Materials for the Study of the Early History of the Vaishnava Sect c8.23

c8.23

Colebrooke thought with Sāyaṇa that the taking of three steps might have formed the groundwork of the Paurāṇik legend of the Dwarf Avatāra. Wilson, however, remarked that it might have been suggestive of the fiction; but no allusion to the notion of Avatāras occurred in the Veda. As pointed out by Barnett ¹ the old mythical feature of the three imperishable ² steps of Viṣṇu acquires a new spiritual meaning in later times and the ‘three immortal steps’ that lead to heaven are interpreted in a Besnagar inscription of the second century B. C. as denoting dama, tyāga and apramāda, self-control, renunciation and vigilance.