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one muhúrta: and just so many muhúrtas let man- CHAP,
'kind consider as the duration of their day and night.

65.
'The sun causes the distribution of day and
night, both divine and human; night being intended
for the repose of various beings, and day for their

' exertion.

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66. A month of mortals is a day and a night of
the Pitris or patriarchs inhabiting the moon; and the
'division of a month being into equal halves, the half
beginning from the full moon is their day for actions;
' and that beginning from the new moon is their night
for slumber.

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67. A year of mortals is a day and a night of the
Gods, or regents of the universe seated round the
north pole; and again their division is this, their
day is the northern, and their night the southern
6 course of the sun.

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68. Learn now the duration of a day and a night
' of BRAHMA', and of the several ages which shall be
⚫ mentioned in order succinctly.

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69. Sages have given the name of Crita to an age
containing four thousand years of the Gods; the
'twilight preceding it consists of as many hundreds,
and the twilight following it, of the same number:

70. In the other three ages, with their twilights
preceding and following, are thousands and hun-
dreds diminished by one.

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71. The divine years, in the four human ages just

enumerated, being added together, their sum, or

twelve thousand, is called the age of the Gods:

72. And, by reckoning a thousand such divine

ages, a day of BRAHMA' may be known: his night
also has an equal duration :

73. Those persons best know the divisions of the

days and nights, who understand that the day of
'BRAHMA', which endures to the end of a thousand
such ages, gives rise to virtuous exertions; and that
'his night endures as long as his day.

74. At the close of his night, having long re

'posed, he awakes, and awaking, exerts intellect, or
reproduces the great principle of animation, whose
property it is to exist unperceived by sense:

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75. Intellect, called into action by his will to cre-

ate worlds, performs again the work of creation;
' and thence first emerges the subtil ether, to which
philosophers ascribe the quality of conveying sound;

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76. From ether, effecting a transmutation in form,

springs the pure and potent air, a vehicle of all
scents; and air is held endued with the quality of
'touch:

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79. The before-mentioned age of the Gods, or

' twelve thousand of their years, being multiplied by
seventy-one, constitutes what is here named a Men-
wantara, or the reign of a MENU.

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80. There are numberless Menwantaras; creations
also and destructions of worlds, innumerable: the
Being supremely exalted performs all this, with as
'much ease as if in sport; again and again, for the
sake of conferring happiness.

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86. In the Crita the prevailing virtue is declared

'to be in devotion; in the Trétà, divine knowledge; in
'the Dwápara, holy sages call sacrifice the duty
chiefly performed; in the Cali, liberality alone.

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87. For the sake of preserving this universe, the
Being, supremely glorious, allotted separate duties to
those who sprang respectively from his mouth, his
6 arm, his thigh, and his foot.

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88. To Bráhmens he assigned the duties of read-

ing the Veda, of teaching it, of sacrificing, of as-
sisting others to sacrifice, of giving alms, if they be
rich, and, if indigent, of receiving gifts:

89. To defend the people, to give alms, to sacri-

fice, to read the Veda, to shun the allurements of

'sensual gratification, are, in a few words, the duties

of a Cshatriya:

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91. One principal duty the supreme Ruler assigns CHAP.

to a Súdra; namely, to serve the before-mentioned

classes, without depreciating their worth.

92. Man is declared purer above the navel; but

the self-creating Power declared the purest part of
him to be his mouth.

93. Since the Brahmen sprang from the most ex-

'cellent part, since he was the first born, and since
'he possesses the Veda, he is by right the chief of
'this whole creation.

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94. Him, the Being, who exists of himself, pro-

duced in the beginning from his own mouth, that,
having performed holy rites, he might present cla-
'rified butter to the Gods, and cakes of rice to the
progenitors of mankind, for the preservation of this
• world:

95. What created being then can surpass Him,

'with whose mouth the Gods of the firmament con-
tinually feast on clarified butter, and the manes of
ancestors, on hallowed cakes?

96. Of created things, the most excellent

'those which are animated; of the animated, those
'which subsist by intelligence; of the intelligent,
mankind; and of men, the sacerdotal class;

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