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great divinities of their mythology, Brahmá, Vishńu, and Siva, must have been devised about the same time, as they are nothing more than the personified attributes of the Supreme Being in action, or his powers to create, preserve, and destroy, or, rather, regenerate-manifested. Brahmá is the creator, Vishnu the preserver, Siva the regenerator. Their invention was probably at first little more than a metaphor, a personification, or allegory. It has been mentioned, that little beyond their names appears in the Vedas regarding them, and it is doubtful how far any definite figures, any images of them, any temples for them, any worship of them, formed part of the ancient religion. It is doubtful if Brahma was ever worshipped. Indications of a local adoration of him at Pushkara, near Ajmír, are found in one Purána, the Brahma Purána ", but in no other part of India is there the slightest vestige of his worship **. Of Siva it is also to be remarked, that he receives worship under one form alone—that of the Linga or Phallus, of which, as before observed, no notice occurs in the Vedas. Some of the continental mythologists, therefore, have been egregiously mistaken in asserting that the primitive worship of India was that of the phallic emblem of Siva. When this type was introduced is uncertain: it was, probably, prior to the Christian era. The worship was in its most flourishing state at the date of the first Mohammedan invasion, the end
* [Journal R. As. Soc., Vol. V, 72.]
** [Lassen, Ind. Alt., 1,776.]
