creation

the hero

Monsters
Herakles
Theseus
Perseus
The Trojan War and Achilles
After Troy
The Foundations of Rome
Krishna
The Arthurian Legend
Sigurd and Beowulf


goddesses

gods

tricksters

afterlife

love

Vishnu


Vishnu

In the Rigveda Vishnu, the "wide-strider", is repeatedly praised for having taken three strides that measured out and   pervaded the cosmos, this affirming the habitable universe for gods and humans alike. He is a friend and ally of Indra, helping him in his conflict with Vritra and in spreading out the spaces between heaven and earth. He is benevolent, never inimical to humanity, and willing and able to bestow favours to his worshippers.

Vishnu's pervasiveness is also apparent in his identification with the cosmic pillar, the centre of the univers which leads to and supports the heavens; in ritual. This is the stake to which the Vedic sacrificial victim was tied. In later Vedic literature, Vishnu's activities take on a more narrative form - for example, when he takes the form of a dwarf to regain the world from a demon. His benevolence and his activities are beginning to be given expression in a form which in due course reaches its culmination in the avatar concept.

Vishnu's consort Shri, goddess of prosperity and good fortune, known also as Lakshmi, is often reckoned one of the good things that emerged from the churning of the ocean : she is naturally attracted to Vishnu, who oversees the operation, and he in turn is entitled to the lovely goddess by virtue of his role. Shri was consistently linked with Vishnu by the late epic period, but several early myths relate how Indra loses, acquires or regains the boon of Shri's presence, which is associated with fertility. One myth tells how when she sat down next to Indra he began to pour down rain and the crops grew abundantly.