115:5 The second birth of Daksha, and his share in the peopling of the earth, is narrated in most of the Puráńas in a similar manner. It is perhaps the original legend, for Daksha seems to be an irregular adjunct to the Prajápatis, or mind-born sons of Brahmá (see p. 49. n. 2); and the allegorical nature of his posterity in that character (p. 54) intimates a more recent origin. Nor does that series of descendants apparently occur in the Mahábhárata, although the existence of two Dakshas is especially remarked there (Moksha Dh.). In the Ádi Parva, which seems to be the freest from subsequent improvements, the Daksha noticed is the son of the Prachetasas. The incompatibility of the two accounts is reconciled by referring the two Dakshas to different Manwantaras. The Daksha who proceeded from Brahmá as a Prajápati being born in the first, or Swáyambhuva, and the son of the Prachetasas in the Chákshusha Manwantara. The latter however, as descended from Uttánapáda, should belong to the first period also. It is evident that great confusion has been made by the Puráńas in Daksha's history.

115:6 That is, they are the Nakshatras, or lunar asterisms.

116:7 'They are removed', which the commentator explains by 'are absorbed, as if they were fast asleep;' but in every age or Yuga, according to the text--in every Manwantara, according to the comment--the Rishis reappear, the circumstances of their origin only being varied. Daksha therefore, as remarked in the preceding note, is the son of Brahmá in one period, the son of the Prachetasas in another. So Soma, in the Swáyambhuva Manwantara, was born as the son of Atri; in the Chákshusha, he was produced by churning the ocean. The words of our text occur in the Hari Vanśa, with an unimportant variation: 'Birth and obstruction are constant in all beings, but Rishis and those men who are wise are not perplexed by this;' that is, not, as rendered above, by the alternation of life and death; but, according to the commentator on the Hari Vanśa, by a very different matter, the prohibition of unlawful marriages. Utpatti, 'birth of progeny,' is the result of their will; Nirodha, 'obstruction,' is the law prohibiting the intermarriage of persons connected by the offering of the funeral cake; to which Rishis and sages are not subject, either from their matrimonial unions being merely platonic, or from the bad example set by Brahmá, who, according to the Vedas, approached his own daughter; we have already had occasion to advert to (p. 51. n. 5). The explanation of the text, however, given by the commentator appears forced, and less natural than the interpretation preferred above.