Vastu-shastra (Vol. I: Hindu Science of Architecture; Vol. II: Hindu Canons of Iconography and Painting) v2.c75.s1.67

v2.c75.s1.67

**Vedic:** Viṣṇu Vāsudeva, a Vedic god and his Vedic accounts are well known. He is mentioned in all the Vedas. His position in the Vedas if not that of the supreme deity, was nevertheless on a footing of equality with the other gods. He is, therefore, identified with the sun and is said to have measured the seven regions and to have covered the whole universe by means of three steps. These germs of the solar origin of Viṣṇu as found in the Vedas are fully evident from the explanation offered to his ‘tripāda’—the three steps indicating the different position of the sun at rising, culmination and setting; and also the manifestation of the god being manifest in threefold form, as Agni on earth, Indra or Vāyu in the atmosphere and Sūrya in the sky. These three steps, later on, in the Purāṇas evolved out the dwarf incarnation, the Vāmanāvatāra or Trivikramāvatāra. In the Śatapatha, this trait of Viṣṇu became fully explicit (cf. writer’s Pratimā Vijñāna p. 74). The special character of Viṣṇu as Preserver god and deliverer of mankind was also outlined there as per the Śatapath Brāhmaṇa’s account (16-1-1; cf. Pr. Vijñ. p. 74).