CHAP.

animal kinds, terrestrial, as chamelions, and aquatick,

I. 6 as shell-fish:

6

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.

6

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.

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.

49.

These animals and vegetables, encircled with

multiform darkness, by reason of past actions, have
internal conscience, and are sensible of pleasure and
pain.

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.

6

51. HE, whose powers are incomprehensible, hav-

ing thus created both me and this universe, was

again absorbed in the supreme Spirit, changing the CHAP. 'time of energy for the time of repose.

6

52. When that Power awakes, (for, though slumber 'be not predicable of the sole eternal Mind, infinitely wise and infinitely benevolent, yet it is predicated of BRAHMA', figuratively, as a general property of life) then has this world its full expansion; but, when he slumbers with a tranquil spirit, then the whole system • fades away;

53. For, while he reposes, as it were, in calm sleep, embodied spirits, endued with principles of action, depart from their several acts, and the mind itself 'becomes inert ;

6

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;

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:

6

6

6

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

57. Thus that immutable Power, by waking and reposing alternately, revivifies and destroys in eternal succession,

C

I.

moval Re

CHAP. succession, this whole assemblage of locomotive and

'immovable creatures.

I.

58. HE, having enacted this code of laws, himself

taught it fully to me in the beginning: afterwards I

taught it MARICHI and the nine other holy sages.

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.'

or

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!

61. FROM this MENU named SWA'YAMBHUVA,

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;

62.

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

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

6

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.

64. Eighteen niméshas, or twinklings of an eye, are

'one cáshť'há; thirty cáshť hás, one calá; thirty calás,

one

J. e..

I Freta

I

one muhúrta: and just so many muhúrtas let man'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.

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.

6

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
" course of the sun.
Juman years.

6

6

Adivine

year =

= 360

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.

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.

1

1,296,

864,000

CHAP.

I.

6

6

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:

year

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 :

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;

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:

77. Then from air, operating a change, rises light

or fire, making objects visible, dispelling gloom,
spreading bright rays; and it is declared to have the

quality of figure;

78.' But