Vedic Mythology c5.s1.t5.3

c5.s1.t5.3

That the idea of motion is characteristic of Viṣṇu is shown by other expressions besides the three steps. The epithets ‘wide-going’ and ‘wide-striding’ are almost entirely limited to Viṣṇu, as well as the verb *vi-kram*. The latter is also employed in allusion to the sun, spoken of as the variegated stone placed in the midst of heaven, which took strides (5, 47³). Viṣṇu is also swift *eṣa* (otherwise said only once of Bṛhaspati) or ‘swift-going’ *evayā*, *evayāvan* (otherwise connected only with the Maruts). Coupled with the constant idea of swift and far-extending motion is that of regularity. In taking his three strides Viṣṇu observes laws (1, 22¹⁸). Like other deities typical of regular recurrence (Agni, Soma, Sūrya, Uṣas), Viṣṇu is the ‘ancient germ of order’, and an ordainer, who (like Agni, Sūrya, Uṣas) is both ancient and recent (1, 156²⁻⁴). In the same words as the sun-god Savitṛ (5, 81³), he is said (1, 154¹; 6, 49¹³) to have measured out the earthly spaces. With this may also be compared the statement that Varuṇa measured out the spaces with the sun (p. 11). Viṣṇu is in one passage (1, 155⁶ cp. 1, 164⁴. ⁴⁸) described as setting in motion like a revolving wheel his 90 steeds (= days) with their four names (= seasons). This can hardly refer to anything but the solar year of 360 days. In the AV. (5, 26⁷) Viṣṇu is besought to bestow heat on the sacrifice. In the Brāhmaṇas Viṣṇu’s head when cut off becomes the sun. In post-Vedic literature one of Viṣṇu’s weapons is a rolling wheel⁸ which is represented like the sun (cp. RV. 5, 63⁴), and his vehicle is Garuḍa, chief of birds, who is of brilliant lustre like Agni, and is also called *garutmat* and *suparṇa*, two terms already applied to the sun-bird in the RV. Finally the post-Vedic *kaustubha* or breast-jewel of Viṣṇu has been explained as the sun by Kuhn⁹. Thus though Viṣṇu is no longer clearly connected with a natural phenomenon, the evidence appears to justify the inference that he was originally conceived as the sun, not in his general character, but as the personified swiftly moving luminary, which with vast strides traverses the whole universe. This explanation would be borne out by the derivation from the root *viṣ*¹⁰, which is used tolerably often in the RV. and primarily means ‘to be active’ (PW.). According to this, Viṣṇu would be the ‘active one’ as representing solar motion. Oldenberg, however, thinks that every definite trace of solar character is lacking in Viṣṇu, that he was from the beginning conceived only as a traverser of wide space, and that no concrete natural conception corresponded to the three steps. The number of the steps he attributes simply to the fondness for triads in mythology.