Page:A Comprehensive History of India Vol 2.djvu/55

 Chap. II.] HINDOO MYTHOLOGY. 19

quality enters it: as the seasons of the year attain respectively their peculiar ad. — marks, in due time and of their own accord, even so the several acts of each embodied spirit."

In the above account man is not distinctly mentioned, but the apparent Creation

1 r- n • 1 '^^ man,

omission is now supplied by the following abrupt announcement : — " That the human race might be multiplied. He caused the Brahmin, the Cshatriya, the Vaisya, and the Sudra to proceed from his mouth, his arm, his thigh, and his foot." In what shape they came forth, whether singly or in pairs of male and female, is not explained ; but the latter may be inferred from its being imme- diately added, that "having divided his own substance, the mighty Power became half male half female." Tliis statement, however, is not made for the purpose of accounting for the difference of sex in human beings, but of found- ing a very extraordinary claim by Menu himself Brahma, we are told, from the female portion of him produced a male called Viraj, and this Viraj is solemnly declared to be Menu's own father. "Know me," says Menu, addressing the sages who were consulting him, "know me to be that person whom the male power, having performed austere devotion, produced by himself" This state- ment, startling as it is, is followed by another still more startling, in which Menu, ascribing to himself creative power, says, "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." After giving their names he con- tinues thus: — "They, abundant in glory, produced seven other Menus, together with deities, and the mansions of deities, and Maharshis, or great sages unlimited in power ; benevolent genii and fierce giants, bloodthirsty savages, heavenly cjuiristers, nymphs and demons, huge serpents and snakes of smaller size, birds of mighty wing, and separate companies of Pltris, or progenitors of mankind; lightning and thunderbolts, clouds and coloured bows of Indra, falling meteors, earth-rending vapom'S, comets, and luminaries of various degrees ; horse-faced sylvans, apes, fish, and a variety of birds, tame cattle, deer, men, and ravenous beasts with two rows of teeth ; small and large reptiles, moths, lice, fleas, and common flies, with every biting gnat and immoveable substances of distinct sorts. Thus was this whole assembly of stationary and moveable bodies framed by those higli-minded beings, through the force of their own devotion, and at my command, with separate actions allotted to each."

Having described two creations — a primary by Brahma, and a secondary by Tendency of

all beings to

himself, Menu asserts that, what he calls "this tremendous world of beings," is decay. always tending to decay, and gives an exjDlanation of the mode in which its final dissolution is accomplished. " He whose powers are incomprehensible having thus created both me and this universe, was again absorbed in the supreme Spirit, changing time for time. When that Power awakes, then has this world its full expansion ; but when he slumbers with a tranquil spirit, then the whole system fades away; for while he reposes in calm sleep, embodied spirits,