dissolution of the world. Then. Vishnu, sprung from Brahma, removed beyond the sphere of sense, absorbed in contemplation, became the Prajapati Daksha, and formed numerous creatures." [**]

Fuller particulars of Daksha's origin we find in the "Vishnu Purana." [*+] "From Brahma, continuing to meditate, were born mind-engendered progeny, with forms and faculties derived from his corporeal nature, embodied spirits produced from the person of that all-wise deity. But as they did not multiply themselves, Brahma created other mind-born sons like himself, viz. Bhrigu, etc. Considerable variety prevails in this list of Prajapatis, but the variations are of the nature of additions made to an apparently original enumeration of but seven, whose names generally occur. The names mentioned in all the Puranas make up altogether seventeen. The simple statement that the first Prajapatis sprang from the mind or will of Brahma has not contented the depraved taste of the mystics, and in some of the Puranas, as the Bhagavata, Vayu and Linga, they are said to be derived from the body of their progenitor; Bhrigu from his skin, Marichi from his mind, Atri from his eyes, Angiras from his mouth, Pulastya from his ear, Pulaha from his navel, Kratu from his hand, Vasishtha from his breath, Daksha from his thumb, and Narada from his lips. They do not exactly agree, however, in the [description of the places] whence these beings proceed." [*++]

The "Vishnu Purana" [* section] also speaks of Daksha as a son of the Prachetasas, and gets over the difficulty by the statement that he was born first as a son of Brahma, and afterwards as the son of the Prachetasas. These

progenitors of Daksha were the sons of a mighty patriarch named Prachinaverhis, so called "from his placing upon the earth the sacred grass pointing to the East." At the termination of a season of rigid penance, he married Savarna, the daughter of the ocean, who had by him ten sons, styled Prachetasas, who were skilled in military science; "they all observed the same duties, practised religious austerities, and remained immersed in the bed of the sea for ten thousand years." The reason for this prolonged penance was the fact that their father had been enjoined by Brahma to increase the human family. In harmony with his promise of obedience, he told his sons that the performance of severe penance was the best way of fulfilling Brahma's order; "for whoever worships Vishnu, the bestower of good, attains undoubtedly the object of his desires: there is no other mode."