o
rid earth of the giant R[=a]vana,[95] and to do so took the form of
R[=a]ma. As Krishnaism has given rise to a number of sects that
worship Krishna as Vishnu, so Ramaism is the modern cult of R[=a]ma as
Vishnu. Both of these sects oppose the Vishnuite that is not inclined
to be sectarian; all three oppose the Civaite; and all four of these
oppose the orthodox Brahman, who assigns supreme godship to Civa or
Vishnu as little as does the devotee of these gods in unsectarian form
to Krishna or R[=a]ma.

Civa is on all sides opposed to Vishnu. The Greek account of the third
century B.C. says that he taught the Hindus to dance the kordax, but
at this time there appears to have been no such phallic worship in his
honor as is recorded in the pseudo-epic. Civa is known in early
Brahmanic and in Buddhistic writings, and even as the
bearer-of-the-moon, Candracekhara, he contrasts with Vishnu, as his
lightning-form and mountain-habitat differ from the sun-form and
valley-home of his rival. This dire god is conceived of as ascetic
partly because he is gruesome, partly because he is magical in power.
Hence he is the true type of the awful magical Yogi, and as such
appealed to the Brahman. Originally he is only a fearful magical god,
great, and even all-pervading, but, as seen in the Brahmanic
Catarudriya hymn, he is at first in no sense a pantheistic deity. In
this hymn there is a significant addition made to the earlier version.
In the first form of the hymn it is said that Rudra, who is here Civa,
is the god of bucolic people; but the new version adds 'and of all
people.' Here Civa appears as a wild, diabolical figure, 'the god of
incantations,' whose dart is death; and half of the hymn is taken up
with entreaties to the god to spare the speaker. He is praised, in
conjunction with trees, of which he is the lord, as the one 'clad in
skins,' the 'lord of cattle,' the 'lord of paths,' the 'cheater,' the
'deceiver.' When he is next clearly seen, in the epic, he is the god
to whom are offered human sacrifices, and his special claim to worship
is the phallus; while the intermediate literature shows glimpses of
him only in his simple Brahmanic form of terror. It has long been
known that Civaite phallic worship was not borrowed from the
Southerners, as was once imagined, and we venture with some scholars
to believe that it was due rather to late Greek influence than to that
of any native wild tribe.[96]

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