Mysore and Coorg from the Inscriptions c14.6

c14.6

The earliest form of the Brāhman faith was connected with the worship of Śiva, who was, it is asserted, doorkeeper to the Mahāvalis or Bāṇas (Sp 5, 6). But Vishnu, in his Vāmana or Dwarf incarnation, deprived Mahā Bali in two strides of all his possessions except Pātāla, which was left to him. And Krishna, who is another form of Vishnu, also found means, in a war against Bāṇa, to overcome Śiva who fought for the Bāṇas. It is difficult to separate the worship of Śiva and Vishnu in subsequent periods. They continued to be jointly recognised in all parts, and the united form Harihara, composed of Hari (Vishnu) and Hara (Siva), was a symbol of their general equality in religious estimation. Of Harihara, Dg 25 in 1224 says: “The celebrated Śiva acquired the form of Vishnu, and Vishnu acquired the great and famous form of Śiva, in order that the saying of the Vēda (that they were one: see Dg 36) might be fully established.” Kēśava or Vishnu, again, is identified as follows in the fourteenth century (Bl 3) with the chief object of worship in all the sects: “He whom the Śaivas worship as Śiva, the Vēdāntins as Brahmā, the Bauddhas as Buddha, the Naiyāyikas as Kartta, the Jainas as Arha, the Mīmāmsakas as Karmma.”