Introduction
Vishnu is one of the principal deities of Hinduism, and the supreme God for Vaishnavas, the followers of Vaishnavism, which is one of the largest Hindu traditions. In the classical scheme of three gods (the Trimurti), Vishnu is the preserver and sustainer of the universe, with Brahma the creator and Shiva the destroyer or transformer. In Vaishnavism, however, he is not one of three but the source of all: the one who creates, sustains and dissolves the worlds, and the goal of all devotion.
Vishnu is known for his avatars (avataras), the forms in which he descends into the world to restore dharma, above all Rama and Krishna, and for his cosmic form as Narayana, who rests on the serpent Shesha on the ocean of milk. His wife is Lakshmi, the goddess of fortune. He is worshipped from the Himalayas to Sri Lanka, and in past centuries from Cambodia to Bali.
Family
- Father: Kashyapa
- Mother: Aditi
- Wives: Lakshmi, Bhudevi
- Siblings: Surya, Indra, Varuna, Mitra, Aryaman, Bhaga, Dhata, Amsha, Pushan, Tvashtri, Savitri, Garuda, Aruna
In the Puranic account, Vishnu is one of the twelve Adityas, the sons of Kashyapa and Aditi. This is the Vedic Vishnu, the younger companion of Indra. In the Vaishnava theology, he is also eternal and without parents, and the Adityas' Vishnu (born as Vamana, the dwarf) is one of his avatars.
Names and epithets
The name is usually derived from the root vish, "to pervade" or "to enter": the one who fills the universe. His best-known names include:
- Narayana, "the one who rests on the waters", or "the refuge of beings"
- Hari, "the remover" (of sorrow and sin)
- Keshava, Madhava, Govinda and Vasudeva
- Padmanabha, "with a lotus in his navel", and Damodara, Janardana, Achyuta, "the unfallen"
- Jagannatha, "lord of the world", and Venkateshvara (Tirupati), Ranganatha (Srirangam), Vithoba (Pandharpur) and Badrinath, in regional forms
The Vishnu Sahasranama, the thousand names of Vishnu, is one of the most widely recited hymns in Hinduism. In the Mahabharata (Anushasana Parva), the dying Bhishma teaches it to Yudhishthira.
Vishnu in the Vedas
Vishnu is a fairly minor god in the Rigveda, with only about six hymns addressed to him alone, but his character is already distinctive. He is the god who "strode" across the universe in three steps (trivikrama), measuring out the earth, the atmosphere and the sky, and holding them apart. His highest step (paramam padam), where there is a spring of honey, is the goal of the pious. He is often paired with Indra, whom he helps against Vritra, as in Rigveda 6.69.
In the Brahmana texts, his position rises. The Aitareya Brahmana calls Agni the lowest and Vishnu the highest of the gods, and the Shatapatha Brahmana identifies Vishnu with the sacrifice itself. In the later Vedic literature, Narayana appears as a supreme being, in the Narayana Sukta and the Mahanarayana Upanishad.
Development of Vaishnavism
Vaishnavism grew from the merging of several currents. One was the worship of the Vedic Vishnu. Another was the Bhagavata movement, devoted to Vasudeva-Krishna as the supreme God, which is attested from the last centuries BCE: a stone pillar at Besnagar (Vidisha), raised in about 100 BCE by Heliodorus, a Greek ambassador, honours Vasudeva as "god of gods" and is topped with Garuda. A third was the worship of Narayana. By the Gupta period (fourth to sixth century CE), Vaishnavism was a major religion, and several Gupta kings called themselves Parama Bhagavata, "supreme devotees of the Lord".
The Pancharatra tradition, with its own scriptures (the Pancharatra Samhitas), developed temple worship and the theology of Vishnu's four emanations (vyuhas): Vasudeva, Sankarshana, Pradyumna and Aniruddha.
From the sixth to ninth centuries, the twelve Alvars, Tamil poets who were devotees of Vishnu, composed hymns that were collected as the Nalayira Divya Prabandham. The 108 temples they praised are the Divya Desams. Later, the great teachers (acharyas) founded the main philosophical schools:
- Ramanuja (eleventh to twelfth century): Vishishtadvaita, qualified non-dualism
- Madhva (thirteenth century): Dvaita, dualism
- Nimbarka: Dvaitadvaita, and Vallabha: Shuddhadvaita
- Chaitanya (sixteenth century, Bengal): the Gaudiya tradition of devotion to Krishna
There are four traditional Vaishnava sampradayas: the Sri, Brahma, Rudra and Kumara sampradayas.
Nature and cosmic form
In the Puranas, before creation, Vishnu as Narayana rests on the coils of the serpent Shesha (Ananta) on the ocean of milk, in yogic sleep (yoga nidra). When the time of creation comes, a lotus grows from his navel, and from it Brahma is born and creates the world. At the end of an age, Vishnu reabsorbs the universe. In this picture, he is the supporter of all, and Brahma and Shiva are aspects of his activity, or, in Shaiva texts, Vishnu is the one who is subordinate to Shiva. The two views are one of the main differences between Vaishnavism and Shaivism.
His heaven is Vaikuntha, whose gatekeepers are Jaya and Vijaya, or the ocean of milk (Kshira Sagara).
Iconography
Vishnu is shown as a dark-blue, four-armed man, the colour of a rain cloud, in yellow garments, wearing a crown, the Vaijayanti garland and the Kaustubha jewel on his chest. On his chest is the mark Shrivatsa, the curl of hair that is the abode of Lakshmi. His four hands hold:
- the conch (Panchajanya), the sound of creation
- the discus (Sudarshana Chakra), the wheel of time and justice
- the mace (Kaumodaki), strength
- the lotus (padma), purity and creation
His vehicle is the eagle Garuda. In the Vishnu Purana's symbolic reading, the Kaustubha jewel stands for the soul, the mace for intellect and the conch for the elements. He is shown in several postures: standing, seated, reclining on Shesha (as in Anantashayana, Sheshashayi), and in his forms as an avatar.
Consorts
His wife is Lakshmi (Sri), the goddess of wealth, fortune and grace. The Earth goddess Bhudevi is also regarded as his wife, and in South Indian Vaishnavism, temple images show Vishnu with Sri and Bhu, and often a third, Neela Devi, who is associated with Nappinnai, the wife of Krishna in Tamil devotional poetry. Sri, Bhu and Neela together are said to represent the three powers: grace, support and the power of action or of devotion.
Avatars
Vishnu's avatars ("descents") are one of the defining features of the tradition. The Bhagavad Gita (4.7 to 4.8) says that whenever dharma declines, he takes birth to protect the good and destroy the wicked. The standard list has ten forms, the Dashavatara: Matsya (fish), Kurma (tortoise), Varaha (boar), Narasimha (man-lion), Vamana (dwarf), Parashurama, Rama, Krishna, Buddha and Kalki. The Bhagavata Purana gives twenty-two avatars and says they are innumerable. Others include Nara-Narayana, Kapila, Dattatreya, Hayagriva, Dhanvantari and Mohini.
Major stories
- Trivikrama: as the dwarf Vamana, he took the three worlds from the Asura king Bali in three steps.
- The churning of the ocean: he took the form of the tortoise Kurma to support Mount Mandara, and later, as Mohini, distributed the nectar of immortality to the gods.
- Gajendra Moksha: when an elephant king, Gajendra, was seized by a crocodile, he called on Vishnu, who came on Garuda and freed him. The story is told in the Bhagavata Purana as an image of the devotee's rescue.
- Ambarisha and Durvasa: the sage Durvasa tried to curse the devout king Ambarisha, and Vishnu's discus pursued the sage until Ambarisha asked it to stop.
- Prahlada: he appeared as Narasimha to protect his devotee Prahlada from Hiranyakashipu.
- Bhrigu's test: the sage Bhrigu, testing who was greatest among the gods, kicked Vishnu on the chest. Vishnu was not angry, and honoured the mark of the foot, the Shrivatsa.
- Madhu and Kaitabha: two demons who arose from Vishnu's ear wax were killed by him, which gives him the name Madhusudana. Devi Mahatmya tells the story as an act of the Goddess in Vishnu's sleep.
- Tulsi and the Shaligrama: in the story of the demon Jalandhara's wife Vrinda, Vishnu is cursed to become a stone, the Shaligrama, and Vrinda becomes the tulsi plant. This is the origin of the worship of both.
Worship and festivals
Vaishnavas worship Vishnu in temples, at home shrines (with a Shaligrama stone and a tulsi plant) and by chanting. The best-known mantras are the eight-syllable Om Namo Narayanaya and the twelve-syllable Om Namo Bhagavate Vasudevaya. Vaishnavas mark the forehead with a tilaka, usually a vertical mark in the shape of a U or a Y (the Urdhva Pundra).
The eleventh day of each lunar fortnight (Ekadashi) is a day of fasting for Vishnu. Vaikuntha Ekadashi (Mukkoti Ekadashi), in December or January, is especially important in South India, when the "gate of heaven" in temples is opened. Devshayani Ekadashi, in the month of Ashadha, is said to mark the beginning of Vishnu's four-month sleep (Chaturmasya), and Prabodhini Ekadashi, in the month of Kartika, his awakening, after which the marriage of tulsi and Vishnu (Tulsi Vivah) is celebrated. The festivals of his avatars, including Rama Navami, Krishna Janmashtami, Narasimha Jayanti and Vamana Jayanti, are also widely observed.
Major temples
- Tirumala Venkateshvara Temple, in Tirupati, Andhra Pradesh, one of the most visited pilgrimage sites in the world
- Sri Ranganathaswamy Temple in Srirangam, Tamil Nadu, one of the largest functioning temple complexes
- Padmanabhaswamy Temple, in Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala, where Vishnu is shown reclining on Shesha
- Badrinath, in the Himalayas, Jagannath in Puri and Dwarka, which are among the four Char Dham pilgrimage sites
- Vithoba Temple in Pandharpur, Maharashtra, and Guruvayur, Kerala
- Angkor Wat in Cambodia, built in the early twelfth century by King Suryavarman II, was dedicated to Vishnu
Beyond India and beyond Hinduism
Vaishnavism spread across South-East Asia in the first millennium. Vishnu images have been found in Cambodia, Vietnam (Champa), Thailand and Java, and the kings of these regions often identified themselves with him. In Sri Lanka, Vishnu (Upulvan) is regarded by many Buddhists as one of the guardian deities of the island. In Jainism, Krishna appears as one of the nine Vasudevas in the Jain accounts of great figures. The Buddha is included among the avatars of Vishnu in the Puranic tradition, but Buddhists do not accept this.
Meaning
Vishnu represents preservation, order and grace. The idea that God descends into the world in forms suited to each age gives Vaishnavism its devotional character, with stories of Rama and Krishna as central texts of devotion, and the relation between the devotee and the divine as one of love.