The Dwarf Who Lay Down

The gods and the Asuras were both children of Prajapati, and they were fighting over who should be first. This time the gods lost.

"Then the world is ours," said the Asuras. "Ours and nobody else's. Come, let us divide it up and live on it."

They set about it at once. They took ox-hides and began measuring the earth with them, from the west toward the east, one hide's length after another.

The gods heard of it.

"The Asuras are really dividing the earth," they said to each other. "If we get no share in it, what will become of us? Let us go to them."

They did not go alone. They put Vishnu at their head. The old book says plainly who Vishnu was that day. He was the sacrifice itself, the act of worship. And he was a dwarf.

The gods came to where the Asuras were working with their hides.

"Let us share this earth with you," they said. "Let a part of it be ours."

The Asuras did not like it. They looked at the gods, and they looked at the small figure standing in front of them.

"Very well," they said. "As much as this Vishnu lies on. That much we give you, and no more."

You might expect the gods to be insulted. They were not.

"They have given us a great deal," they said quietly. "They have given us a piece as large as the sacrifice."

The gods laid Vishnu down on the ground with his head to the east. Then they fenced him round, and they did it with verses. On the south side they said, "With the Gayatri metre I enclose you." On the west side they said, "With the Trishtubh metre I enclose you." On the north side they said, "With the Jagati metre I enclose you." On the east side they set Agni, the fire.

Inside that small plot they went on worshipping and working. And by that worship they won the whole earth, all of it.

That is why the ground laid out for a sacrifice is called the vedi, the altar, the book says. The word is taken to mean the thing by which they obtained. And people say, "As great as the altar is, so great is the earth."

There is one more scene, and it is a gentle one.

Vishnu grew tired. He was fenced in on three sides by the verses, with the fire on the fourth, and he could not walk away. So he slipped down and hid among the roots of the plants.

"Where has Vishnu gone?" the gods asked. "Where is the sacrifice?"

"He is closed in on every side," one of them answered. "He cannot have left. Look for him right here."

They dug, only a little. They found him three finger-breadths down.

When they had him back they fenced him round a second time, and this time the words were a blessing on the ground they had won.

"You are good soil," they said. "You are pleasant and soft to sit on. You are full of food and drink."

In the Bhagavata Purana the Asura king has a name. He is Bali, and he is holding a horse sacrifice on the bank of the Narmada. His priests, the Bhrigus, have made him so strong that Indra has left heaven without a fight.

A small Brahmin student walked into the sacrifice. He was Vishnu, born to Aditi to help her sons, the gods. Bali rose, washed the boy's feet and sprinkled the water on his own head.

"Welcome," said the king. "Ask me for anything. Cows, gold, a house, villages, horses, elephants."

"Three paces of ground," said the dwarf. "Measured by my own foot. I want nothing else."

Bali smiled and reached for the water jar to seal the gift. His teacher Shukra stopped him.

"This is Vishnu," Shukra said. "He will cover the earth with one step and the sky with the second. Where will the third go? He will take everything you have and give it to Indra."

"I have given my word," said Bali. "I will not take it back."

Shukra cursed him for disobeying. Bali poured the water all the same.

The dwarf began to grow. One step covered the earth. His body filled the air, and the second step covered heaven. Nothing was left.

Bali's soldiers rushed at him and were driven back. "Stop," Bali told them. "Time is against us today." Then Garuda bound the king with ropes.

"You promised three paces," said Vishnu. "Two have taken all there is. Where shall I put the third?"

"Put it on my head," said Bali.

His grandfather Prahlada came, and his wife Vindhyavali, and Brahma himself spoke up for him. Vishnu answered them all.

"He has lost his wealth and his place. His own teacher has cursed him. He still would not break his word. I give him Sutala, a world without sickness or weariness, and I will always be there to protect him. In an age to come he will be Indra."

Bali was untied, and he went down to Sutala with his people. Heaven went back to Indra.