The Arctic Home in the Vedas c13.s2.4.4

c13.s2.4.4

The poet, therefore, asks Viṣṇu not to be ashamed of the epithet, because, says he, the form indicated by the bad name is only temporarily assumed, as a dark armour, for the purpose of fighting with the Asuras, and as it was no longer needed, Viṣṇu is invoked to reveal his true form (varpas) to the worshipper. That is the real meaning of the verses quoted above, and in spite of the attempt of Yāska and other scholars to convert the bad name of Viṣṇu into a good one by the help of etymological speculations, it is plain that shipiviṣṭa was a bad name, and that it signified the dark outer appearance of Viṣṇu in his fight with the demons in the nether world. If the sun is called bṛhach-chhepas when moving in regions above the horizon, he can be very well described as shipiviṣṭa or “enveloped like shepa,” when moving in the nether world; and there is hardly anything therein of which the deity or his worshippers should be ashamed of. Later Purāṇic tradition represents Viṣṇu as sleeping during this period; but whether we take it as sleep or disease it means one and the same thing. It is the story of Viṣṇu going down to the nether world, dark or diseased, to plant his third step on the head of the Asuras, or in a dark armour to help Indra in his struggle for waters and light, a struggle, which, we have seen, lasted for a long time and resulted in the flowing of waters, the recovery of the dawn and the coming out of the sun in a bright armour after a long and continuous darkness.