This was the creation of Swáyambhuva Manu, by which the earth was peopled, when he presided over the first Manwantara, in the Kalpa of Varáha 10

Footnotes

161:1 The text reads Kanyá; and the commentator has, 'he married the daughter of Kardama, whose name was Kanyá.' The copies agree in the reading, and the Váyu has the same name, Kanyá; but the Márkańd́eya, which is the same in other respects as our text, has Kámyá: Kámyá also is the name elsewhere given by the Váyu to the daughter of Kardama (p. 83. n. 6). Kámyá, as has been noticed, appears in the Bráhma and Hari V. (p. 53. n. 6) as the mother of Priyavrata, but erroneously; and the same authorities specify a Kámyá as the wife of that sovereign. So the commentator on the Hari V. states, 'another Kámyá is mentioned (in the text), the daughter of Kardama, the wife of Priyavrata.' p. 162 The name Kanyá is therefore most probably an error of the copyists. The Bhágavata calls the wife of Priyavrata, Varhishmatí, the daughter of Viśwakarman.

162:2 These names nearly agree in the authorities which specify the descendants of Priyavrata, except in the Bhágavata: that has an almost entirely different series of names, or Ágnidhra, Idhmajihwa, Yajnabáhu, Mahávíra, Hirańyaretas, Medhatithi, Ghritaprisht́ha, Savana, Vitihotra, and Kavi; with one daughter, Urjjaswatí. It also calls the Manus Uttama, Tamasa, and Raivata the sons of Priyavrata by another wife.

162:3 According to the Bhágavata, he drove his chariot seven times round the earth, and the ruts left by the wheels became the beds of the oceans, separating it into seven Dwípas.

162:4 Even the Bhágavata concurs with the other Puráńas in this series of Priyavrata's grandsons.

163:5 Of these divisions, as well as of those of the earth, and of the minor divisions of the Varshas, we have further particulars in the following chapter.

163:6 This place of pilgrimage has not been found elsewhere. The term is usually applied to a stone, an ammonite, which is supposed to be a type of Vishńu, and of which the worship is enjoined in the Uttara Khańd́a of the Padma P. and in the Brahma Vaivartta, authorities of no great weight or antiquity. As these stones are found chiefly in the Gandak river, the Sálagráma Tírtha was probably at the source of that stream, or at its confluence with the Ganges. Its sanctity, and that of the stone, are probably of comparatively modern origin.