SHIVŬ, THE DESTROYER.

This god is generally ranked as the third power or attribute of the deity, he personifies destruction; and in the obvious arrangement of the three grand powers of the Eternal One, Creation and Preservation precede Destruction. His most usual accompaniment is a trident, or tri-forked flame, called trisula; his colour is white, that of his hair light or reddish. He is sometimes seen with two hands, sometimes with four, eight, or ten; and with five faces. He has a third eye in his forehead, _pointing up and down_; this distinction is peculiar to him, his children, and Avataras. As the god of Justice, which character he shares with Yama and other deities, he rides a bull, the symbol of divine justice. As emblems of immortality, serpents are common to many deities, but this god is abundantly decked with them, and snakes are his constant attendants. A crescent on his forehead, or in his hair, is common in pictures and images of Mahadeva or Shivŭ. Serpents, emblems of eternity, form his ear-rings, called Naug Kundala: his pendant collar of human heads (Mund mala) marks his character of Destruction, or Time; and his frontal crescent points at its most obvious measurement, by the phases of the moon. He holds what has been considered as a small double hand-drum, shaped like an hour-glass, called _damaru_, probably a sand _gheri_. Shivŭ is called “the three-eyed god,” and “the auspicious deity with uneven eyes.” Sometimes he is represented with a battle-axe (gadha, or parasha), and an antelope (_mirg_) in his superior hands: and in many plates of the deity his loins are wrapped in a tiger’s skin, and the goddess Gunga (the Ganges) flows from his _mugut_ or head-piece. The followers of Vishnŭ assert, that the blessed river flowed originally out of heaven, from the foot of Vishnŭ, and, descending upon Kailasa, the terrestrial paradise of Mahadēo, fell on the head of Shivŭ. Each sect is desirous of tracing the source of the sacred river to the head or foot of its own deity. The stream is sometimes seen issuing from the head of Shivŭ, and sometimes she afterwards issues from a cow’s mouth. It is said, that high up towards its source the river passes through a narrow rocky passage, which pilgrims, who visit the sacred cleft, imagine resembles a _cow’s mouth_. This spot is hence called _Gawmuki_, and is a place greatly resorted to by pilgrims.

Viswaswara is the name by which Shivŭ is invoked at a beautiful and famous temple of that name in Kashi, or Benares; and it is said in the _Purānas_, that “The _Vedas_ and _Shastrs_ all testify that Viswaswara is the first of _Devas_, Kashi the first of cities, Gunga the first of rivers, and charity the first of virtues.” Nandi is the epithet always given to the vehicle of Siva, the white bull: in his temples it is usually represented _couchant_.

Here I will mention some of the animals appropriated as vehicles to Hindū mythological personages. Brahma, the swan, _Hanasa_—Vishnŭ, the eagle, _Garuda_—Shivŭ, the bull, _Nandi_—Ganesh, the rat—Kartikeya, a peacock—Indra, the elephant, _Travati_—Varuna, the genius of the waters, bestrides a fish, as doth also Gunga, the prime goddess of rivers. Kama, the god of Love, is carried by a lory, or parrot; Agni, god of Fire, by a ram. The Sactī, or consorts of these deities, have the attendant animal or vahan of their respective lords. Bhavani is, however, oftener seen on a lion or a tiger than on a bull, the vahan of Shivŭ. Avataras of deities ride a bull, horse, &c.

Of Garuda, the man-eagle or bird-god, I have a small and curious brazen image; representing him with folded wings, sitting in an attitude of adoration, on the back of a nondescript animal, which I have been told is a rhinoceros, but it has no horn.

Another brazen image which I procured, as well as the former, at Prāg, represents the bird-god in an attitude of adoration on one knee, supporting on the top of his head a broadly-expanded cup, edged with leaves, perhaps intended to represent an expanded lotus; a vessel of this sort is used in pūja.

The title _deva_ is very comprehensive, meaning generally a deity; devī is its feminine, but it is applied mostly to Bhavani, consort of Mahadeva, which name of Shivŭ is, literally, great god. But, as the title of _deva_ is given to other gods, superior and inferior, so that of _devī_ is, as hath been before stated, occasionally bestowed similarly on other goddesses. Devata is the plural of deva; by some writers spelled dewtah.

The antelope (_mirg_) that Shivŭ holds in one hand, alludes to a sacrifice, when the deer, fleeing from the sacrificial knife, took refuge with him. Five lighted lamps are used in pūja to this god.

Dūrgā is the consort of Shivŭ; this goddess is also known under the name of Bhŭgŭvŭtēē, which title is also given to the cow, which is regarded by the Hindūs as a form of Dūrgā. He was also married to Satī, the daughter of King Dukshu.

Mahā-kāla is another form in which Shivŭ is worshipped in the character of the destroying deity. The image is of a smoke-coloured boy, with three eyes, clothed in red garments. His hair stands erect; his teeth are very large; he wears a necklace of human skulls, and a large turban of his own hair; in one hand he holds a stick, and in another the foot of a charpāī; his body is swollen, and his appearance terrific. Images of this form of Shivŭ are not made in Bengal, but a pan of water, or an emblem of Mahadēo, are substituted; before which bloody sacrifices are offered. Except before this image, such sacrifices are never offered to Shivŭ.

MAHADÉO, OR MAHĀ-DEVA.

Shivŭ appeared on earth in the form of a naked mendicant, with one head, two arms, and three eyes, and was acknowledged as Mahadēo, the great god: when he was about to be married to Pārvatī, the daughter of the Himalaya, her friends treated the god in a scurrilous manner, and cried out, “Ah! ah! ah! this image of gold, this most beautiful damsel, the greatest beauty in the three worlds, to be given in marriage to such a fellow,—an old fellow, with three eyes, without teeth, clothed in a tiger’s skin, covered with ashes, encircled with snakes; wearing a necklace of human bones; with a human skull in his hand; with a filthy jŭta—that is, hair matted about his head in form of a tiara; who chews intoxicating drugs, has inflamed eyes, rides naked on a bull, and wanders about like a madman. Ah! they have thrown this beautiful daughter into the river!” The _asoca_ is a shrub consecrated to Mahadēo, and is planted near his temples. The _biloa_, otherwise called _Malura_, is also sacred to him; he alone wears a chaplet of its flowers, and they are offered in sacrifice to no other deity; and if a pious Hindū should see any of its flowers fallen on the ground, he would remove them reverently to a temple of Mahadēo. The Hindū poets call it Srīphul, the flower of Srī.

I have a beautiful image in white marble, highly gilt and ornamented, representing Mahadēo as a white man, young and handsome, sitting on a platform, with Pārvatī on his left knee. His hair is braided into the shape of a conical turban around his head, about which a serpent is twisted; and from the top of his head flows Gunga, in a heavy stream, to the ground. His moustache is brilliantly jet black, and his forehead adorned with the triple eye in the centre of a crescent. Below Mahadēo in the centre of the platform, is a small image of his son Ganesh, on whose right is the Nandi, the white bull _couchant_, and on his left, below Pārvatī, is a yellow tiger. Mahadēo is represented with four hands, one bearing the tri-forked flame, another a warlike weapon, a third a short rosary of beads, the fourth, the hand-drum, the form of which is like an hour-glass. His hands and feet are dyed with hinnā; his dress is yellow; a large snake is around his neck, and his body profusely adorned with jewels.

GANESH.

The history of Ganesh, the son of Mahadēo and Pārvatī, having been fully detailed in the Introduction, is here omitted. This god is the guardian to the entrance of the heaven of Shivŭ. Vishnŭ, in the form of Parashu-Rāma, wished to have an interview with Shivŭ, which was denied him by Ganesh; upon which a battle ensued, and Parashu-Rāma tore out one of his tusks. No public festivals are held in honour of Ganesh in Bengal; many persons, however, choose him as their guardian deity. Stone images of Ganesh are worshipped daily in the temples by the side of the Ganges, at Benares, and at Allahabad.

KARTIKEYA.

The second son of Mahadēo and Pārvatī is the god of war, and commander of the celestial armies; he is represented as six-headed, six-armed, six-mothered, and sometimes riding a peacock.

An account of the three great gods of the Hindū triad having been given, I will add a short description of the three principal goddesses, Lachhmī, Saraswatī, and Dūrga.

LACHHMĪ.

This goddess is the consort of Vishnŭ, and is esteemed by his followers as the mother of the world. When the sea was being agitated for the production of the immortal beverage, and the fourteen gems of the ocean; “after a long time appeared the great goddess, inhabiting the lotus, clothed with superlative beauty, in the first bloom of youth, covered with ornaments, and bearing every auspicious sign; adorned with a crown, with bracelets on her arms, her jetty locks flowing in ringlets, and her body, which resembled burning gold, adorned with ornaments of pearl. This great goddess appeared with four arms, holding a lotus in her hand; her countenance of incomparable beauty. Thus was produced the goddess Padma or Srī, adored by the whole universe; Padma by name. She took up her abode in the bosom of Padma-nabha, even of Heri.” Vol. I. page 206, is an account and a sketch of this goddess of beauty and of prosperity. I have a very ancient and time-worn brazen image, representing Lachhmī seated on an elephant; she has four hands, the two superior hands are raised as high as her head; one holds a lotus-bud, the other something not unlike one; each hand also supports an elephant; their trunks unite above her head, and from two water-vessels they are pouring water on an emblem of Mahadēo, which rests on the crown of the head of the goddess. The lower hands are empty, the palm of one is raised, the other turned downwards. This image is very ancient and most singular: she is the goddess who presides over marriage, and, as the deity of prosperity, is invoked also for increase of children, especially male children. She bears the title of Rembha, as the sea-born goddess of beauty.

Moor gives a drawing, much resembling the above, of a cast in brass, which he considers to be Devi, _the goddess_, a form of Durgā.

SARASWATĪ.

Saraswatī, the daughter of Brahma, and wife of Vishnŭ, is represented as a white woman, playing on a sitar. She is adored as the patroness of the fine arts, especially music and rhetoric; as the inventress of the Sanscrit language, of the Devanagry character, and of the sciences which writing perpetuates. This goddess was turned into a river by the curse of a Brahman, and, at the Trivenī, the river Saraswatī is supposed to join the Ganges and Jumna underground. On the 5th day of the month Magha, Saraswatī or Srī, the goddess of arts and eloquence, is worshipped with offerings of flowers, perfumes, and dressed rice: the worship is performed before her image, or a pen, inkstand, and book; the latter articles are supposed to form a proper substitute for the goddess. On this day the Hindūs neither read nor write, it is the command of the shastr. Implements of writing, and books, are treated with respect, and are not used on this holiday. Of an eloquent man the Hindūs say, “Saraswatī sits on his tongue.”

I have a picture of the goddess of eloquence, having an interview with Ganesh, the patron of literature; with whom she is exchanging written scrolls, probably the vedas. Saraswatī is mounted, astride, upon a most singular looking bird; it is not a swan, neither is it a peacock; its legs are long, so is its neck; it is painted red; can it be intended for the sarasŭ, what we call cyrus, or Siberian crane? In one of her superior hands she bears the vina, or been, a musical instrument; in the second is a lotus and a scroll of paper with writing upon it; the other two hands also bear written scrolls. She is represented as a white woman, with one head, on which is a red and yellow coronet; her attire is of various colours, and she is adorned with jewellery, as well as with a long string or garland of flowers. Ganesh is represented sitting on a lotus, and standing behind him is a woman employed in fanning him with a chaunrī, made of the white tail of the yak; the black rat, the constant attendant of Ganesh, is sitting before him.

DŪRGA.

The consort of Shivŭ derives her name from the giant Doorgŭ, whom she slew. A short account of the Dasera, a festival held in honour of this goddess, has been given in Vol. I. p. 34. Dūrga has a thousand names, and has assumed innumerable forms, among which are Kalī, the black goddess, worshipped at Kalī Ghat; Bhŭvanī, the wife of Shivŭ; Pārvutī, the Daughter of the Mountain; the Inaccessible, the Terrible, the Mother of the Universe. Kalī, under the name of Phŭlŭ-Hŭrēē, is described in Vol. I. p. 164; and Dūrga, as Bhagwan, will be hereafter mentioned. I have an ancient and curious brazen image of Dūrga, with ten arms, which I procured at Prāg. Also numerous images of Anna-Purna Devi, the goddess who fills with food, a very common household deity; most families in the Mahratta country include her among their Dii penates. She is represented as a woman sitting cross-legged, and holding a spoon with both hands across her lap.

Pārvatī, Bhavani, Dūrga, Kali, and Devi, or _the Goddess_, are names used almost indiscriminately in the writings and conversations of the Hindūs. The history of Satī has been given in Vol. I. p. 94.

THE PURĀNAS.

The first Indian poet was Valmiki, author of the Ramayana, a complete epic poem; and Vyasa, the next in celebrity, composed the Mahabarat. To him are ascribed the sacred Purānas, which are called for their excellence, _the Eighteen_: they comprise the whole body of Hindū Theology; and each Purāna treats of five topics especially; _i.e._ the creation, the destruction, and renovation of the worlds; the genealogy of gods and heroes; the reigns of the Manus; and the transactions of their descendants. The Purānas are, 1. Brŭmhŭ; 2. Padma, or the Lotus; 3. Brahmānda, or the egg of Brahmā, the Hindū Mundane egg; 4. Agni, or fire; 5. Vishnŭ; 6. Garuda, the bird god, the vehicle of Vishnŭ; 7. Brahmavaivartā, or transformation of Brahmŭ; 8. Shivŭ; 9. Linga; 10. Naruda, son of Brahma; 11. Skanda, son of Shivŭ; 12. Mārkendeya, so called from a sage of that name; 13. Bhavishyat, future or prophetic; 14. Matsya, or the fish; 15. Varāha, or the boar; 16. Kūrma, or the tortoise; 17. Vāmaha, or the dwarf; and 18. The Bhāgavat, or life of Krishnŭ. The Purānas are reckoned to contain four hundred thousand stanzas. There are, also, eighteen upapurānas, or similar poems of inferior sanctity and different appellations; the whole constituting the popular or poetical creed of the Hindūs, and some of them, or particular parts of them, being very generally read and studied.

On the ancient sculptures and medals, allusive to the cosmogony, these hieroglyphic symbols, the egg and the serpent, perpetually occur in very great variety, single and combined; that famous representation of the Mundane egg, encompassed by the folds of the Agathodaimon, or good serpent, and suspended aloft in the temple of Hercules at Tyre, is well known to antiquaries. The Deus lunatus ovatus Heliopolitanus, or the divine egg with the lunar crescent, adored at Heliopolis, in Syria, is another relic of this ancient superstition. The most remarkable, however, of these symbolical devices is that erected, and at this day to be seen in one of the temples of Japan. The temple itself, in which this fine monument of oriental genius is elevated, is called Daibod, and stands in Meaco, a great and flourishing city of Japan. The principal image in this design displays itself in the form of a vast bull, butting with its horns against the egg, which floated on the waters of the abyss. The statue of the bull itself is formed of massy gold, with a great knob on its back, and a golden collar about its neck, embossed with precious stones. The fore-feet of the animal are represented as resting on that egg, and his hinder feet are immersed amidst stone and earth mixed together, the symbol of a chaotic mass, under which and the egg appears a considerable quantity of water, kept in a hollow stone. The basis of the whole is a square altar, the foot of which is engraved with many ancient Japanese characters; and round that foot, in M. D’Hancarville’s engraving, are two natives of that country prostrate, and adoring it.

THE VEDAS.

The Hindūs believe that the original veda was revealed by Brahma, and was preserved by tradition until it was arranged in its present form by a sage, who thence obtained the name of Vyasa, or Veda-vyasa; that is, _compiler_ of the _vedas_. He distributed the Indian scriptures into four parts, each of which bears the common denomination of veda. The _veda_, collectively, is the body of Hindū scripture. The most popular idea of their origin is, that they (the four vedas) issued from the four mouths of Brahma. Brahma, as we have seen, had once five heads; and there is a supplement to the Hindū scriptures, which some affirm to constitute a fifth veda. A mysterious set of books, called Agama, proceeded from the mouth of Shivŭ.

In Ceylon is a high mountain, on which is the print of a foot, still visible; the natives worship this sacred footstep as that of the god Buddha, who from that eminence ascended to his native skies.

It has been offered, as a probable conjecture, that the Buddha superstition was the ancient religion of India, and that the followers of Buddha were driven out of Hindūstan by the superior interest of the Brahmans at the courts of the Hindū monarchs. The priests of Buddha insist that the Brahmans came with their religion from _Egypt_; while, by others, it is conversely maintained that the _Egyptians_ derived their doctrines and science from _India_. The religion of Buddha was, heretofore, and probably also about the era of Christianity, indisputably of extensive prevalence, as is evinced by many stupendous monuments. In Ava, where Buddhism is orthodoxy, the idea is upheld that it was equally prevalent in the same form throughout India until about the second century before Christ, when the Brahmans are stated to have introduced themselves and their rites.

This short account of the Hindū triad and their incarnations will give some idea of the mythology of the Hindūs; but to understand the subject more fully it would be necessary to refer to the authorities I have quoted in this abstract[24].