Hindu mythology, Vedic and Purânic . tin other forms amongst thegods and demons, and assistedto drag the monarch of theserpent race ; and in anothervast body sat upon the sum-mit of the mountain. Withone portion of his energy,unseen by gods and demons,he sustained the serpentking ; and with another in-fused vigour unto the is the account of thisincarnation of Vishnu astaught by the Puranas ; butin the earlier books, wherethe probable origin of thislegend is found, it is Brahma,and not Vishnu, that is saidto have assumed the form ofa tortoise. In the Satha-patha Brahmana are theseword
Hindu mythology, Vedic and Purânic . tin other forms amongst thegods and demons, and assistedto drag the monarch of theserpent race ; and in anothervast body sat upon the sum-mit of the mountain. Withone portion of his energy,unseen by gods and demons,he sustained the serpentking ; and with another in-fused vigour unto the is the account of thisincarnation of Vishnu astaught by the Puranas ; butin the earlier books, wherethe probable origin of thislegend is found, it is Brahma,and not Vishnu, that is saidto have assumed the form ofa tortoise. In the Satha-patha Brahmana are thesewords: Having assumedthe form of a tortoise, Prajapati (Brahma) created which he created, he made; hence the word means tortoise; hence men say, All creatures aredescendants of Kasyapa. This tortoise is the same as the worship of Brahma became less popular, whilst that ofVishnu increased in its attraction, the names, attributes, andworks of the one deity appear to have been transferred to THE KURMA AVATARA. The Varahar or Boar Avatara. 121 3. THE VARAHAR OR BOAR AVATARA. There is the same conflicting account of this as of the twopreceding incarnations ;—the older books, and some of the moremodern ones, describing it as an Avatara of Brahma ; and someof the modern books and popular belief regarding it as the workof Vishnu. There is, however, this distinction, that in theformer, the transformation of the deity into a boar has appa-rently a purely cosmical character, the earth being immersed inthe ocean. Brahma, the Creator, in the shape of a boar, raisedit on his tusk ; whereas, in the latter, it altogether representsthe extrication of the world from a deluge of iniquity by therites of religion. * The first mention of this incarnation is in the TaittiriyaSanhita, f and is as follows :— The universe was formerlywater, fluid. On it Prajapati (Brahma) becoming wind, a boar, he took it up. In harmony with this is a ver
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