27:2 This is the well known verse of Menu, I. 8, rendered by Sir Wm. Jones, "The waters are called Nárá, because they were the production of Nara, or 'the spirit' of God; and since they were his first Ayana, or place of motion, he thence is named Náráyańa, or 'moving on the waters.'" Now although there can be little doubt that this tradition is in substance the same as that of Genesis, the language of the translation is perhaps more scriptural than p. 28 is quite warranted. The waters, it is said in the text of Manu, were the progeny of Nara, which Kullúka Bhat́t́a explains Paramátmá, the supreme soul; that is, they were the first productions of God in creation. Ayana, instead of 'place of motion,' is explained by Ásraya, place of abiding.' Náráyańa means, therefore, he whose place of abiding was the deep. The verse occurs in several of the Puráńas, in general in nearly the same words, and almost always as a quotation, as in our text The Linga, Váyu, and Márkańd́eya Puráńas, citing the same, have a somewhat different reading; or, 'Ápa (is the same as) Nárá, or bodies (Tanava); such, we have heard (from the Vedas), is the meaning of Apa. He who sleeps in them, is thence called Náráyańa.' The ordinary sense of Tanu is either 'minute' or 'body,' nor does it occur amongst the synonymes of water in the Nirukta of the Vedas. It may perhaps be intended to say, that Nárá or Apa has the meaning of 'bodily forms,' in which spirit is enshrined, and of which the waters, with Vishńu resting upon them, are a type; for there is much mysticism in the Puráńas in which the passage thus occurs. Even in them, however, it is introduced in the usual manner, by describing the world as water alone, and Vishńu reposing upon the deep: ### Váyu P. The Bhágavata has evidently attempted to explain the ancient text: 'When the embodied god in the beginning divided the mundane egg, and issued forth, then, requiring an abiding-place, he created the waters: the pure created the pure. In them, his own created, he abode for a thousand years, and thence received the name of Náráyańa: the waters being the product of the embodied deity:' i. e. they were the product of Nara or Vishńu, as the first male or Virát, and were therefore termed Nára: and from there being his Ayana or Sthána, his 'abiding place,' comes his epithet of Náráyańa.