e case--called Harihara (or Sankara-Narayana), that is
Siva and Vishnu combined. The Harivamsa contains a hymn addressed to
him: fairly ancient sculptures attest the prevalence of his worship in
the Deccan, especially at Badami, he was once the chief deity of
Camboja and he is still popular in south India. Here besides being
worshipped under his own name he has undergone a singular
transformation and has probably been amalgamated with some aboriginal
deity. Under the designation of Ayenar (said to be a corruption of
Harihara) he is extensively worshipped as a village god and reputed to
be the son of Siva and Vishnu, the latter having kindly assumed the
form of a woman to effect his birth.

Another form of this inclination to combine and unite the various
manifestations of the Divine is the tendency to worship groups of
gods, a practice as old as the Vedas. Thus many temples are dedicated
to a group of five, namely, Siva, Vishnu, Durga, Ganesa and the Sun
and it is stated that every Hindu worships these five deities in his
daily prayers.[398] The Trimurti, or figure of Brahma, Siva and
Vishnu, illustrates the worship of groups. Its importance has
sometimes been over-estimated by Europeans from an idea that it
corresponded to the Christian Trinity, but in reality this triad is
late and has little significance. No stress is laid on the idea of
three in one and the number of persons can be increased. The
Brahma-vaivarta Purana for instance adds Krishna to Brahma, Siva
and Vishnu. The union of three personalities is merely a way of
summing up the chief attributes of the All-God. Thus the Vishnu
Purana[399] extols Vishnu as being "Hiranyagarbha, Hari and
Sankara (_i.e._ Brahma, Vishnu and Siva), the creator, preserver and
destroyer," but in another passage as him who is "Brahma, Isvara and
spirit (Pums), who with the three Gunas (qualities of matter) is the
cause of creation, preservation and destruction...." The origin of the
triad, so far as it has any doctrinal or philosophical meaning, is
probably to be sought in the personification of the three Gunas.[400]

FOOTNOTES:

[Footnote 334: See especially Dig. Nik. XX. and XXXII.]

[Footnote 335: But the lists may be pieces of folk-lore older than the
suttas in which they are incorporated.]

[Footnote 336: The Dionysus of Megasthenes is a deity who comes from
the west with an army that suffers from the heat of the plains. If we
could be certain that he meant Siva by Dio