The Cambridge History of India, Vol. I: Ancient India v1.c28.107

v1.c28.107

Among the Brāhman deities the greatest share of popular adoration accrued to Çiva and Vishṇu (under the form of Kṛishṇa), whom the Greeks report to us as Dionysus and Heracles respectively¹. With the former was associated Skanda or Viçākha, the god of war. The Buddhist books and sculptures, which give the preference to Brahmā and Indra, are in this respect archaising. Çiva was specially worshipped in the hill regions²; of the Vishṇu cult the great centre was Mathurā³, the second home of the Kṛishṇa legend, which first arose in Western India. The Jains were probably still mostly to be found in Bihār and Ujjain, while the Buddhist expansion had perhaps even in the lifetime of the founder attained a far wider range.