HKB
treading on the dragon, is an image as familiar now as, thirty centuries ago, that of Indra treading under foot the demon Vritra could possibly have been to the Hindoo.[561:1]
The very ancient doctrine of a TRINITY, three gods in one, can be explained, rationally, by allegory only. We have seen that the Sun, in early times, was believed to be the Creator, and became the first object of adoration. After some time it would be observed that this powerful and beneficent agent, the solar fire, was the most potent Destroyer, and hence would arise the first idea of a Creator and Destroyer united in the same person. But much time would not elapse before it must have been observed, that the destruction caused by this powerful being was destruction only in appearance, that destruction was only reproduction in another form--regeneration; that if he appeared sometimes to destroy, he constantly repaired the injury which he seemed to occasion--and that, without his light and heat, everything would dwindle away into a cold, inert, unprolific mass. Thus, at once, in the same being, became concentrated, the creating, the preserving, and the destroying powers--the latter of the three being at the same time both the Destroyer and Regenerator. Hence, by a very natural and obvious train of reasoning, arose the Creator, the Preserver, and the Destroyer--in India Brahma, Vishnu, and Siva; in Persia Oromasdes, Mithra, and Arimanius; in Egypt Osiris, Horus, and Typhon: in each case THREE PERSONS AND ONE GOD. And thus undoubtedly arose the TRIMURTI, or the celebrated Trinity.
Traces of a similar refinement may be found in the Greek mythology, in the Orphic Phanes, Ericapeus and Metis, who were all identified with the Sun, and yet embraced in the first person, Phanes, or Protogones, the Creator and Generator.[562:1] The invocation to the Sun, in the Mysteries, according to Macrobius, was as follows: "O all-ruling Sun! Spirit of the world! Power of the world! Light of the world!"[562:2]
We have seen in Chap. XXXV, that the Peruvian Triad was represented by three statues, called, respectively, "Apuinti, Churiinti, and Intihoaoque," which is, "Lord and Father Sun; Son Sun; and Air or Spirit, Brother Sun."[562:3]
Mr. Faber, in his "Origin of Pagan Idolatry," says:
"The peculiar mode in which the Hindoos identify their three great gods* with the *solar orb, is a curious specimen of the physical refinements of ancient mythology. At night, in the west, the Sun is Vishnu; he is Brahma in the east and in the morning; and from noon to evening he is Siva."[562:4]
Mr. Moor, in his "Hindu Pantheon," says:
"Most, if not all, of the gods of the Hindoo Pantheon will, on close investigation, resolve themselves into the three powers* (Brahma, Vishnu, and Siva), and those powers into one Deity, Brahm, *typified by the Sun."[562:5]
Mr. Squire, in his "Serpent Symbol," observes:
"It is highly probable that the triple divinity of the Hindoos was originally no more than a personification of the Sun, whom they called Three-bodied, in the triple capacity of producing forms by his general heat, preserving them by his light, or destroying them by the counteracting force of his igneous matter. Brahmá, the Creator, was indicated by the heat of the Sun; Vishnu, the Preserver, by the light of the Sun, and Siva, the Reproducer, by the orb of the Sun. In the morning the Sun was Brahma, at noon Vishnu, at evening Siva."[562:6]
"He is at once," says Mr. Cox, in speaking of the Sun, "the 'Comforter' and 'Healer,' the 'Saviour' and 'Destroyer,' who can slay and make alive at will, and from whose piercing glance no secret can be kept hid."[562:7]
Sir William Jones was also of the opinion that the whole Triad of the Hindoos were identical with the Sun, expressed under the mythical term O. M.