विष्णु (character) / index.html

This record intends to develop a description of that aspect or version of विष्णु (Viṣṇu) which could be classified as being an IFLA FRBRoo[1] F38 Character, subclass of the CIDOC CRM[2] E28 Conceptual Object. FRBRoo F38 Character’s scope note says:

This class comprises fictional or iconographic individuals or groups of individuals (including families) appearing in works in a way relevant as subjects. Characters may be purely fictitious or based on real persons or groups, but as characters they may exhibit properties that would be inconsistent with a real person or group. Rather than merging characters with real persons, they should be described as disjoint, but related entities.

Viṣṇu is certainly iconographic, and his appearances in devotional literature and works of art are taken by a vast many to be based on a real (though divinely distinct from our world) person. The author of this page worships that Viṣṇu may be a real person in his own world, but the preference for bibliographical exactitude in this record is to specify that disjoint but related entity who is Viṣṇu’s character self. Further relationships can be built from here, but this approach seems like a very safe beginning.

FRBRoo gives the relationship option R57 is based on, which associates an instance of F38 Character with an instance of E39 Actor that the character is motivated by or is intended to represent. However, the E39 Actor scope note states that This class comprises people, either individually or in groups, who have the potential to perform intentional actions of kinds for which someone may be held responsible. We've already acknowledged persons and characters being disjoint in these models we're using to bibliograph.

So we'll consider who he is as a conceptual object. The CRM class E28 Conceptual Object’s scope note gives that:

This class comprises non-material products of our minds and other human produced data that have become objects of a discourse about their identity, circumstances of creation or historical implication. The production of such information may have been supported by the use of technical devices such as cameras or computers.

Characteristically, instances of this class are created, invented or thought by someone, and then may be documented or communicated between persons. Instances of E28 Conceptual Object have the ability to exist on more than one particular carrier at the same time, such as paper, electronic signals, marks, audio media, paintings, photos, human memories, etc.

They cannot be destroyed. They exist as long as they can be found on at least one carrier or in at least one human memory. Their existence ends when the last carrier and the last memory are lost.

CRM property P94i was created by explains:

This property allows a conceptual E65 Creation to be linked to the E28 Conceptual Object created by it.

It represents the act of conceiving the intellectual content of the E28 Conceptual Object. It does not represent the act of creating the first physical carrier of the E28 Conceptual Object. As an example, this is the composition of a poem, not its commitment to paper.

E65 Creation’s scope note tells that its class comprises events that result in the creation of conceptual items or immaterial products, such as legends, poems, texts, music, images, movies, laws, types etc., and it is also the superclass of E83 Type Creation, a very important class. Type Creation is that class which itself creates what a class is, and so within क्रन्दितृ (Kranditṛ) classification, the Type Creation vocabulum gratia is that entity or class which describes the quality of love shared by लक्ष्मी (Lakṣmī) and विष्णु (Viṣṇu).

Scope note is as follows:

This class comprises activities formally defining new types of items.

It is typically a rigorous scholarly or scientific process that ensures a type is exhaustively described and appropriately named. In some cases, particularly in archaeology and the life sciences, E83 Type Creation requires the identification of an exemplary specimen and the publication of the type definition in an appropriate scholarly forum. The activity of E83 Type Creation is central to research in the life sciences, where a type would be referred to as a “taxon,” the type description as a “protologue,” and the exemplary specimens as “orgininal element” or “holotype.”

P149 is identified by identifies an instance of E28 Conceptual Object using an instance of E41 Appellation. Our example is that the Latin name Viṣṇu is the preferred transliterate form in which many of us recognize the name which otherwise is given in Devanagari Sanskrit as विष्णु.

If we take this type of hierarchical conceptualization one step up, we have CRM class E71 Man-Made Thing, with its scope note:

This class comprises discrete, identifiable man-made items that are documented as single units.

These items are either intellectual products or man-made physical things, and are characterized by relative stability. They may for instance have a solid physical form, an electronic encoding, or they may be logical concepts or structures.

All works, expressions, manifestations, and items in the combined model this project uses are man-made things. Viṣṇu’s F38 Characterization now has a number of ways to identify and relate within this type of conceptualization, including, with the addition of E71, CRM properties P102 has title and P103 was intended for.

The first of the two describes the E35 Title applied to an instance of E71 Man-Made Thing. It allows any man-made material or immaterial thing to be given a Title. The term श्री (Śrī)[3] is used in South Asia and Southeast Asia as a polite form of address equivalent to the English ‘Mr.’ or ‘Ms.’ in written and spoken language, but also as a title of veneration for deities; for example, the Hindu goddess of wealth, Lakshmi, is known as Sree.

In the Hindu tradition, the name हरि (Harī)[4] is often used interchangeably with Vishnu to such an extent that they are considered to be one and the same. In Vedas, it is required to use the mantra ‘Harih om’ before any recitation, just to declare that every ritual we perform is an offer to that supreme divine even if the hymn praises any demigod. In Hinduism, kirtan or praise songs of any god has a common name known as Hari kirtan and katha or storytelling is known as Hari katha.

The second property links an instance of E71 Man-Made Thing to an E55 Type of usage. It creates a property between specific man-made things, both physical and immaterial, to Types of intended methods and techniques of use. Works, expressions and manifestations of Viṣṇu, as well as items representing his character and personality, are all usually: P103 was intended for the theistic E55 Type of value and utility.

These give us a couple IFLA FRBRer[5] attributes to describe the entity frbrer:C1001 Work. CRM’s E71 Man-Made Thing P103 was intended for E55 Type maps to frbrer:P3006 hasIntendedAudience. P102 has title actually maps to any of three FRBRer class-property combinations, including frbrer:C1001 Work frbrer:P3001 hasTitleOfTheWork, but also frbrer:C1002 Expression frbrer:P3008 hasTitleOfTheExpression and frbrer:C1003 Manifestation frbrer:P3020 hasTitleOfTheManifestation.