118:10 Nárada's interference, and the fruitless generation of the first progeny of Daksha, is an old legend. The Mahábhárata (Ádi P. p. 113) notices only one set of sons, who, it is said, obtained Moksha, or liberation, through Náreda's teaching them the Sánkhya philosophy. The Bráhma, Matsya, Váyu, Linga, Padma, Agni, and Bhágavata Puráńas tell the story much as in the text, and not unfrequently in the same words. In general they merely refer to the imprecation denounced upon Nárada, as above. The Bhágavata specifies the imprecation to be perpetual peripateticism. Daksha says to him, 'There shall not be a resting-place for thee in all these regions.' The Kúrma repeats the imprecation merely to the effect that Nárada shall perish, and gives no legend. In the Brahma Vaivartta, Nárada is cursed by Brahmá, on a similar occasion, to become the chief of the Gandharbas, whence his musical propensities: but the Bhágavata, VI. 7, has the reverse of this legend, and makes him first a Gandharba, then a Śúdra, then the son of Brahmá. The Bráhma P., and after it the Hari Vanśa and the Váyu P., have a different and not very intelligible story. Daksha, being about to pronounce an imprecation upon Nárada, was appeased by Brahmá and the Rishis, and it was agreed between them that Nárada should be again born, as the son of Kaśyapa, by one of Daksha's daughters. This seems to be the gist of the legend, but it is very confusedly told. The version of the Bráhma P., which is the same as that of Hari Vanśa, may be thus rendered: "The smooth-speaking Nárada addressed the sons of Daksha for their destruction and his own; for the Muni Kaśyapa begot him as a son, who was the son of Brahmá, on the daughter of Daksha, through fear of the latter's imprecation. He was formerly the son of Paramesht́hí (Brahmá), and the excellent sage Kaśyapa next begot him, as if he were his father, on Asikní, the daughter of Vírańa. Whilst he was engaged in beguiling the sons of the patriarch, Daksha, of resistless power, determined on his destruction; but he was solicited by Brahmá, in the presence of the great sages, and it was agreed between them that Nárada, the son of Brahmá, should be born of a daughter of Daksha. Consequently Daksha gave his daughter to Paramesht́hí, and by her was Nárada born." Now several difficulties occur here. Asikní is the wife, not the daughter, of Daksha; but this may be a blunder of the compiler, for in the parallel passage of the Váyu no name occurs. In the next place, who is this daughter? for, as we shall see, the progeny of all Daksha's daughters are fully detailed, and in no p. 119 authority consulted is Nárada mentioned as the son of either of them, or as the son of Kaśyapa. Daksha, too, gives his daughter, not to Kaśyapa, but to Paramesht́hí, or Brahmá. The commentator on the Hari Vanśa solves this by saying he gives her to Brahmá for Kaśyapa. The same bargain is noticed in the Váyu, but Nárada is also said there to be adopted by Kaśyapa. Again, however, it gives Daksha's imprecation in the same words as the Hari Vanśa; a passage, by the way, omitted in the Bráhma: 'Nárada, perish (in your present form), and take up your abode in the womb.' Whatever may be the original of this legend, it is evidently imperfectly given by the authorities here cited. The French translation of the passage in the Hari Vanśa can scarcely be admitted as correct: assuredly is not 'le Devarchi Dakcha, epoux d'’Asikní, fille de Virána, fut l’aïeul de cet illustri mouni ainsi régénéré.' ### is more consistently said by the commentator to mean Kaśyapa. The Váyu P. in another part, a description of the different orders of Rishis, states that the Devarshis Parvata and Náreda were sons of Kaśyapa: In the account of Kárttavírya, in the Bráhma P. and Hari Vanśa, Nárada is introduced as a Gandharba, the son of Varidása; being the same, according to the commentator on the latter, as the Gandharba elsewhere called Upavarhana.