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30. As the six seasons of the year attain respec-

tively their peculiar marks in due time and of their

own accord, even so the several acts of each em-

bodied spirit attend it naturally.

31. That the human race might be multiplied, He

'caused the Bráhmen, the Cshatriya, the Vaisya, and
the Súdra (so named from the scripture, protection,
wealth, and labour) to proceed from his mouth, his
arm, his thigh, and his foot.

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32. Having divided his own substance, the mighty

'Power became half male, half female, or nature active
and passive; and from that female he produced VIRA'J:

33. Know Me, O most excellent of Bráhmens, to

'be that person, whom the male power VIRA's, having
performed austere devotion, produced by himself;
Me, the secondary framer of all this visible world.

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34. It was I, who, desirous of giving birth to a race

' of men, performed very difficult religious duties, and

'first produced ten Lords of created beings, eminent in

' holiness.

35. MARICHI, ATRI, ANGIRAS, PULASTYA, PULAHA,
CRATU, PRACHETAS, or DACSHA, VASISHT HA, BHRIGU,
' and NA'RADA :

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36. They, abundant in glory, produced seven other
'Menus, together with deities, and the mansions of
deities, and Maharshis, or great Sages, unlimited in

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Lightnings and thunder-bolts, clouds and co-

loured bows of Indra, falling meteors, earth-rending
vapours, comets, and luminaries of various degrees ;

39. Horse-faced sylvans, apes, fish, and a variety

of birds, tame cattle, deer, men, and ravenous beasts
' with two rows of teeth;

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40. Small and large reptiles, moths, lice, fleas, and
common flies, with every biting gnat, and immovable
substances of distinct sorts.

41. Thus was this whole assemblage of stationary

⚫ and movable bodies framed by those high-minded
beings, through the force of their own devotion, and
at my command, with separate actions allotted to
⚫ each.

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42. Whatever act is ordained for each of those

creatures here below, that I will now declare to you,
together with their order in respect to birth.

43. Cattle and deer, and wild beasts with two rows

of teeth, giants, and blood-thirsty savages, and the

race of men, are born from a secundine;

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45. From hot moisture are born biting gnats, lice,

fleas, and common flies; these, and whatever is of
the same class, are produced by heat.

46. All vegetables, propagated by seed or by slips,

grow from shoots: some herbs, abounding in flowers
and fruits, perish when the fruit is mature;

47. Other plants, called lords of the forest, have no

flowers, but produce fruit; and, whether they have
flowers also, or fruit only, large woody plants of both
6 sorts are named trees.

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48. There are shrubs with many stalks from the
'root upwards, and reeds with single roots but united
stems, all of different kinds, and grasses, and vines
'or climbers, and creepers, which spring from a seed
or from a slip.

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50. All transmigrations, recorded in sacred books,
from the state of BRAHMA', to that of plants, happen
continually in this tremendous world of beings; a
world always tending to decay.

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51. HE, whose powers are incomprehensible, hav-

ing thus created both me and this universe, was

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54. And when they once are absorbed in that su-

preme essence, then the divine soul of all beings

' withdraws his energy, and placidly slumbers;

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55. Then too this vital soul of created bodies, with
' all the organs of sense and of action, remains long
immersed in the first idea or in darkness, and per-
forms not its natural functions, but migrates from its

corporeal frame:

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56. When, being again composed of minute ele-
mentary principles, it enters at once into vegetable
or animal seed, it then assumes a new form.

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57. Thus that immutable Power, by waking and re-

posing alternately, revivifies and destroys in eternal

succession,

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59. This my son BHRIGU will repeat the divine code

'to you without omission; for that sage learned from
me to recite the whole of it.'

60. BHRIGU, great and wise, having thus been ap-

pointed by MENU to promulge his laws, addressed all
the Rishis with an affectionate mind, saying: 'Hear!

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Sprung from the self-existing, came six descendants,
' other MENUS, or perfectly understanding the scrip-
ture, each giving birth to a race of his own, all ex-
alted in dignity, eminent in power;

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SWA'RO'CHISHA, AUTTAMI, TA'MASA, RAIVATA like-

wise and CHA'CSHUSHA, beaming with glory, and VAI-
VASWATA, child of the sun.

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63. The seven MENUS, (or those first created, who

are to be followed by seven more) of whom SWA'YAM-
'BHUVA is the chief, have produced and supported this
' world of moving and stationary beings, each in his
own antara, or the period of his reign.

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