The Puranas enter very minutely into the details of the creation. It is one of the specified topics of which a Purana ought to treat. The first book of the "Vishnu Purana" is largely filled with the accounts of this work. In his preface [*++] to the translation of the "Vishnu Purana," Wilson says: "The first book of the six into

which the work is divided is occupied chiefly with the details of creation, primary and secondary; the first explaining how the universe proceeds from Prakriti, or eternal crude matter; the second, in what manner the forms of things are developed from the elementary substance previously evolved, or how they reappear after their temporary destruction. Both these creations are periodical, but the termination of the first occurs only at the end of the life of Brahma; when not only all the gods and other forms are annihilated, but the elements are again merged into primary substance; besides which one only spiritual being exists: the latter takes place at the end of every Kalpa, a day of Brahma, and affects only the forms of inferior creatures and lower worlds, leaving the substance of the universe entire, and sages and gods unharmed."

The account in the "Vishnu Purana" was, according to that authority, "originally imparted by the great father of all (Brahma) in answer to the questions of Daksha and other venerable sages, and repeated by them to Purukutsa, a king who reigned on the banks of the Narmada." [**] " Who can describe him who is not to be apprehended by the senses? He is Brahma, supreme, lord, eternal, unborn, imperishable. He then existed in the form of Purusha and of Kala. Purusha (Spirit) is the first form of the supreme; next proceeded two other forms, the discreet and indiscreet; and Kala (time) was the last. These four--Pradhana (primary or crude matter), Purusha (Spirit), Vyakta (visible substance), and Kala (time)--in their due proportions, are the causes of the production of the phenomena of creation, preservation, and destruction. The supreme Brahma, the supreme soul, the substance of the world, the lord of all

creatures, the universal soul, the supreme ruler Hari (Vishnu), of his own will having entered into matter and spirit, agitated the mutable and immutable principles, the season of creation having arrived, in the same manner as fragrance affects the mind from its proximity merely, and not from any immediate operation upon mind itself; so the supreme influenced the elements of creation." [**]