(matter).1 The two forms which are other than (b. VI., c. 4), that, at a Prákŕita or elementary dissolution, Pradhána itself merges into the deity. Neither is it, apparently, the doctrine of the Vedas, although their language is somewhat equivocal. 1 The metre here is one common to the Vedas, Trishtubh; but, in other respects, the language is not characteristic of those compositions. The purport of the passage is rendered somewhat doubtful by its close and by the explanation of the commentator. The former is: एकं प्राधानिकं ब्रह्म पुमांस्तदासीत् । 'One Prádhánika Brahma Spirit: THAT, was. The commentator explains Prádhánika, Pradhána eva, the same word as Pradhana; but it is a derivative word, which may be used attributively, implying 'having, or conjoined with, Pradhana'. The commentator, however, interprets it as the substantive; for he adds: 'There was Pradhána and Brahma and Spirit; this triad was at the period of dissolution' : प्रधानं ब्रह्म च पुमांश्चेति त्रयमेव तदा à ma l† He evidently, however, understands their conjoint existence as one only; for he continues: 'So, according to the Vedas, then there was neither the non-existent cause nor the existent effect': तथा च श्रुतिः । नासदासीन्नो सदासीत्तदानीम् । * The evolutionary doctrine is not the Pauráńik; and the commentatorwho, on this occasion, does little more than supply ellipses, and does not call prakriti, "at a Mahapralaya", "a coexistent element with the Supreme" advances nothing in contradiction to the tenor of the Puránas. See the editor's second note in p. 21, and note in p. 22, supra. It is the abridged comment that is here cited. In the copy of it to which I have access, the passage extracted above begins: di प्रधानमेव । प्राधानिकं ब्रह्म च । The fuller comment has : प्राधानिकं and afsa: 1 Thus opens a hymn of the Rig-veda; X., 129. See Colebrooke's Miscellaneous Essays, Vol. I., p. 33; Müller's History of Ancient Sanskrit Literature, pp. 559 et seq.; and Goldstücker's Páńini, His Place in Sanskrit Literature, pp. 144 et seq. The Sanskrit of the hymn, accompanied by a new translation, will be found in Original Sanskrit Texts, Part IV., pp. 3 and 4. the essence of unmodified Vishnu are Pradhána (matter) and Purusha (spirit); and his other form, by which those two are connected or separated, is called Kála (time)." When discrete substance is aggregated in crude nature, as in a foregone dissolution, that dissolution is meaning that there was only One Being, in whom matter and its modifications were all comprehended. 'Or it might be rendered: 'Those two other forms (which proceed) from his supreme nature': विष्णोः स्वरूपात्परतः । that is, from the nature of Vishnu when he is Nirupádhi or without adventitious attributes : निरुपाधेर्विष्णोः स्वरूपात् । 'other' (अन्ये); the commentator states they are other, or separate from Vishnu, only through Máyá, 'illusion', but here implying 'false notion': the elements of creation being, in essence, one with Vishnu, though, in existence, detached and different. a1gì a enfad act a yfA- रूपादि यत्तद्द्विज कालसंज्ञम् ॥ "There was neither day nor night, neither heaven nor earth, neither darkness nor light. And there was not aught else apprehensible by the senses or by the mental faculties. There was then, however, one Brahma, essentially prakriti and spirit. For the two aspects of Vishnu which are other than his supreme essential aspect are prakriti and spirit, O Bráhman. When these two other aspects of his no longer subsist, but are dissolved, then that aspect whence form and the rest, i. e., creation, proceed anew is denominated time, O twice-born." See the editor's first note in p. 18, supra. I have carried forward the inverted commas by which Professor Wilson indicated the end of the quotation. There can be no question that it embraces two stanzas. They are in the trishtubh metre, and are preceded and followed by verses in the anushťubh. termed elemental (Prákrita). The deity as Time is without beginning, and his end is not known; and from him the revolutions of creation, continuance, and dissolution unintermittingly succeed:* for, when, in the latter season, the equilibrium of the qualities (Pradhana) exists, and spirit (Pums) is detached from matter, then the form of Vishnu which is Time abides.1 Then 1 Pradhana, when unmodified, is, according to the Sankhyas and Pauráńiks, nothing more than the three qualities + in equilibrio; or goodness, foulness, and darkness neutralizing each other; (Sánkhya Káriká, p. 52). So in the Matsya P.: सत्त्वं रजस्तमश्चैव गुणत्रयमुदाहृतम् । annafgfajai yafa: ufcäifðar || This state is synonymous with the non-evolution of material products, or with dissolution; implying, however, separate existence, and detached from spirit. This being the case, it is asked, What should sustain matter and spirit whilst separate, or renew their combination so as to renovate creation? It is answered, Time, which is when everything else is not, and which, at the end of a certain interval, unites Matter (Pradhána) and Purusha, and * अव्युच्छिन्नास्ततश्चैते सर्गस्थित्यन्तसंयमाः । We here have a reference, apparently, to four-not simply to threeconditions of things, the last of which, saṁyama, "delitescence", denotes the state that prevails during the nights of Brahma, when all concrete forms are resolved into their original elements. The word has occurred before: see p. 11, supra. Also see the Márkandeya-puráňa, XLVI., 7. The commentator, at first, takes samyama — i. e., he says, samhára— for the third condition, qualified by anta ante, "at last". Alternatively, he makes anta the third of the conditions, and governs the names of all three by samyamák, in the sense of niyamák. For niyama, in place of samyama, in a classification similar to that of the text, see Sankara Áchárya's Commentary on the Swetáśwatara Upanishad: Bibliotheca Indica, Vol. VII., pp. 275 and 276. On rendering the Sankhya or Pauráńik guna, as here meant, by "quality", see my translation of Pandit Nehemiah Nilakantha Śástrin's Rational Refutation of the Hindu Philosophical Systems, pp. 43 and 44, foot-note, and pp. 219 et seg., foot - note. * the supreme Brahma, the supreme soul, the substance of the world, the lord of all creatures, the universal soul, the supreme ruler, Hari, of his own will having entered into matter and spirit, agitated the mutable and immutable principles, the season of creation being arrived. In the same manner as fragrance affects the mind from its proximity merely, and not from any immediate operation upon mind itself, so the Supreme influenced the elements of creation.1 Purushottama produces creation. Conceptions of this kind are evidently comprised in the Orphic triad, or the ancient notion of the cooperation of three such principles, in creation, as Phanes or Eros, which is the Hindu spirit or Purusha; Chaos, matter or Pradhána; and Chronos, or Kála, time. 1 Pradhána is styled Vyaya (a), 'that which may be expended';† or Parińámin (ufturfæ7), 'which may be modified': and Purusha is called Avyaya (), 'inconsumable', or aparińámin (f), immutable'. The expressions प्रविश्य, 'having entered into', and क्षोभयमास, 'agitated', recall the mode in which divine intelligence, mens, vous, was conceived, by the ancients, to operate upon matter: Φρὴν φροντίσι κόσμον ἅπαντα, or as in a more familiar passage: Spiritus intus alit, totamque infusa per artus, Mens agitat molem, et magno se corpore miscet: or, perhaps, it more closely approximates to the Phoenician cosmogony, in which a spirit, mixing with its own principles, gives rise to creation. Brucker, I., 240. As presently explained, the mixture is not mechanical; it is ar influence or effect exerted upon intermediate agents which produce effects; as perfumes do not delight the mind by actual contact, but by the impression * Supply "all-permeant" sarvaga. † “Passing away", or "perishable", is more literal. is both the agitator and the thing to be agitated; being present in the essence of matter, both when it is con they make upon the sense of smelling, which communicates it to the mind. The entrance of the supreme Vishnu into spirit, as well as matter, is less intelligible than the view elsewhere taken of it, as the infusion of spirit, identified with the Supreme, into Prakriti or matter alone. Thus, in the Padma Puráňa:* यो ऽसौ प्रकृत्याः पुरुषः प्रोच्यते स इहाच्युतः । स एव भगवान्विष्णुः प्रकृत्यामाविवेश ह ॥ 'He who is called the male (spirit) of Prakriti is here named Achyuta; and that same divine Vishnu entered into Prakriti.' So the Brihan Náradíya: प्रकृतौ क्षोभमापन्ने पुरुषाख्ये जगद्गुरौ । 'The lord of the world, who is called Purusha, producing agitation in Prakriti.' From the notion of influence or agitation produced on matter through or with spirit, the abuse of personification led to actual or vicarious admixture. Thus, the Bhágavata, identifying Máyá with Prakriti, has: कालवृत्त्या तु मायायां गुणमय्यामधोक्षजः । 'Through the operation of time, the Mighty One, who is present to the pure, implanted a seed in Máyá endowed with qualities, as Purusha, which is one with himself.'+ B. III., s. 5. And the Bhavishya: 'Some learned men say, that the supreme being, desirous to create beings, creates, in the commencement of the Kalpa, a body of soul (or an incorporeal substance); which soul, created by him, enters into Prakriti; and Prakriti, being thereby agitated, creates many material elements': अन्ये चेदं महाबाहो प्रवदन्ति मणीषिणः । यो ऽसावात्मा परस्तात्कल्पादी सृजते तनुम् ॥ Uttara-kanda, XXXIV. + Burnouf-Vol. I., p. 176—has: "Lorsque l'action du temps eut développé au sein de Mâyâ les qualités, Adhôkchaja, doué de vigueur, se manifestant sous la forme de Purucha, déposa en elle sa semence." For Adhokshaja, see Goldstücker's Sanskrit Dictionary, sub voce: also Original Sanskrit Texts, Part IV., pp. 182 and 183. |