Madonna, the kind
and compassionate goddess who helps and pities all, appears in later
Buddhism but for some reason this train of thought has not been usual
in India. Lakshmi, Sarasvati and Sita are benevolent, but they hold no
great position in popular esteem,[353] and the being who attracts
millions of worshippers under such names as Kali, Durga, or Mahadevi,
though she has many forms and aspects, is most commonly represented as
a terrible goddess who demands offerings of blood. The worship of this
goddess or goddesses, for it is hard to say if she is one or many, is
treated of in a separate chapter. Though in shrines dedicated to Siva
his female counterpart or energy (Sakti) also receives recognition,
yet she is revered as the spouse of her lord to whom honour is
primarily due. But in Saktist worship adoration is offered to the
Sakti as being the form in which his power is made manifest or even as
the essential Godhead.

3

Let us now pass on to Vishnu. Though not one of the great gods of the
Veda, he is mentioned fairly often and with respect. Indian
commentators and comparative mythologists agree that he is a solar
deity. His chief exploit is that he took (or perhaps in the earlier
version habitually takes) three strides. This was originally a
description of the sun's progress across the firmament but grew into a
myth which relates that when the earth was conquered by demons,
Vishnu became incarnate as a dwarf and induced the demon king to
promise him as much space as he could measure in three steps. Then,
appearing in his true form, he strode across earth and heaven and
recovered the world for mankind. His special character as the
Preserver is already outlined in the Veda. He is always benevolent: he
took his three steps for the good of men: he established and preserves
the heavens and earth. But he is not the principal solar deity of the
Rig Veda: Surya, Savitri and Pushan receive more invocations. Though
one hymn says that no one knows the limits of his greatness, other
passages show that he has no pre-eminence, and even in the Mahabharata
and the Vishnu-Purana itself he is numbered among the Adityas or
sons of Aditi. In the Brahmanas, he is somewhat more important than
in the Rig Veda,[354] though he has not yet attained to any position
like that which he afterwards occupies.

Just as for Siva, so for Vishnu we have no clear record of the steps
by which he advanced from a modest rank to the position of