dea,
for in the oldest version of the legend he was simply an incarnation
of Vishnu; but as Vishnu was regarded not only as a member of the
Trinity but also the Supreme Being over and above it, Dattatreya as
his representative has come to include in his personality the nature
of all the trio. There is, moreover, something curious in his
character. His love of wine and woman is a singular trait, and is
quite incompatible with the nature of an ideal saint. It smells of
reality, and strongly suggests that he was not a figment of the
religious imagination but an actual man; and this is supported by the
tradition of his association with Kartavirya Arjuna, who, in spite of
all the mythical tales that are related of him, really seems to have
been a king of flesh and blood. Thus we may venture to see in him yet
another example of the metamorphosis so common in India from a saint
to an incarnation of the god worshipped by him.

[Footnote 36: See Vasudevananda Sarasvati's _Datta-purana_ and Ganesa
Narayana Karve's _Dattatreya-sarvasva_.]

[Footnote 37: On these figures see Gopinatha Rau, _Elements of Hindu
Iconography_, i. p. 252 ff. The dogs seem to be connected with the
Vedic Sarama, on whom see Charpentier, _Die Suparnasage_, p. 91.]

V. TWO MODERN INSTANCES

In Northern India, and especially in Bengal, you will often find
Hindus worshipping a god whom they call Satya-narayana and believe to
be an embodiment of Vishnu himself. The observance of this ritual is
believed to bring wealth and all kinds of good fortune; a Sanskrit
sacred legend in illustration of this belief has been created, and you
may buy badly lithographed copies of it in most of the bazaars if you
like, besides which you will find elegant accounts of the god's career
on earth written by quite a number of distinguished Bengali poets of
the last three centuries. But curiously enough this "god," though
quite real, was not a Hindu at all; he was a Bengali Moslem, a fakir,
and the Muhammadans of Bengal, among whom he is known as Satya Pir,
have their own versions of his career, which seem to be much nearer
the truth than those of the Hindus. In their stories he figures simply
as a saint, who busied himself in performing miracles for the benefit
of pious Moslems in distress; and as one legend says that he was the
son of a daughter of [H.]usain Shah, the Emperor of Gaur, and another
brings him into contact with Man Singh, it is evident that tradition
ascribed h