kissed him on the forehead 1, and embraced him, and shed tears, and said, "Dost thou live, my son?" And the great Asura repented of his former cruelty, and treated him with kindness: and Prahláda, fulfilling his duties like any other youth, continued diligent in the service of his preceptor and his father. After his father had been put to death by Vishńu in the form of the man-lion 2, Prahláda became the sovereign of the Daityas; and possessing the splendours of royalty consequent upon his piety, exercised extensive sway, and was blessed with a numerous progeny. At the expiration of an authority which was the reward of his meritorious acts, he was freed from the consequences of moral merit or demerit, and obtained, through meditation on the deity, final exemption from existence.

Such, Maitreya, was the Daitya Prahláda, the wise and faithful worshipper of Vishńu, of whom you wished to hear; and such was his miraculous power. Whoever listens to the history of Prahláda is immediately cleansed from his sins: the iniquities that he commits, by night or by day, shall be expiated by once hearing, or once reading, the history of Prahláda. The perusal of this history on the day of full moon, of new moon, or on the eighth or twelfth day of the lunation 3,

shall yield fruit equal to the donation of a cow 4. As Vishńu protected Prahláda in all the calamities to which he was exposed, so shall the deity protect him who listens constantly to the tale 5.

Footnotes

145:1 Literally, 'having smelt his forehead.' I have elsewhere had occasion to observe this practice: Hindu Theatre, II. 45.

145:2 Here is another instance of that brief reference to popular and prior legends, which is frequent in this Puráńa. The man-lion Avatára is referred to in several of the Puráńas, but I have met with the story in detail only in the Bhágavata. It is there said that Hirańyakaśipu asks his son, why, if Vishńu is every where, he is not visible in a pillar in the hall, where they are assembled. He then rises, and strikes the column with his fist; on which Vishńu, in a form which is neither wholly a lion nor a man, issues from it, and a conflict ensues, which ends in Hirańyakaśipu's being torn to pieces. Even this account, therefore, is not in all particulars the same as the popular version of the story.

145:3 The days of full and new moon are sacred with all sects of Hindus: the eighth and twelfth days of the lunar half month were considered holy by the Vaishńavas, as appears from the text. The eighth maintains its character in a great degree from the eighth of Bhádra being the birthday of Krishńa; but the eleventh, in more recent Vaishńava works, as the Brahma Vaivartta P., has taken the place of the twelfth, and is even more sacred than the eighth.