A.A. Macdonell states that the 'reason why Visnu took his three steps is a secondary trait. He thrice traversed the earthly spaces for man in distress (6, 49); he traversed the earth to bestow it on man for a dwelling (7, 100); he traversed the earthly spaces for wide-stepping existence (1, 155); with Indra he took vast strides and stretched out the worlds for our existence (6, 69). To this feature in the [RigVeda] may ultimately be traced the myth of Visnu's dwarf incarnation which appears in; the epics and Puranas. The intermediate stage is found in the Brahmanas ([Shatapatha Brahmana] 1, 2, 5; [Taittiriya Samhita] 2, 1, 3; [Taittiriya Brahmana] 1, 6, 1), where Visnu already assumes the form of a dwarf, in order by sacrifice to recover the earth for the gods from the Asuras'.