From his eastern mouth Brahmá then created the Gayatrí metre, the Rig veda, the collection of hymns termed Trivrit, the Rathantara portion of the Sáma veda, and the Agnisht́oma sacrifice: from his southern mouth he created the Yajur veda, the Trisht́ubh metre, the collection of hymns called Panchadaśa, the Vrihat Sáma, and the portion of the Sáma veda termed Uktha: from his western mouth he created the Sáma veda, the Jayati metre, the collection of hymns termed Saptadaśa, the portion of the Sáma called Vairúpa, and the Atirátra sacrifice: and from his northern mouth he created the Ekavinsa collection of hymns, the At́harva veda, the Áptoryámá rite, the Anusht́ubh metre, and the Vairája portion of the Sáma veda 21.

In this manner all creatures, great or small, proceeded from his limbs. The great progenitor of the world having formed the gods, demons, and Pitris, created, in the commencement of the Kalpa, the Yakshas, Pisáchas (goblins), Gandharbas and the troops of Apsarasas the nymphs of heaven, Naras (centaurs, or beings with the limbs of horses and human

bodies) and Kinnaras (beings with the heads of horses), Rákshasas, birds, beasts, deer, serpents, and all things permanent or transitory, movable or immovable. This did the divine Brahmá, the first creator and lord of all: and these things being created, discharged the same functions as they had fulfilled in a previous creation, whether malignant or benign, gentle or cruel, good or evil, true or false; and accordingly as they are actuated by such propensities will be their conduct.

And the creator displayed infinite variety in the objects of sense, in the properties of living things, and in the forms of bodies: he determined in the beginning, by the authority of the Vedas, the names and forms and functions of all creatures, and of the gods; and the names and appropriate offices of the Rishis, as they also are read in the Vedas. In like manner as the products of the seasons designate in periodical revolution the return of the same season, so do the same circumstances indicate the recurrence of the same Yuga, or age; and thus, in the beginning of each Kalpa, does Brahmá repeatedly create the world, possessing the power that is derived from the will to create, and assisted by the natural and essential faculty of the object to be created.

Footnotes

34:1 The terms here employed are for qualities, Gunas; which, as we have already noticed, are those of goodness, foulness, and darkness. The characteristics, or Swabhávas, are the inherent properties of the qualities, by which they act, as, soothing, terrific, or stupifying: and the forms, Swarúpas, are the distinctions of biped, quadruped, brute, bird, fish, and the like.