Page:History of Bengali Language and Literature.djvu/62

32 Rāmāi Pandit was eighty years old when he married. His son Dharmadās had four sons,—Mādhava, Sanātana, Çridhara and Trilochana. The members of Rāmāi Pandit's family are authorised priests of Yātrāsiddhi Roy—as Dharma-thākur of the temple at Maina is called—and they are privileged to perform the copper-ceremony of the 36 castes.

The Çunya Purāṅa begins with a description of the origin of the universe on the lines of the Mahāyāna School of the Buddhists. It runs thus :—

"There was no line, no form, no colour, and no sign.

"The sun and the moon were not, nor day, nor night.

"The earth was not, nor water, nor sky.

"The mounts Meru, Mandāra and Kailāsa were not.

"The creation was not, nor were there gods, nor men.

"Brahmā was not, nor was Viṣnu, nor the etherial regions.