have been adapted from a local cult in the
mountainous West, and at an early date to have been amalgamated with
that of his next resemblance, the Vedic Rudra; while Krishna-worship
flourished along the Ganges. These are those Dionysos and Herakles of
whom speak the old Greek authorities. One cult is possibly as
venerable as the other, but while Civaism became Brahmanized early,
Krishnaism was adopted much later, and it is for this reason, amongst
others, that despite its modern iniquities Civa has appealed more to
the Brahman than has Krishna.

Megasthenes tells us a good deal about these Hindu representatives of
Herakles and Dionysos. According to him there were Dionysiac festivals
in honor of the latter god (Civa),[66] who belongs where flourishes
the wine, in the Acvaka district, north of the Kabul river. From this
place Civa's worship extended into the East, M[=a]gadha (Beh[=a]r),
around Gokarna in the West, and even to the Kalinga country in the
extreme Southeast. But it was especially native to the mountainous
Northwest, about the 'Gate of Ganges' (north of Delhi, near
Saharampur), and still further north in Kashmeer. In the epic, Civa
has his throne on K[=a]il[=a]sa,[67] the Northern mountain, in the
Him[=a]layas, and Ganges descend from the sky upon his head.

On the other hand, Herakles, of the Ganges land, where grows no wine,
is plainly Krishna, who carries club, discus, and conch. The Greek
cities Methora and Kleisobora are Mathur[=a] and Krishna-pur,
'Krishna-town'; the latter on the Jumna, the former near it on the
same river, capital of the clan which venerated Krishna as its chief
hero and god, the Y[=a]davas. Megasthenes says, also, that Herakles'
daughter is Pandaie, and this agrees with the P[=a]ndya, a southern
development of the epic Gangetic P[=a]ndavas, who especially worship
Krishna in conjunction with the Y[=a]davas. Their South-Indic town,
Mathur[=a], still attests their origin.

In speaking of the relative antiquity of Vishnuism and Civaism one
must distinguish the pantheistic form of these gods from the single
forms. While Civaism,_per se_, that is, the worship of Civa as a great
and terrible god, preceded the same exaltation of Krishna, as is shown
by their respective literary appearance, and even by Megasthenes'
remark that the worship of Dionysos preceded that of Herakles by
fifteen generations, yet did Krishnaism, as a popular pantheism, come
before Civaism as such. Although in the la