The Antiquities of Orissa v1.c11.93.2

v1.c11.93.2

The most important elements of this hymn are the epithets and phrases which assign to Viṣṇu the attribute of one who "strode through the seven regions of the earth," who "planted his step three times," who "envelops the world with his dust," who "is fixed like an eye in the sky". Other attributes and functions, such as that of protection here noticed, or of creation of the heaven and the earth, of making of the atmosphere wide, of producing the sun and dawn, elsewhere assigned to him. (I. 154. 1-2) belong to him in common with the other gods; but these are peculiar, and they afford a clue to his true character. The counterparts of the phrases, "the god who strode through the seven regions of the earth" and "who planted his steps three times," occur frequently, and in a variety of forms. Thus, Viṣṇu is described as "the swift goer," "the god of three strides," "the wide-stepping," "the large-pacing," "the swift-moving," "the strider of strides," "the occupier of three stations," "the god within whose three vast paces all the world abides," &c, &c. Commentators are not agreed as to the purport of these epithets. Yāska, in the *Nirukta*, quotes the opinions of two older expounders, one of whom, Śākapūṇi, "thought that the triple manifestation of the god, in the form of fire on the earth, of lightning in the atmosphere, [ **150** ] and of the solar light in the sky, was intended" by these epithets;