भारतीय वेदों में वैष्णव

Visnu,Vasudeva and Krsna.

Visnu,Bhagavat,Narayana,lari and Krsna are cften used

in a large section of Indian religious literature as synonymous

And

names of the supreme lord.Of these Visnu is an important

god of the Rg-Veda,who is one of the adityas and who makes

three strides in the sky,probably as he manifests himself in

the castern horzon,as he rises to the zenith and as he sets in

the west.He is also represented in the Rr-Veda as a great fighter

And

and an ally of Indra.It is further said that he has two earthly steps

and another higher step which is known only to himself.But in

the Rg-Vedu Visnu is certainly inferior to Indra,with whom he

was often associated,as is evident from such names as Indra-visnu

(R.V.Iv.55·4;v1.99.5;VH1.1o.2,etc.).According to later

tradition Visnu was the youngest,the twelfth of the adityas,

though he was superior to them all in good qualities!.His three

steps in the Rg-Vedic allusion have heen explained in the Nirukta as

referring to the hree stages of the sun's progress in the morning,

at midday and at evening.One of the names of Visnu in the

Rg-Veda is Sipivista,which Durgacarya explains as"surrounded

with the early rays"(sipi-samjiair bala-rasmibhir avista)".Again,

the sage praises Vispu in the Kg-Veda in the following terms:"I, and

a master of hymns and knowing the sacred customs,to-day praise

that name of thine,Sipivista.I,who am weak,glorify thee,who

art mighty and dwellest beyond this world³."All this shows that

Visnu was regarded as the sun,or endowed with the qualities of

the sun.The fact that Visnu was regarded as dwelling beyond this

world is probably one of the earliest signs of his gradually in-

creasing superiority.For the next stage one must turn to the

Sataputha-brahmana.In 1.2.4 of that work it is said that the

demons(asura)and the gods were vying with one another;

the gods were falling behind,and the demons were trying to dis-

tribute the world among thenselves;the gods followed them,

And

making Visnu the sacrifice as their leader (te yajnam eva Visnum

puraskrtyeyuh),and desired their own shares;the demons felt

jealous and said tt at they could give only so much ground as would

Ekad nias tatha Trusta dvadasn Viseur ucyate

jaghanvajas tu sarvsam adityanam gunadhikah.

Mahu-bharata,1.65.16.Calcutta,Bangavasi T'ress,second edition,rgo8.

:Nirukta,v.9.Hombay edition,1918.

3Rg-Veda,vi.1oo.5,translated hy Dr I..Sarup,quoted in Nirukta,

U   Q