Vedic Mythology c5.s1.t5.2

c5.s1.t5.2

The opinion that Viṣṇu’s three steps refer to the course of the sun is almost unanimous. But what did they originally represent? The purely naturalistic interpretation favoured by most European scholars⁵ and by Yāska’s predecessor Aurṇavābha (Nir. 12, 19) takes the three steps to mean the rising, culminating, and setting of the sun. The alternative view, which prevails throughout the younger Vedas, the Brāhmaṇas, as well as post-Vedic literature, and was supported by Yāska’s predecessor Śākapūṇi and is favoured by BERGAIGNE and the present writer⁸, interprets the three steps as the course of the solar deity through the three divisions of the universe. With the former interpretation is at variance the fact that the third step of Viṣṇu shows no trace of being connected with sunset, but on the contrary is identical with the highest step. The alternative view does not conflict with what evidence the RV. itself supplies, and is supported by the practically unvarying tradition in India beginning with the later Vedas.