Uttama, one of the seven Menus. V. Vaisyas, the merchant tribe of India pro- Varaha, an avatar of Vishnu in the third or Vagiswari, the goddess of eloquence. Vahan, a vehicle allotted to each of the gods. Brahma has the Hanasa, a goose or swan. Vishnu, Garuda, half man half bird; Siva, the bull; Indra, the elephant; Ganesha, a rat; Kartikeya, a peacock; Agni, a ram; Pavana, an antelope; Yama, Varahi, the sacti, or consort of Vishnu in a buffalo; Mungula or Mars, a sheep; Budh, a lion; Shunee or Sani, a vulture; Rama, a monkey; Kama Deva, a parrot; Durga or Parvati, a lion and bull, and the other goddesses the vahans of their respective lords. the boar avatar. Varuna, the god of the waters, p. 135. Vasanta (The spring), the friend of Kama Vasu (A), one of the deities who form a Gana, Vayu, a name of Pavana. Vedas (The), the earliest sacred writings of the Hindus, p. 137. Vedanga, one of the Adityas; a name of Surya. Venamaly, a name of Narayana. Vicramadittya or Vikramaditya, a learned monarch and an astronomer, whose capital, Oujein, was about his time overwhelmed by a violent convulsion of nature. Hindu legends thus whimsically account for that circumstance, together with his origin and birth; as described in the 6th vol. of the Asiatic Researches. "A certain deity, named Gundrufsein, was condemned for an offence committed against Indra, to appear on earth in the shape of an ass; but on his entreaty he was allowed, as a mitigation of his punishment, to lay aside that body in the night, and take that of a man. His incarnation took place at Ougein, during the reign of a rajah named Sundersein, and the ass, when arrived at maturity, accosting the rajah in a human voice, proclaimed his own divine origin, and demanded his daughter in marriage. Having, by certain prodigies, overcome the scruples of the rajah, he obtained the object of his wishes. All day, in the form of an ass, he lived in the stable; but when night came on, laying aside the ass's skin, and assuming the form of a handsome and accomplished young prince, he went into the palace, and enjoyed, till morning, the conversation of his beauteous bride. In process of time the daughter of the rajah became pregnant, pregnant, and as her husband, the ass, was deemed incapable of producing such an event in one of the human species, her chastity was suspected. Her father questioned her on the subject, when she explained the mys. tery. At night the rajah concealed him self, and having witnessed the metamor- Vina, the Hindu lyre, formed of a flat piece of wood with strings, having a gourd at one end, and sometimes one at both ends, seen in the plates in the hands of Nareda, Suraswati, and the celestial choristers. (See fig. 11. pl. 32.) Vindhya Vasini, a form of Durga or Par vati, to whom is ascribed the destruction of many giants. She is represented sitting on a lion, with four or eight arms. Vira Badra, or Ehr Badr, p. 74. Viraj, p. 100. Virupacsha, a name of Siva. Vismamitra, one of the Rishis, and the Guru Vitruha or Vitrahan, a name of Indra. He who slew the giant Vitruha or Vitra. Viweswat, a name of Surya. Viweswati, the son of Surya, called the child of the sun, and the founder of the the race of Hindu rajahs, termed the Surya bans, or children of the sun. the riches of the avaricious worshippers of the god of wealth. Vogra Tapasu, one of the most severe of the Yajar, or Yajush Veda, one of the four Vridgnani Kaumali, a form assumed by Lakshmi as the consort of Vishnu in the form of Buddha, to delude Divodasa. Like her lord, she taught to the females of Kashi the doctrines of self-existent nature, Vedas, p. 138. Yamuna (The), or Jumna, one of the sacred rivers of the Hindus. It joins the Ganges at Allahabad; also the sister of Yama, Yasuda, the wife of Nanda, or Ananda, and the foster mother of Krishna. and the abolition of castes. By these and Yoginis (called the fatal sisters): they are other artifices, she seduced the women to counsel the men of that kingdom to abandon the worship of the Vedas for the atheistical religion preached by Vishnu, under the delusive form of Buddha. Vrihaspati, or Brishput, p. 133. Vrisha, the holy, a name of Indra. Vyagra Yahi, a name of Devi when mounted on a tiger. W. Waghacha-Kuniver, worshipped by the Y. Yakshas, or Yakshus, attendants of Kuvera, sixty-four in number, and follow the Sactis in the field of battle, each holding in her hands a patera of a skull to receive the blood of the slain, on which they feast. Yogun. (See Jogun.) Yoni (The), p. 174. Yoogadya, a form of Durga, much worshipped in some places; she is represented with her arms, sitting on a lion. 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