tain Meru was set on its peak on his back,
and with the serpent Vasuki as a rope round the mountain the ocean
was churned by the gods for making the divine Amrit or nectar which
gives immortality.

3. As a boar he dived under the sea and raised the earth on his tusks
after it had been submerged by a demon.

4. As Narsingh, the man-lion, he delivered the world from the tyranny
of another demon.

5. As Waman or a dwarf he tricked the King Bali, who had gained
possession over the earth and nether world and was threatening the
heavens, by asking for as much ground as he could cover in three
steps. When his request was derisively granted he covered heaven and
earth in two steps, but on Bali's intercession left him the nether
regions and refrained from making the third step which would have
covered them.

6. As Parasurama [402] he cleared the earth of the Kshatriyas,
who had oppressed the Brahman hermits and stolen the sacred cow,
by a slaughter of them thrice seven times repeated.

7. As Rama, the divine king of Ajodhia or Oudh, he led an expedition
to Ceylon for the recovery of his wife Sita, who had been abducted
by Rawan, the demon king of Ceylon. This story probably refers to
an early expedition of the Aryans to southern India, in which they
may have obtained the assistance of the Munda tribes, represented by
Hanuman and his army of apes.

8. As Krishna he supported the Pandavas in their war against the
Kauravas, and at the head of the Yadava clan founded the city of
Dwarka in Gujarat, where he was afterwards killed. The popular group
of legends about Krishna in his capacity of a cowherd in the forests of
Mathura was perhaps at first distinct and afterwards combined with the
story of the Yadava prince. [403] But it is in this latter character as
the divine cowherd that Krishna is most generally known and worshipped.

9. As Buddha he was the great founder of the religion known by his
name; the Brahmans, by making Buddha an incarnation of Vishnu, have
thus provided a connecting link between Buddhism and Hinduism.

In his tenth incarnation he will come again as Nishka-lanki or the
stainless one for the final regeneration of the world, and his advent
is expected by some Hindus, who worship him in this form.

3. Worship of Vishnu and Vaishnava doctrines.

In the Central Provinces Vishnu is worshipped as Narayan Deo, who is
identified with the sun, or as Parmeshwar, the supreme beneficent
god. He is also muc