In perfect harmony with this teaching of the "Vishnu Purana" is the common belief of the Hindus. No phrase is more commonly used by them when speaking of the divine being than this: "God (Brahma) is one without a second." The word used by them for God as distinguished from his manifestations, is Brahma; and when charged with Polytheism, and of violating the primary law respecting the unity of God, they reply that Brahma, Vishnu, Siva, etc., are only manifestations of the supreme Brahma. [**]

In the earliest writings Brahma signified a hymn or mantra, whilst Brahma was the term used to denote a priest or worshipper. It is in the later parts of the Vedas that Brahma is identified with the supreme, and Brahma becomes his great manifestation. Prajapati, the lord of creatures, was the Creator according to the earlier teaching of the Vedas, and occupied the position in the earlier Pantheon that Brahma did in the later. In several texts of the Vedas the two are identified, and thus authority is found for the idea that Brahma is to be worshipped as the Maker of all things.

This Brahma, though satisfactory to the priests, was not so to the common people. In process of time local gods absorbed their worship, and the non-Aryan deities of the people whom they had conquered exercised their influence on the Aryans themselves. Rather than lose their hold of the people, the priests adopted these new deities, and found a parentage for them from amongst the old Vedic gods. By the time the Epics were composed, Vishnu and Siva had been thus assimilated. The different names by which these deities are now known may possibly have been the local names of local or tribal gods; by retaining these the priests also retained their hold upon the people. In the "Satapatha Brahmana" attempts are made to identify Siva with Agni, as though the writer wished to show that the later triad--Brahma, Vishnu, and Siva--was identical with the older one composed of Agni, Indra-Vayu, and Surya.

Footnotes

^93:* It will be noticed that the final vowel in the name of this deity is short, whilst in that of the first incarnation it is long.

^93:+ Muir, O. S. T., v. 387 ff.

^94:* "Indian Wisdom," p. 12.

^94:+ Page 2.

^94:++ Book i. chap. iii.

^95:* Page 157.

^95:+ Page 273.

^95:++ This word occurs at the commencement of prayers and religious ceremonies. It is so sacred that none must hear it pronounced. Originally the three letters (a u m) of which it is formed typified the three Vedas; afterwards it became a mystical symbol of the three deities--Brahma, Vishnu, Siva.

^96:* The Theistic sect that arose in Bengal during the present century, for a long time gloried in the name Brahmo Somaj; i.e. the Society that worshipped the supreme Brahma or God.