Page:The Land of the Veda.djvu/87

Rh (1,728,000 years!) and that he escaped with his family from a universal deluge, which destroyed the rest of mankind. He is regarded by Indian archaeologists as the same person as the Seventh Menu, and by Colonel Tod, in his “Annals of Rajasthan,” as designating the patriarch of mankind, Noah.

The “Night of Brahma” is held to be of equal length with his “Day,” and that in the life of Brahma there are 36,000 such nights and days. At the end of each “Day” there is a partial destruction of the universe, and a reconstruction of it at the close of each “Night.” During that long night, “sun, moon, and stars are shrouded in gloom; ceaseless torrents of rain pour down; the waves of the ocean, agitated with mighty tempests, rise to a prodigious height—the seven lower worlds, as well as this earth, are all submerged. In the midst of this darkness and ruin, and in the center of this tremendous abyss, Brahma reposes in mysterious slumber upon the serpent Ananta, or eternity. Meanwhile the wicked inhabitants of all worlds utterly perish. At length the long night ends, Brahma awakes, the darkness is instantly dispelled, and the universe returns to its pristine order and beauty.”

This amazing chronology further states, that when these 36,000 “days” and “nights” (each of them 4,320,000 solar years in duration) have run their course, Brahma himself shall then expire, amid the utter annihilation of the universe, or its absorption into the essence of Brahm. This they call a Maha Pralaya, or great destruction. After this, Brahm, (the original spirit,) who had reposed during the whole duration of the creation's existence, awakes again, and from him another manifestation of the universe takes place, all things being reproduced as before, and Brahma, the Creator, commences a new existence. Each creation is coextensive with the life of Brahma, and lasts over three hundred billions of years, (311,040,000,000 years,) and the people of India believe that thus it has been during the past eternity, and thus it will continue to be in the eternity to come, an alternating succession of manifestations and annihilations of the universe at regular intervals of this inconceivable length. Truly does Wheeler call