- Chand.

26th Kanda,) and Skanda Purana accordingly deals with the sam subject. The Uttara portions of some of the puranas are clearly later interpolations showing the rise of new sects and faiths.

* "The Tantras as we have said represent Vedic rituals in a mani-fold form, and before any one jumps to the most absurd conclusions about them, I will advise him to read the Tantras in connexion with the Brahmanas, especially the adhvarya portion. And most of the Mantras used in the Tantras will be found taken verbatim from these Brahmanas. As to, their influence, apart from the Srauta and Smarta rituals, all other forms of ritual observed from the Himalayas to the Comorin have been taken from the Tantras and they direct the worship of the Saktas, Saivas and Vaishnavas alike."

Itihasa

The only worship universal in the days of Mahabharata was that of Siva and Siva Linga, and we refer to the stories of Krishna's and Arjuna's Tapas, and the discussion between Asva-tthama and Vyasa. Most of the temples mentioned in the Aranya Parva are temples dedicated to Siva.

Mahabharata

Oriental Scholars point out that the superior castes in the days of Mahabharata were following the worship of Siva, and we quote the following passage from Anusasana Parva, which explains at the same time Rudra's different aspects, the benefic-ient and apparently terrible forms, as the Creator, Protector, and Destroyer.

Lord Krishna says "Large armed Yudhishtira, understand from me the greatness of the glorious, multiform, many-named Rudra. They call Mahadeva, Agni, Isana, MaheSvara, one-eyed, Tryambaka, the Universal-formed and Siva. Brah-mans versed in the Veda know two bodies of this God, one awful, one auspicious, and these two bodies have again many forms. The dire and awful body is fire, lightning, the sun; the auspicious and beautiful body is virtue, water and the moon. The Half of His essence is fire and the other half is called the moon. The one which is His auspicious body practises chastity, while the other which is His most dreadful body, destroys the world. From His being Lord and Great, He is called Mahes-vara. Since He consumes, since He is fiery, fierce, glorious, an eater of flesh, blood and marrow, He is called Rudra. As He is the greatest of the Gods, as His domain is wide and as He preserves the vast Universe, He is called Mahadeva. From His, smoky colour He is called Dhurjati Since He constantly prospers all men in all their acts seeking their welfare (Siva), He is therefore called Siva."

And it can be shown that the picture of God as the fierce and the terrible is not altogether an un-Christian idea. The following paras, we cull from a book called "The woodlands in

Europe "intended for Christian Readers and we could not produce better arguments for the truth of our conception of the Supreme Siva, the Destroyer, and the Creator and the Pre-server (vide p. 6. Sivajnanabodham, English Edition).

"And how about the dead leaves which season after season strew the ground beneath the trees? Is their work done because when their bright summer life is over, they lie softly down to rest under the wintry boughs? Is it only death and nothing beyond? Nay, if it is death, it is death giving place to life. Let us call it rather change, progress, transformation. It must be progress when the last year's leaves make the soil for the next year's flowers, and in so doing serve a set purpose and fulfil a given mission. It mustbe transformation when one thing passes into another, and instead of being annihilated, begins life again in a new shape and form,

"It is interesting to remember that the same snow which weighs down and breaks those fir branches is the nursing mother of the flowers. Softly it comes down upon the tiny seeds and the tender buds and covers them up lovingly, so that from all the stern vigour of the world without, they are safely sheltered. Thus they are getting forward, as it were, and life is already swelling within them. So that when the sun shines and the snow melts, they are ready to burst forth with a rapidity which seems almost miraculous.

"It is not the only force gifted with both preserving and destroying power, according to the aspect in which we vieiv it. The fire refines and purifies but it also destroys, and the same water which rushes down in the cataract with such over-• whelming power, falls in the gentlest of drops upon the thirsty flower-cup, and fills the hollow of the leaf with just the quantity of dew which it needs for its refreshment and sustenance. And in those higher things of which nature is but the type and shadow, the same grand truth holds good, and from our Bibles we learn that the consuming fire and the love that passcth knowledge are two different sides of the same

God. Just and yet merciful, that will by no means clear the guilty, yet showing mercy unto thousands."

Badacayana also touches upon this subject in I. iii. 40 and we quote below the Purvapaksha and Siddhanta views on this question from the commentary of Srjkantha.

"Because of trembling (I. iii. 40).

"In the Kathavallis, in the section treating of the thumb-sized purusha, it is said as follows:

'Whatever there is, the whole world when given forth (from the Brahman) trembles in the breath. (It is) a great terror, the thunderbolts uplifted, those who know it become immortal' (Cit. 6, 2).

"Here a doubt arises as to whether the cause of trembling is the Paramesvara or some other being.

" (Purvapaksha): - Here the Sruti speaks of the trembling of the whole universe by fear caused by the entity denoted by the word breath. It is not right to say that the Parames-vara, who is so sweet-natured as to afford refuge to the whole Universe and who is supremely gracious, is the cause of the trembling of the whole Universe. Therefore, as the word thunderbolt occurs here, it is the thunderbolt that is the cause of trembling. Or it is the vital air which is the cause of trembling because the word breath occurs here. Since the vital air causes the motion of the body, this whole world which is the body, as it were, moves on account of the vital air. Then we can explain the passage, 'whatever there is, the whole world, when given forth (from the Brahman) trembles in the breath.' Then we can also explain the statement that it is a great terror, the thunderbolt uplifted, inasmuch as' lightning, cloud and rain, the thunderbolt which is the source of great terror are produced by action of the air itself.