CHAPTER III.

BRAHMA AND SARASVATI.

BRAHMA.

BRAHMa, the first of the three great Hindu gods, is called the Creator; he is the father of gods and men, the

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BRAHMA.

[paragraph continues] Vedic Prajapati, the lord of creatures. As nearly all the writers of the Puranas seem to regard it a duty to describe

the work of creation as performed by this god, and as each account differs in detail from the others, it is a perfectly hopeless task to attempt to give a harmonized statement of this great event. I shall therefore give Manu's [**] account of it, which is largely founded upon the teaching of the Vedas, though considerably mixed up with more modern views.

"This universe was enveloped in darkness--unperceived, undistinguishable, undiscoverable, unknowable, as it were, entirely sunk in sleep. The irresistible self-existent lord, undiscerned, creating this universe with the five elements, and all other things, was manifested dispelling the gloom. He who is beyond the cognizance of the senses, subtile, undiscernible, eternal, who is the essence of all things, and inconceivable, himself shone forth. He, desiring, seeking to produce various creatures from his own body, first created the waters, and deposited in them a seed. This (seed) became a golden egg, resplendent as the sun, in which he himself was born as Brahma, the progenitor of all worlds. The waters are called narah, because they are the offspring of Nara; and since they were formerly the place of his movement (ayana), he is therefore called Narayana. [*+] Being formed by that First Cause, undiscernible, eternal, which is both existent and non-existent, that male is

known in the world as Brahma. That lord having continued a year in the egg, divided it into two parts by his mere thought." [**] In the Mahabharata, and some of the Puranas, Brahma is said to have issued from a lotus that sprang from the navel of Vishnu.

The egg referred to above is thus described in the "Vishnu Purana" [*+]:--"Its womb, vast as the mountain Meru, was composed of the mountains, and the mighty oceans were the waters which filled its cavity. In that egg were the continents, seas, and mountains; the planets and divisions of the universe; the gods, the demons and mankind. Brahma is said to be born; a familiar phrase to signify his manifestation." This wonderful egg, after the Creator had inhabited it for a thousand years, burst open, and Brahma issuing forth by meditation commenced the work of creation. Seeing that the earth was sunk beneath the waters, he assumed the form of a boar, [*++] and, diving, raised it upon his tusks. After this, he continued the work of creation.