44).
3. Indra was originally, in the Vedas, the Rain-god. The statement in
the text refers to modern Hinduism.
4. The incarnations of Vishnu are ordinarily reckoned as ten, namely,
(1) Fish, (2) Tortoise, (3) Boar, (4) Man-lion, (5) Dwarf, (6) Rama
with the axe, (7) Rama Chandra, (8) Krishna, (9) Buddha, (10) Kalki,
or Kalkin, who is yet to come. I do not know any authority for eleven
incarnations of Vishnu. The number is stated in some Puranas as
twenty-two, twenty-four, or even twenty-eight. Seven incarnations of
Siva are not generally recognized (see Monier Williams, _Religious
Thought and Life in India_, pp. 78-86, and 107-16). For the theory
and mystical meaning of _avatars_, see Grierson, _J.R.A.S._, 1909,
pp. 621-44. The word avatar means 'descent', _scil_. of the Deity to
earth, and covers more than the term 'incarnation'.
5. Sita was an incarnation of Lakshmi. She became incarnate again,
many centuries afterwards, as the wife of Krishna, another
incarnation of Vishnu [W. H. S.]. Reckoning by centuries is, of
course, inapplicable to pure myth. The author believed in Bentley's
baseless chronology.
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