THE HISTORY OF THE DEVIL AND THE IDEA OF EVIL FROM THE EARLIEST TIMES TO PRESENT

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much is sure: the Buddha has been received by the Brahmans as one of the members of the Hindu Pantheon.

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The Hindu deity that is nearest in spirit to the Buddha avatar is Jagannath, the god of love and mercy.

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The tenth avatar has not yet been completed. Vishnu is expected to appear on a winged white horse to reward the virtuous, convert the sinners, and destroy all evil.

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The horse has one foot raised, and when it places its foot down, the time of the incarnation will find its fulfilment.

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The third person of the Indian trinity is Siva, the Auspicious One, representing the end of the world and its regeneration. He is commonly represented by the linga as a symbol of the creative faculty and by the all-devouring fire, the tongued flame of which is pictured in a triangle turning its point

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upwards

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SHIVA DANCING SURROUNDED BY A HALO OF FLAMES. (Bronze Statue. Musée Guimet.)

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Sir Monier Monier Williams (in Brahmanism and Hinduism, p. 68) says of this deity, which is "more mystical and less human than the incarnated Vishnu," that his symbol, the linga, is "never in the mind of a Saiva (or Siva-worshipper) connected with indecent ideas, nor with sexual love." The linga, or, as the Romans called it, the phallus, the male organ of generation, becomes at the first dawn of civilisation, almost among all the nations of the world, an object of great awe and reverence. As the symbol of the creative principle it is regarded as the most essential attribute of both the God-Creator himself and all those who hold authority in his name. The linga develops in the hand of the medicine man into a wand, in the hand of the priest into a staff,

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THE BUDDHA AVATAR OR VISHNU'S INCARNATION AS THE ENLIGHTENED TEACHER OF MANKIND

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THE KALKI AVATAR OR THE WHITE HORSE INCARNATION.

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SIVA WORSHIP. (Reproduced from Picart.)

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and in the hand of the king into a sceptre. The yoni, or female organ, is regarded as the symbol of Siva's consort, Parvati, and is worshipped in connexion with the linga by the sect of the Sactis. Perforated rocks are considered as emblems of the yoni, through which pilgrims pass for the purpose of being regenerated, a ceremony in which Hindus place great faith for its sin-expelling significance. (See Charles Coleman, The Mythology of The Hindus, p. 175.)

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SIVA AND PARVATI. (Reproduced from Hermann Göll)

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Siva's consort, Kali, is one of the greatest divinities of India. She is the goddess of a hundred names, representing not only the power of nature, but also the ruthless cruelty of nature's laws. She is called Parvati, the blessed mother, and Durga, which means "hard to go through," symbolising war and all kinds of danger. She is in the pantheon of modern Hinduism the central figure; and in spite of the universality of Brahma in philosophical

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speculations, in spite of the omnipresence of Vishnu and his constant reincarnations as told in ancient