The Antiquities of Orissa v1.c11.120

v1.c11.120

**Vaisnavism of the Puranas :** The Purāṇas, in their account of Vaiṣṇavism, do not differ much from what we believe it to have been at the time of Pāṇini and the *Itihāsas*. They dwell at length on various manifestations and incarnations of the Divinity, some including his entire essence or spirit, others a portion of it. This must have taken place at least two thousand years ago, for the Eran boar dates from the second century of the Christian era, and then the boar incarnation was an object of worship, and the sovereign who dedicated it and some of his ancestors are described in the inscription on its back as Bhāgavatas, or followers of Viṣṇu. 60 They insist on the worship of Rāma and Kṛṣṇa, 61 who are unquestionably identified with Viṣṇu, and unflinching and unreasoning faith of the Bhakti system the greatest, and indeed the sole means of salvation. They also dilate largely on the identity of the three leading gods, Brahmā, Viṣṇu and Śiva, though the followers of those divinities, it would seem, cherished the most implacable rancour and enmity against each other. In all this the Purāṇas are in accord with the *Mahābhārata* which they follow; but in the treatment of the dogma of Bhakti, they go far ahead of their predecessors. Assciating it with the Vedāntic doctrine of the relation of the human to the Divine soul, they—the Bhāgavata particularly—have developed a system in which the passions of affection and love are brought to bear upon the Divinity more prominently and earnestly than religious [ 154 ] devotion, and the Godhead is represented in such mystic, allegorical language as to appear to thinkers of the present fastidious age highly unbecoming, insulting, licentious, and even blasphemous—in which the substitution of the impassioned eloquence of the poet addressing his mistress for the sober language of respectful adoration with reference to the Deity, is held the most sacred. This is the result of a “hypertrophy of the religious feeling” which envelopes the religious sentiment with the charms and imagery of mundane life—of an excessive fervour of devotion, which, rising above all the amenities of sober society, longs to hold communion with the Godhead, in a manner of which sexual love is the most perfect type known to man. Poets of ancient times indulged in a variety of fanciful and voluptuous imageries in describing matters celestial, and a too literal, or materialistic, or spiritual interpretation of their allegorical language, led either to the formation of myths, or the development of mysticism of various kinds. The allegories