[1] "It is, perhaps, by surveying India that we at this day can best represent to ourselves and appreciate the vast external reform worked upon the heathen world by Christianity, as it was organized and executed throughout Europe by the combined authority of the Holy Roman Empire and the Church Apostolic." Sir Alfred C. Lyall, _Asiatic Studies_, i. 2. [2] Henry Whitehead, D. D., bishop of Madras, _The Village Deities of Southern India_ (Madras, 1907). [3] "The effect of caste is to give all Hindu society a religious basis." Sir A. C. Lyall, _Brahmanism_. [4] Thus, in Berar, "there is a strong non-Aryan leaven in the dregs of the agricultural class, derived from the primitive races which have gradually melted down into settled life, and thus become fused with the general community, while these same races are still distinct tribes in the wild tracts of hill and jungle." Sir Alfred C. Lyall, _As. St._, i. 6. [5] Siva is said to have first appeared in the beginning of the present age as Sveta, the White, for the purpose of benefiting the Brahmans, and he is invariably painted white; whilst Vishnu, when pictured, is always of a dark-blue colour. [6] As in the case of Siva's traditional white complexion, it may not be without significance, from a racial point of view, that Vishnu, Rama and Krishna have various darker shades of colour attributed to them, viz. blue, hyacinthine, and dark azure or dark brown respectively. The names of the two heroes meaning simply "black" or "dark," the blue tint may originally have belonged to Vishnu, who is also called _pitavasas_, dressed in yellow garment, i.e. the colours of sky and sun combined. [7] This notion not improbably took its origin in the mystic cosmogonic hymn, Rigv. x. 129, where it is said that--"that one (existent, neutr.) breathed breathless by (or with) its _svadha_ (? inherent power, or nature), beyond that there was nothing whatever ... that one live (germ) which was enclosed in the void was generated by the power of heat (or fervour); desire then first came upon it, which was the first seed of the mind ... fertilizing forces there were, _svadha_ below, _prayati_ (? will) above."