. Indian myth and legend. r to the revival of Brahmanism. Inthe sixth century before the Christian era Buddhism hadorigin, partly as a revolt of the Kshatriya (aristocratic)class against priestly ascendancy, and the new faith spreadeastward where Brahmanic influence was least pronounced.When the influence of Buddhism declined, the Pantheonis found to have been revolutionized and renderedthoroughly Mediterranean in character. .The Vedic godshad in the interval suffered eclipse; they were subject tothe greater personal gods Brahma, with Vishnu and Shiva,each of whom had a goddess for wife. Brahm

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. Indian myth and legend. r to the revival of Brahmanism. Inthe sixth century before the Christian era Buddhism hadorigin, partly as a revolt of the Kshatriya (aristocratic)class against priestly ascendancy, and the new faith spreadeastward where Brahmanic influence was least pronounced.When the influence of Buddhism declined, the Pantheonis found to have been revolutionized and renderedthoroughly Mediterranean in character. .The Vedic godshad in the interval suffered eclipse; they were subject tothe greater personal gods Brahma, with Vishnu and Shiva, each of whom had a goddess for wife. Brahma, as wehave said, had associated with him the river deity Saras-wati of the Bharatas; the earth goddess, Lakshmi, was thewife of Vishnu; she rose, however, from the Ocean ofMilk. But the most distinctive and even most primitivegoddesses were linked with Shiva, the Destroyer. Thegoddess Durga rivalled Indra as a deity of war. Kali, another form of Durga, was as vengeful and bloodthirsty * Vedic Index of Names and Subjects.. KALI From a bronae in the Calcutta Art Gallery INTRODUCTION xli as the Scottish Cailleach, or the Egyptian Hathor, who, asthe earlier Sekhet, rejoiced in accomplishing the slaughterof the enemies of Ra.^ Kali, as we shall see (Chapter VIII)replaced the Vedic king of the gods as a successful demonslayer. As the Egyptian Ra went forth to restrain Hathor, so did Shiva hasten to the battlefield, flooded by gore, toprevail upon his spouse Kali to spare the remnant of herenemies. The rise of the goddesses may have been due in partto the influence of Dravidian folk-religion. This doesnot, however, vitiate the theory that moon, water, andearth worship was not unconnected with the ascendancyof the Brown race in India. The Dravidian brunet longheads were, as we have said, probably represented in thepre-Aryan, as well as the post-Vedic folk-waves, whichmingled with pre-Dravidian stocks. Mr. Crooke inclinesto the view that the Aryan^conquest was more moral and, intellectua