The means of subsistence having been provided for the beings he had created, Brahmá prescribed laws suited to their station and faculties, the duties of the several castes and orders 9, and the regions of those of the different castes who were observant of their duties. The heaven of the Pitris is the region of devout Brahmans. The sphere of Indra, of

[paragraph continues] Kshetriyas who fly not from the field. The region of the winds is assigned to the Vaisyas who are diligent in their occupations and submissive. Śúdras are elevated to the sphere of the Gandharbas. Those Brahmans who lead religious lives go to the world of the eighty-eight thousand saints: and that of the seven Rishis is the seat of pious anchorets and hermits. The world of ancestors is that of respectable householders: and the region of Brahmá is the asylum of religious mendicants 10. The imperishable region of the Yogis is the highest seat of Vishńu, where they perpetually meditate upon the supreme being, with minds intent on him alone: the sphere where they reside, the gods themselves cannot behold. The sun, the moon, the planets, shall repeatedly be, and cease to be; but those who internally repeat the mystic adoration of the divinity, shall never know decay. For those who neglect their duties, who revile the Vedas, and obstruct religious rites, the places assigned after death are the terrific regions of darkness, of deep gloom, of fear, and of great terror; the fearful hell of sharp swords, the hell of scourges and of a waveless sea 11.

Footnotes

44:1 The creation of mankind here described is rather out of its place, as it precedes the birth of the Prajápatis, or their progenitors: but this want of method is common to the Puráńas, and is evidence of their being compilations from various sources.

44:2 This original of the four castes is given in Manu, and in most of the Puráńas. We shall see, however, that the distinctions are subsequently ascribed to voluntary election, to accident, or to positive institutions.

44:3 According to Manu, oblations ascend to and nourish the sun; whence the rain falls upon earth, and causes the growth of corn: burnt-offerings are therefore the final causes of the support of mankind.

45:4 This description of a pure race of beings is not of general occurrence in the Puráńas. It seems here to be abridged from a much more detailed account in the Brahmáńd́a, Váyu, and Márkańd́eya Puráńas. In those works Brahmá is said to create, in the beginning of the Kalpa, a thousand pairs of each of the four classes of mankind, who enjoy perfect happiness during the Krita age, and only gradually become subject to infirmities as the Tretá or second age advances.