G. VAISHNAVIS (VISHNUISM): Vishnu (the Vedic Heaveniy King;
Cat. 188); Vishvarupa (the almighty), Vaikunthanatha (Lord of
Paradise), Narayana (creator, also Padmanabha, Anantashayin,
Seshashayin), Lakshminatha or Srinafa (Lord of Sri-Lakshmi the
goddess of luck); 24 old forms, such as Keshava, Damodara,
Vosudeva, and others, His ten incarnations (Avatara) are more
populär: Matsya (fish), Kurma (fortoise), Varaha (boar), with
Bhudevi (earth), Nrisimha (man-lion), Vamana (dwarf), the same
as Trivikrama (conqueror of the three worlds), Parashurama (a
Brahmin hero), Rama (the hero of the Ramayana epic), Krishna
(the shepherd god, a hero of the Mahabharata epic and teacher
of the Bhagavadgita, the holiest Hindu scripture); the wives Ruk-
mini and Satyabhama, Buddha (reinterpretation of the tounder
of Buddhism) and Kalkin (the redeemer of the fufure, apparently
the same as Yashodharman, liberator of India from fhe Huns in
the sixth Century A. D.). All these have been more or less dis-
placed since the fifteenth Century by Krishna and Rama, whose
names today for practical purposes simpiy mean God. The myth
of the love of Krishna for the shepherd-girls (Gopis) of the coun-
try of Mathura, parficularly for Radha and her dancing (Rasa-
mandala) in the Brinda Forest, has become the song of the
mystic love betweeen God and the soul. Rama and Sita (ab-
ducted by the giant Ravana and set free again) are fhe ideal
man and wife, Rama the ideal king. The monkey king Hanuman,
however, has become the most populär mediator with Rama.
The part played by all these godheads and their types has
changed continuously. Until the Gupta period Buddhism domi-
nated, at first only hinting al Buddha (footprints, lotuses, Tree of
Eniighfenment, Dharmacakra, Wheel of Law, Stupa), then repre-
senting him as a clothed Yogi with a lock of hair between his
brows (urna) and an excrescence (ushnisha) on the crown of his
head. The Bodhisattvas, however, wore princely clofhing. The
Jaina sainfs are similar io the Buddha figures (standing or seated
in the Yoga Position), but they are naked, generally have no
excrescence on the crown of the head, and are accompanied by
a Yaksha or a Yakshi. The flower of the Sivaitic-Vishnuistic sculp-
ture falls in the period of the third io the twelfth Century, persisi-
ing in the south up to the present day. Siva (black or white) is
always recognisable by his ascetic hair-style, fhe trident (frishula),
the drum made of skulls (damaru) and his bull Nandin. Vishnu
(blue) wears royal jewelry and a crown, holds a club, a lotus,
a Shell and a flywheel and rides on the eagle Garuda: Rama
and Krishna are blue-skinned, wear yellow robes, Krishna with
peacock feathers in his crown and is offen playing a flute (venu,
murali), surrounded by cows. In the art of the Mohammedan
period, especially at the Rajpuf Courts, the gods generally wear
the Court dress of the period. Religious picfures (murti, pratima,
arca) were made into a habitaiion for the god by special rites.
Applied Art
The character of Indian handicrafts is decided by the climate,
which for a great pari of the year favours sitfing and lying on
the ground: beds of very simple consfruction (a few rods and
Straps), arm-chairs and thrones (the privilege of princes), small
stools, chesfs (offen of mefal); they were offen inlaid with pre-
cious mefal and sfones or richly-carved ivory. Of brass (but also
iron) articles it is usual fo find oil lamps (offen in fhe shape of
a girl: Dipalakshmi), jewel-cases and pomade-boxes, perfume
flasks, writing-cases, wafer-pipes and eating Utensils. Silver and
gold were used for jewelry and also in great quantities for em-
bossed and chased doors in temples, fombs and palaces, buf
iiffle of this Work has been preserved from ancienf times. For
swords, Arabian and European (including many German) blades
were offen preferred, the hilf consisting of steel, walrus ivory,
jade or crysfal inlaid with silver. A characteristic type of dagger
(Kattar) has an H-shaped stirrup handle. Cannon and muskefs
(although known In fhe fourteenth cenfury), came into general
use only from the sixteenth Century onwards, generally very long
muzzle-loaders with a forked support. Chainmail and plate-
amour were known since the Scythlan Invasion, but owing fo the
heat were only put on for the baftle itself; it become more
general in Mohammedan times; the plate-armour consisfs as a
rule only of four simple breast-plates (charaina), offen beaufi-
fuily worked in niello. Shields were of hippopotamus hide or
metal, offen richly incised or painted, but never with coats of
arms. Simple potfery ufensils were customary from fhe earliesf
times, offen richly painted. Glazed poftery and also porcelain,
imported from China, Persia and finally Europe, were customary
almost exclusively with the Mohammedans; it was rejected by
fhe Hindus on ritual grounds, although the Hindus admifted
glazed wall-tiles and decorative vases. Indian applied art is at
its best in textiles; Lunghis, Odhnis, Dopattas, Saris, Kamerbands,
etc., swathed artistically in one piece round the whole body, the
hips, the shoulders, the head (the turban, pagri), transparent as
a spider's web or heavy, interwoven with gold thread, some-
