Page:The Mahabharata of Krishna-Dwaipayana Vyasa (1884).djvu/37

Rh some are now teaching it, and others, in like manner, will hereafter promulgate it upon the earth. It is a great source of knowledge, established throughout the three regions of the world. It is possessed by the both in detailed and compendious forms. It is the delight of the learned for being embellished with elegant expressions, conversations human and divine, and a variety of poetical measures.

"In this world, when it was destitute of brightness and light, and enveloped all around in total darkness, there came into being, as the primal cause of creation, a mighty egg, the one inexhaustible seed of all created beings. It is called Mahadivya, and was formed at the beginning of the Yuga, in which, we are told, was the true light Brahma, the eternal one, the wonderful and inconceivable being present alike in all places; the invisible and subtile cause, whose nature partaketh of entity and nonentity. From this egg came the lord Pitamaha, Brahma, the one only Prajapati; with Suraguru and Sthanu; so Manu, Ka, and Parameshti; also Pracheta and Daksha, and the seven sons of Daksha. Then also appeared the Prajapatis, and the man of inconceivable nature whom all the Rishis know; so the  the Adityas, the Vasus, and the twin Aswinas; the Yakshas, the Sadhyas, the Pisachas, the Guhyakas, and the Pitris. After these were produced the wise and most holy Brahmarshis, and the numerous Rajarshis distinguished by every noble quality. So the waters, the heavens, the earth, the air, the sky, the points of the heavens, the years, the seasons, the months, the fortnights, called Pakshas, with day and night in due succession. And thus were produced all things which are known to mankind.

"And what is seen in the universe, whether animate or inanimate, of created things, will, at the end of the world, and after the expiration of the Yuga, be again confounded. And, at the commencement of other Yugas, all things will be renovated; and, like the various fruits of the earth, succeed each other in the due order of their seasons. Thus continueth perpetually to revolve in the world, without beginning and without end, this wheel which causeth the destruction of all things.

"The generation of Devas, as a brief example, was thirty