RAIVATA likewife and CHA'CSHUSHA, beaming with glory, and VAIVASWATA, child of the fun. 63. The feven MENUS, (or thofe first created, who are to be followed by feven more) of whom SWA YAMBHUVA is the chief, have produced and fupported this world of moving and stationary beings, each in his own antara, or the period of • his reign.

64. Eighteen niméfbas, or twinklings of an eye, are one cáfht'há; thirty cáfht'hás, one calá; thirty calás, one mubirta: and juft fo many mubertas let mankind confider as the duration of their day and night.

65. The fun caufes the diftribution of day and night, both divine and human; night being intended for the repofe 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 divifion 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 flumber :

67. A year of mortals is a day and a night of the Gods, or regents of the universe feated round the north pole; and again their divifion is this, their day is the northern, and their night the fouthern courfe of the fun.

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

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

70. In the other three ages, with their twilights preceding and following, are thoufands and • hundreds diminished by one.

71. The divine years, in the four human ages juft enumerated, being added together, their fum, or twelve thoufand, is called the age of the • Gods:

72. 'And, by reckoning a thoufand fuch divine. ages, a day of BRAHMA may be known: his < night also has an equal duration:

73. Thofe perfons beft know the divifions of the days and nights, who understand that the day of BRAHMA, which endures to the end of a thousand fuch ages, gives rife to virtuous exertions; and that his night endures as long as his day.

74. At the clofe of his night, having long repofed, he awakes, and awaking, exerts intellect, or reproduces the great principle of animation, whofe property it is to exift unperceived by • fenfe ;

75. Intellect, called into action by his will to create worlds, performs again the work of creation; and thence firft emerges the fubţil ether, to which philofophers afcribe the quality of conveying found;

76.

From ether, effecting a tranfmutation in form, fprings the pure and potent air, a vehicle of all fcents; and air is held endued with the quality of touch:

77. Then from air, operating a change, rifes light or fire, making objects vifible, difpelling gloom, fpreading bright rays; and it is declared to have the quality of figure;

78. But from light, a change being effected, ⚫ comes water with the quality of tafte; and from

< water

• water is depofited earth with the quality of smell: fuch were they created in the beginning.

79. The before-mentioned age of the Gods, or twelve thousand of their years, being multiplied by feventy-one, conftitutes what is here named a Menwantara, or the reign of a MENU. 80. There are numberless Menwantaras creations alfo and deftructions of worlds, in numerable: the Being fupremely exalted performs all this, with as much eafe as if in fport; again and again, for the fake of conferring happine's.

81. In the Crita age the Genius of truth and right, in the form of a Bull, ftands firm on his four feet; nor does any advantage accrue to men from iniquity;

82. But in the following ages, by reason of unjust gains, he is deprived fucceffively of one foot; and even juft emoluments, through the prevalence of theft, falfehood, and fraud, are gradually diminished by a fourth part.

83. Men, free from disease, attain all forts of profperity, and live four hundred years in the Crita age; but, in the Trétà and the fucceeding ages, their life is leffened gradually by one quarter.

84.

The life of mortals, which is mentioned in the Véda, the rewards of good works, and the powers of embodied fpirits, are fruits proportioned among men to the order of the four ages.

85. Some duties are performed by good men in the Crita age; others, in the Trétà; fome, in the Dwápara; others, in the Cali; in proportion as thofe ages decrease in length.

86. In the Crita the prevailing virtue is de• clared

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

87. FOR the fake of preserving this univerfe, the Being, fupremely glorious, allotted separate duties to thofe who fprang refpectively from his mouth, his arm, his thigh, and his foot.

88. To Brábmens he affigned the duties of reading the Véda, of teaching it, of facrificing, of affifting others to facrifice, of giving alms, if they be rich, and, if indigent, of receiving gifts:

89. To defend the people, to give alms, to facrifice, to read the Véda, to fhun the allurements of fenfual gratification, are, in a few words, the duties of a Chatriya:

90. To keep herds of cattle, to bestow largeffes, to facrifice, to read the fcripture, to carry on trade, to lend at intereft, and to cultivate land are prefcribed or permitted to a Vaifya:

91. One principal duty the fupreme Ruler affigns to a Súdra; namely, to ferve the before-mentioned claffes, without depreciating their worth.

92. Man is declared purer above the navel; but the felf-creating Power declared the pureft part of him to be his mouth.

93. Since the Brahmen sprang from the most excellent part, fince he was the first born, and fince he poffeffes the Véda, he is by right the chief of this whole creation.

94. Him, the Being, who exifts of himself, produced in the beginning from his own mouth, that, having performed holy rites, he might prefent clarified butter to the Gods, and cakes

'of

of rice to the progenitors of mankind, for the I prefervation of this world:

95. What created being then can furpafs "Him, with whofe mouth the Gods of the firmament continually feast on clarified butter, and the manes of ancestors, on hallowed cakes?

96. 'Of created things, the moft excellent are thofe which are animated; of the animated, thofe which fubfift by intelligence; of the intelligent, mankind; and of men, the facerdotal < class;

97. Of priests, thofe eminent in learning; of the learned, thofe who know their duty; of ⚫ those who know it, fuch as perform it virtuously; • and of the virtuous, those who feek beatitude from a perfect acquaintance with fcriptural doc

‹ trine.

98. The very birth of Brábmens is a conftant incarnation of DHERMA, God of Justice; for the • Brahmen is born to promote juftice, and to procure ultimate happiness.

09. When a Brahmen fprings to light, he is born above the world, the chief of all creatures, affigned to guard the treafury of duties, religious ⚫ and civil.

100. Whatever exifts in the univerfe, is all in effect, though not in form, the wealth of the Brahmen; fince the Brahmen is entitled to it all by his primogeniture and eminence ⚫ of birth:

101. The Brahmen eats but his own food; ' wears but his own apparel; and beftows but his own in alms: through the benevolence of the • Brahmen, indeed, other mortals enjoy life.

102. To declare the facerdotal duties, and thofe of the other claffes in due order, the fage MENU,

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