Page:Wanderings of a Pilgrim Vol 2.djvu/189

 *mand of Bhagavat, saw the vessel advancing, and entered it with the chief of Brahmāns, having carried into it the medicinal plants, and conformed to the directions of Heri. Alarmed at the violence of the waves, and the tossing of the vessel, the pious king invoked the assistance of the preserving power, "when the god appeared again distinctly on the vast ocean, in the form of a fish, blazing like gold, extending a million of leagues, with one stupendous horn; on which the king, as he had before been commanded by Heri, tied the ship with a cable made of a vast serpent, and, happy in his preservation, stood praising the destroyer of Madhu. When the monarch had finished his hymn, the primeval male Bhagavat, who watched for his safety on the great expanse of water, spoke aloud to his own divine essence, pronouncing a sacred purana; the substance of which was an infinite mystery, to be concealed within the breast of Satyaurata; who, sitting in the vessel with his saints, heard the principle of the soul, the Eternal Being, proclaimed by the preserving power. Then Heri, rising together with Brahma from the destructive deluge, which was abated, slew the demon Hayagriva, and recovered the sacred books. Satyaurata, instructed in all divine and human knowledge, was appointed in the present calpa, by the favour of Vishn[)u], the seventh menu, surnamed Vaivaswata; but the appearance of a horned fish to the religious monarch was all maya or delusion."

2. KURMA, OR THE TORTOISE.

The second grand avatara of Vishn[)u], called the Tortoise, evidently, like that of the fish, refers to the Deluge. Of this I have an illuminated painting, representing Kurma-Rājā, the king of the tortoises, on whose back the mountain Mandara is poised; and just above it, Lachhmī, the goddess of beauty, is seated on the flower of the water-lily. This avatar was for the purpose of restoring to man some of the comforts and conveniences that were lost in the flood. The vast serpent, Vasoky, is represented coiled round the mountain, serving as a rope; the head of the serpent is held by two of the soors (demons), represented as men with two horns on their heads; the tail of the animal is