ow, continually suggesting and executing acts that are at variance
with the knightly code of honor. He is king of Dv[=a]rak[=a] and ally
of the epic heroes. But again, he is divine, the highest divinity, the
_avatar_ of the All-god Vishnu. The sectaries that see in Civa rather
than in Vishnu the one and only god, have no such representative to
which to refer. For Civa, as the historical descendant of the Vedic
Rudra,--although even in his case there is an intrusion of local
worship upon an older Vedic belief,--represents a terror-god, either
the lightning, the fairest of the gods, or, when he appears on earth,
a divine horror, or, again, "a very handsome young man."[1] These two
religions, of Vishnu as Krishna and of Civa alone, are not so much
united in the epic as they are super-imposed upon the older worship of
Brahm[=a], and indeed, in such a way that Civa-worship, in a
pantheistic sense, appears to be the latest of the three beliefs that
have influenced the story.[2]

The personal pantheism of the older Vishnuism has in its form and
teachings so close a resemblance to the Christian religion that it has
always had a great attraction for occidental readers; while the real
power of its "Divine Song" gives the latter a charm possessed by few
of the scriptures of India. This Divine Song (or Song of the Blessed
One) is at present a Krishnaite version of an older Vishnuite poem,
and this in turn was at first an unsectarian work, perhaps a late
Upanishad. It is accepted by Vishnuites as a kind of New Testament;
and with the New Testament it has in truth much in common. It must be
pointed out at the outset that there is here the closest connection
with the later Upanishads. The verse, like that of the Katha Upanishad
(quoted above), which stands almost at the beginning of the Song, is
typical of the relation of the Song to the Upanishad. It will be
noticed how the impersonal 'That,' _i.e_., absolute being, _brahma_,
changes almost at once to the personal He (_[=a]tm[=a]_ as Lord). As
shows the whole Song, _brahma_ throughout is understood to be
personal.[3] The caste-position of the priest in the Git[=a] is owing
to the religious exaltation of the poem; and the precedence of
S[=a]man is not unusual in the latest portions of the epic (see
below).]

To understand the religion which reaches its culmination in the epic
no better course could be pursued than to study the whole of the
Divine Song. It is, however, too long a pro