are employed in the original.[16]

The sectarian monotheism of the Pur[=a]nas never resulted in
dispensing with the pantheon. The Hindu monotheist is a pantheist, and
whether sectarian or philosophical, he kept and added to his
pantheon.[17] Indra is still for warriors, Maruts for husbandmen,
although old views shift somewhat. So for example, in the K[=u]rma
Pur[=a]na the Gandharvas are added for the C[=u]dras.[18] The
fourfoldness, which we have shown in the epic to be characteristic of
Vishnu, is now represented by the military epithet _caturvy[=u]has_
(agmen quadratum), in that the god represents peace, wisdom, support,
and renunciation; though, as a matter of fact, he is _avy[=u]ha,
i.e_., without any of these.[19] Starting with the physical 'god of
the four quarters,' one gets even in the epic the 'controller of
four,' or perfect person, conceived like [Greek: aner tetragonos].
Tennyson's 'four-square to all the winds that blow' is a good
connecting link in the thought. The Pur[=a]nas are a mine of legend,
although most of the stories seem to be but epic tales, more or less
distorted. Nala 'the great-great-grandson of R[=a]ma' is described
after the history of R[=a]ma himself; the installation of P[=u]ru,
when his father had passed over his eldest son, and such reminiscences
of the epic are the stock in trade of the legendary writers.[20]

The origin of the four castes;[21] the descriptions of hell,
somewhat embellished,[22] where the 'sinful are cooked in fire';[23] the
exaltation of Vishnu as Krishna or K[=a]ma in one, and that of Civa in
another--these and similar aspects are reflections of epic matter,
spirit, tone, and language, only the faith is still fiercer in
religious matters, and the stories are fainter in historical
references. According to the Pur[=a]na last cited: "There is no
expiation for one that bows to a phallic emblem," _i.e_., Civaite, and
"all the B[=a]uddhas are heretics";[24] and according to the K[=u]rma
Pur[=a]na: "Vishnu is the divinity of the gods; Civa, of the devils,"
although the preceding verses teach, in the spirit of the Divine Song,
that each man's divinity is that which he conceives to be the
divinity. Such is the concluding remark made by Vasistha in
adjudicating the strife between the Vishnuite and Civaite sectaries of
the epic heroes.[25] The relation that the Puranic literature bears to
religion in the minds of its authors is illustrated by the remark of
the N[=a]rad[=i]ya