23. From fire, from air, and from the sun he milk- CHAP.

ed out, as it were, the three primordial Védas, named

I.

Rich, Yajush and Sáman, for the due performance of

the sacrifice.

HE

24 He gave being to time and the divisions of time,
to the stars also, and to the planets, to rivers, oceans,
and mountains, to level plains, and uneven valleys.

25. To devotion, speech, complacency, desire, and

wrath, and to the creation, which shall presently be
' mentioned; for He willed the existence of all those
created things.

26. 6
For the sake of distinguishing actions, He

made a total difference between right and wrong, and
enured these sentient creatures to pleasure and pain,
cold and heat, and other opposite pairs.

27. With very minute transformable portions, call-

'ed mátrás, of the five elements, all this perceptible
' world was composed in fit order;

28. And in whatever occupation the supreme Lord

'first employed any vital soul, to that occupation the
same soul attaches itself spontaneously, when it re-
ceives a new body again and again.

6

29. Whatever quality, noxious or innocent, harsh

or mild, unjust or just, false or true, He conferred

on any being at its creation, the same quality enters

it of course on its future births ;

30. ' As

CHAP.

I.

30. As the six seasons of the year attain respec-

tively their peculiar marks in due time and of their

' own accord, even so the several acts of each em-

bodied spirit attend it naturally.

6

31. That the human race might be multiplied, He
'caused the Bráhmen, the Cshatriya, the Vaisya, and
the Súdra (so named from the scripture, protection,

'wealth, and labour) to proceed from his mouth, his

arm, his thigh, and his foot.

32. 6
Having divided his own substance, the mighty

Power became half male, half female, or nature active
and passive; and from that female he produced VIRA'J:

33. Know Me, O most excellent of Bráhmens, to

'be that person, whom the male power VIRA's, having
performed austere devotion, produced by himself;
'Me, the secondary framer of all this visible world.

34. It was I, who, desirous of giving birth to a race

' of men, performed very difficult religious duties, and

'first produced ten Lords of created beings, eminent in

⚫ holiness.

35. MARICHI, ATRI, ANGIRAS, PULASTYA, PULAHA,

CRATU, PRACHETAS, or DACSHA, VASISHT' Ha, Bhrigu,
and NA'RADA :

36. They, abundant in glory, produced seven other

'Menus, together with deities, and the mansions of

deities, and Maharshis, or great Sages, unlimited in

6 power;

6 37. Benevolent

6

I.

37. Benevolent genii, and fierce giants, blood-thirsty CHAP.

savages, heavenly quiristers, nymphs and demons, huge

serpents and snakes of smaller size, birds of mighty

wing, and separate companies of Pitris, or progenitors

' of mankind;

6

38. Lightnings and thunder-bolts, clouds and co-

loured bows of Indra, falling meteors, earth-rending
vapours, comets, and luminaries of various degrees;

39. Horse-faced sylvans, apes, fish, and a variety

of birds, tame cattle, deer, men, and ravenous beasts
'with two rows of teeth;

40. Small and large reptiles, moths, lice, fleas, and

common flies, with every biting gnat, and immovable
'substances of distinct sorts.

41. Thus was this whole assemblage of stationary

and movable bodies framed by those high-minded
beings, through the force of their own devotion, and
at my command, with separate actions allotted to
' each.

6

6

42. Whatever act is ordained for each of those

creatures here below, that I will now declare to you,
together with their order in respect to birth.

43. Cattle and deer, and wild beasts with two rows

' of teeth, giants, and blood-thirsty savages, and the

6

race of men, are born from a secundine;

6

44. Birds are hatched from eggs, so are snakes,

'crocodiles, fish without shells, and tortoises, with other

· animal

animal kinds, terrestrial, as chamelions, and aquatick,
as shell-fish :

45. From hot moisture are born biting gnats, lice,

fleas, and common flies; these, and whatever is of
the same class, are produced by heat.

46. All vegetables, propagated by seed or by slips,
grow from shoots: some herbs, abounding in flowers
' and fruits, perish when the fruit is mature ;

6

47. Other plants, called lords of the forest, have no
flowers, but produce fruit; and, whether they have
'flowers also, or fruit only, large woody plants of both
'sorts are named trees.

6

6

48. There are shrubs with many stalks from the
root upwards, and reeds with single roots but united
stems, all of different kinds, and grasses, and vines
or climbers, and creepers, which spring from a seed
or from a slip.

49. These animals and vegetables, encircled with
'multiform darkness, by reason of past actions, have
internal conscience, and are sensible of pleasure and
pain.

50. All transmigrations, recorded in sacred books,
'from the state of BRAHMA', to that of plants, happen
'continually in this tremendous world of beings; a
world always tending to decay.

51. HE, whose powers are incomprehensible, hav-

ing thus created both me and this universe, was

again absorbed in the supreme Spirit, changing the CHAP.
time of energy for the time of repose.

52. When that Power awakes, (for, though slumber
'be not predicable of the sole eternal Mind, infinitely
wise and infinitely benevolent, yet it is predicated of
BRAHMA', figuratively, as a general property of life)
then has this world its full expansion; but, when he
'slumbers with a tranquil spirit, then the whole system
fades away;

53. For, while he reposes, as it were, in calm sleep,
'embodied spirits, endued with principles of action,
depart from their several acts, and the mind itself
becomes inert ;

54. And when they once are absorbed in that su-
preme essence, then the divine soul of all beings
' withdraws his energy, and placidly slumbers;

55. Then too this vital soul of created bodies, with
all the organs of sense and of action, remains long
immersed in the first idea or in darkness, and per-
'forms not its natural functions, but migrates from its
corporeal frame:

56. ' When, being again composed of minute ele-
'mentary principles, it enters at once into vegetable

6

or animal seed, it then assumes a new form.

6

57. Thus that immutable Power, by waking and re-
posing alternately, revivifies and destroys in eternal
succession,

C

I.