VIṢṆU. In the age of the Ṛgveda, India's oldest religious document (c. 1200–1000 BCE), Viṣṇu must already have been a more important divine figure than it would appear from his comparatively infrequent appearances in the texts. He is celebrated in a few hymns, of which stanzas 1.22.16–21 came to be a sort of confession of faith, especially among the Vaikhānasa Vaiṣṇavas, who adapted them for consecratory purposes and for invoking the god's presence and protection. These stanzas eulogize the essential feature of the character of the Vedic Viṣṇu: namely, his taking, from the very place where the gods promote human interests, three steps, by which he establishes the broad dimensional actuality of the earthly space in which all beings abide (see also Ṛgveda 1.154.1 and 3, etc.). His highest step is in the realm of heaven, beyond...