Page:Durga Puja - With Notes and Illustrations.djvu/33

 first month of the year Januarius has been named by the Romans. He is called Ganapati by the Hindus and is the first of a group of gods. He is red coloured as the Brahma Murti of the rising sun. He sits on a lotus, which opens at the approach of the sun. Lakshmi is the ten o'clock sun and she therefore stands on a lotus. Sarasvati is the two o'clock sun the hottest and the brightest and therefore the whitest sun of the day. Kartikeya is the setting sun and is painted yellow. According to certain interpretations of the Puranas and Tantras, Durga has been made to assume a different character, that is Force, Prakrti, Sakti. But when it is remembered that man's idea of the godhead in the infancy of the world was derived from the manifestations of the sun, moon and stars, the identification of Durga with Dawn, it is to be hoped, will not appear altogether extravagant. Indeed, this theory finds a remarkable confirmation in the Invokation to the Goddess sung by Kalidasa in his Sakuntala or the Lost Ring quoted in the title-page. This sublime sloka, though rendered differently by different translators, literally means as follows:

"That which is the first work of the Creator (Light of Dawn), that which bears away the Ghi offered according to law (Light of Fire), that which is sacrificer himself (Light of Life), those two which regulate time (the Dawn and the Gloaming), that which pervades the universe possessed with the object of hearing (Space), that which is said to be the energy of all growth (Light of the Sun), and that with which the animate are living: May Isa, Great God, apparent in these eight benign forms bless you! Amen!"