The Religion and Philosophy of the Veda and Upanishads v1.c16.s4.1

v1.c16.s4.1

In the Rigveda Viṣṇu can claim but five whole hymns, and his name occurs not more than a hundred times in all. He is said to be young, but vast in body, not a child, and his one action is the taking of three strides: hence he is called the wide strider. Of these strides two are visible, the third is beyond the ken even of the birds, or, as it is also put, his third name is in the bright region of the heaven. But again it is said that the liberal see the highest place of Viṣṇu like an eye in the sky. The highest place is Viṣṇu's favourite dwelling, there also are the gods and pious men, there is Indra and the many-horned swiftly moving cows, doubtless the clouds. There can be little doubt as to what the three steps are: the later Saṁhitās, the Brāhmaṇas, and Çākapūṇi,⁴ a predecessor of Yāska, agree in equating them with the three divisions of the universe, and the alternative view of Aurṇavābha that they correspond with the rising sun, the zenith, and the setting is in flat contradiction with the references of the Vedas to the nature of the highest place. The motive for the strides is variously given as for men in distress, to bestow the earth upon man as a dwelling, to obtain wide-stepping existence or the existence of men. Again Viṣṇu is essentially the swift of motion and an ordainer: he measures out the earthly spaces. He sets in motion his ninety steeds with the four names, an allusion clearly to the 360 days of the year, divided into four seasons. He is a dweller on the mountains, and in the Yajurveda¹ he is called the lord of mountains.