Page:Hindu Mythology, Vedic and Purānic.djvu/40

 calf by which I may be able to secrete milk. Make also all places level, so that I may cause my milk, the seed of all vegetation, to flow everywhere around.”

Prithu acted upon this advice. "Before his time there was no cultivation, no pasture, no agriculture, no highways for merchants ; all these things (or all civilization) originated in the reign of Prithu. Where the ground was made level, the king induced his subjects to take up their abode ... He therefore having made Swayambhuva Manu the calf, milked the Earth, and received the milk into his own hand, for the benefit of mankind. Thence proceeded all kinds of corn and vegetables upon which people now subsist. By granting life to the Earth, Prithu was as her father and she thence derived the patronymic appellation “Prithivi.”

In a note Professor Wilson adds, the commentator observes that “by the 'calf', or Manu in that character is typified the promoter of the multiplification of progeny ;” Manu, as will be seen in the account of the Creation, being regarded by some of the Purānas as the first parent of mankind. This legend, with considerable variation, is found in most of the Purānas; Soma, Indra, Yama, and others taking the place of Manu as the calf whilst Prithu's place as the milker is taken by the Rishis, Mitra, etc. In the same note Professor Wilson says, “These are all probably subsequent modifications of the original simple allegory, which typified the earth as a cow, who yielded to every class of beings the milk that they desired, or the object of their wishes.”

It should be noticed that, later in the “Vishnu Purāna,” Prithivi is said to have sprung from the foot of Vishnu.