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the sons of Priyavrata,-famous for strength and prowess. Of these, three, or Medha,* Agnibáhu, and Putra, adopted a religious life. Remembering the occurrences of a prior existence, they did not covet dominion, but diligently practised the rites of devotion in due season, wholly disinterested, and looking for no reward.

Priyavrata, having divided the earth into seven continents, gave them, respectively, to his other seven sons.' To Agnídhra: he gave Jambu-dwípa; to Medhátithi he gave Plaksha-dwípa; he installed Vapushmat in the sovereignty over the Dwipa of Sálmali, § and made Jyotishmat king of Kusa-dwípa; he appointed Dyutimat to rule over Krauncha-dwípa, Bhavya, to reign over Sáka-dwípa; and Savana he nominated the monarch of the Dwipa of Pushkara.

Agnídhra, the king of Jambu-dwípa, had nine sons,

1

According to the Bhagavata, he drove his chariot seven times round the earth; and the ruts left by the wheels became the beds of the oceans, separating it into seven Dwipas.

* A corruption of Medhas, just above. For kindred depravations, see my third note at p. 107, infra.

+ प्रियव्रतो ददौ तेषां सप्तानां मुनिसत्तम ।
विभज्य सप्त द्वीपानि मैत्रेय सुमहात्मनाम् ॥

The original is:

जम्बूद्वीपं महाभागः सोऽ प्रीघ्राय ददौ पिता ॥

And it is determined, thus, that the Vishnu-puráňa reads Agnidhra, not Ágnidhra. No other passage is decisive of this point.

§ All the MSS. within my reach here have Śálmala. Both forms are used, however. See the first page of the next chapter.

|| V., 16, 2: तत्रापि प्रियव्रतरथचरणपरिखातैः सप्तभिः सप्त सिन्धव उपक्लृप्ताः । यत एतस्या: सप्तद्वीपविशेषविकल्पस्त्वया भगवन्खलु And see the same work, V., 1, 31.

equal, in splendour, to the patriarchs. They were named Nábhi, Kimpurusha, Harivarsha, Ilávŕita, Ramya, Hirańvat, Kuru, Bhadráśwa, and Ketumála,1 who was a prince ever active in the practice of piety.

Hear next, Maitreya, in what manner Agnídhra apportioned Jambu-dwípa amongst his nine sons. He gave to Nábhi the country* called Hima, south (of the Himavat, or snowy mountains). The country of Hemakúta he gave to Kimpurusha, and, to Harivarsha, the country of Nishadha. The region in the centre of which mount Meru is situated he conferred on Ilávŕita, and, to Ramya, the countries lying between it and the Níla mountain. To Hirańvat his father gave the country lying to the north of it, called Śweta; and, on the north of the Sweta mountains, the country bounded by the Śringavat range he gave to Kuru. The countries on the east of Meru he assigned to Bhadráśwa; and Gandhamádana, (which lay west of it), he gave to Ketumála. Having installed his sons sovereigns in these several regions, the pious king Agnídhra retired to a life of penance at the holy place of pilgrimage, Śálagráma.3

1 Even the Bhagavata concurs with the other Puránas in this series of Priyavrata's grandsons.

2 Of these divisions, as well as of those of the earth, and of the minor divisions of the Varshas, we have further particulars in the following chapter.

3 This place of pilgrimage has not been found elsewhere. The term is usually applied to a stone, an ammonite, which is

*Varsha.

† V., 2. 19. But it has Ramyaka and Hiranmaya instead of Ramya and Hirańvat.

The eight Varshas or countries, Kimpurusha and the rest, are places of perfect enjoyment, where happiness is spontaneous and uninterrupted. In them there is no vicissitude, nor the dread of decrepitude or death: there is no distinction of virtue or vice; nor difference of degree, as better or worse; nor any of the effects produced, in this region, by the revolutions of ages.

*

Nábhi, who had (for his portion) the country of Hima,† had, by his queen Meru, the magnanimous Rishabha; and he had a hundred sons, the eldest of whom was Bharata. Rishabha, having ruled with equity and wisdom, and celebrated many sacrificial rites, resigned the sovereignty of the earth to the heroic Bharata, and, retiring to the hermitage of Pulastya, adopted the life of an anchoret, practising religious penance, and performing all prescribed ceremonies, until, emaciated by his austerities, so as to be but a

supposed to be a type of Vishnu, and of which the worship is enjoined in the Uttara Khanda of the Padma Purána, and in the Brahma Vaivarta, authorities of no great weight or antiquity. As these stones are found chiefly in the Gandak river, the Śálagráma Tirtha was, probably, at the source of that stream, or at its confluence with the Ganges. Its sanctity, and that of the stone, are, probably, of comparatively modern origin.

*

anfa fäyzureifa adtust agıgà ||
तेषां स्वाभाविकी सिद्धिः सुखप्राया ह्ययत्नतः ।
विपर्ययो न तेष्वस्ति जरामृत्युभयं न च ॥
धर्माधर्मौ न तेष्वास्तां नोत्तमाधममध्यमाः ।
न तेष्वस्ति युगावस्था क्षेत्रेष्वष्टसु सर्वदा ॥

See Original Sanskrit Texts, Part I., p. 186.

†The Translator inadvertently put "Himȧhwa", a word which

p. 102, 1. 7, supra,-he has rendered by "called Hima".

Two excepted, all the MSS. that I have seen give Pulaha.

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collection of skin and fibres, he put a pebble in his mouth, and, naked, went the way of all flesh.1* The

''The great road', or 'road of heroes' (A† or Aरस्थान). ). The pebble was intended either to compel perpetual silence, or to prevent his eating. The Bhagavata adverts to the same circumstance: आस्ये कृताश्मकवलः । That work enters much more into detail on the subject of Rishabha's devotion, and particularizes circumstances not found in any other Purána. The most interesting of these are, the scene of Rishabha's wanderings, which is said to be Konka, Venkata, Kutaka, and southern Karnataka, or the western part of the Peninsula; and the adoption of the Jaina belief by the people of those countries. Thus, it is said: "A king of the Konkas, Venkatas, § and Kutakas, named Arhat, having heard the tradition of Rishabha's practices (or his wandering about naked, and desisting from religious rites), being infatuated by necessity, under the evil influence of the Kali age, will become needlessly alarmed, and abandon his own religious duty, and will foolishly enter upon an unrighteous and heretical path. Misled by him, and bewildered by the iniquitous operation of the Kali age, disturbed, also, by the delusions of the deity, wicked men will, in great numbers, desert the institutes and purifications of their own ritual; will observe vows injurious and disrespectful to the gods; will desist

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वानप्रस्थविधानेन तत्रापि कृतनिश्चयः ।
तपस्तेपे यथान्यायमियाज च महीपतिः ॥
तपसा कर्षितोऽत्यर्थं कृशो धमनिसन्ततः ।

नमो वीटां मुखे दत्वा वीराध्वानं ततो गतः ॥

The strange word viťá, in the last line, the larger commentary thus defines : वीटा कन्द्रकः शिलामयः । The smaller commentary says: वीटां कन्द्रकसदृशमश्मकवलम् ।

This term is used, by the commentators, in elucidation of the original, which is महाध्वानम्, or, more usually, वीराध्वानम्. In the larger commentary the former reading is preferred: the smaller follows the latter.

+ V., 6, 8.

§ Venka is the only reading I have found.

country was termed Bhárata from the time that it was

from ablutions, mouth-washings, and purifications, and will pluck out the hair of the head, and will revile the world, the deity, sacrifices, Brahmans, and the Vedas.” * It is also said, + that Sumati, the son of Bharata, will be irreligiously worshipped, by some infidels, as a divinity. Besides the import of the term Arbat, or Jaina, Rishabha is the name of the first, and Sumati, of the fifth, Tirthakara or Jaina saint of the present era. There can be no doubt, therefore, that the Bhágavata intends this sect; and, as the Jaina system was not matured until a comparatively modern date, this composition is determined to be also recent.

*

Bhagavata-purána, V., 6, 10 and 11:

The

यस्य किलानुचरितमुपाकर्ण्य कोङ्कवेङ्ककुटकानां राजार्हन्नामोपशिक्ष्य कलावधर्म उत्कृष्यमाणे भमितव्येन विमोहितः स्वधर्मपथमकुतोभयमपहाय कुपथपाखण्डमसमञ्जसं निजमनीषया मन्दः संप्रवर्तयिष्यते ।

येन ह वाव कलौ मनुजापसदा देवमायामोहिताः स्वविधिनियोगशौचचारित्रविहीना देवहेलनान्यपव्रतानि निजनिजेच्छया गृलाना अस्नानानाचमनाशीच केशोलुञ्चनादीनि कलिनाधर्मबहुलेनपहतधियो ब्रह्मब्राह्मणयज्ञपुरुषलोकविदूषकाः प्रायेण भविष्यन्ति । Burnouf's rendering of this passage is as follows:

"C'est Richabha dont les préceptes égareront fatalement Arhat, roi des Kôgkas, des Vêĝkas et des Kutakas, qui apprendra son histoire, lorsque, l'injustice dominant dans l'âge Kali, ce prince, après avoir abandonné la voie sûre de son devoir, prêtera le secours de son intelligence trompée à la mauvaise doctrine et aux fausses croyances.

"C'est par ses efforts que dans l'âge Kali, égarés par la divine Mâyâ, les derniers des hommes, méconnaissant les devoirs de leur loi et les règles de la pureté, adopteront suivant leur caprice des pratiques injurieuses pour les Dêvas, comme celles de négliger les bains, les ablutions, les purifications, ou de s'arracher les cheveux; et que troublés par l'injustice toujours croissante de cet âge, ils outrageront le Vêda, les Brâhmanes, le sacrifice et le monde de Purucha."

+ Bhagavata-puráña, V., 15, 1:

भरतस्यात्मजः सुमतिनामाभिहितो यमु ह वाव केचित्पाखण्डिन ऋषभपदवीमनुवर्तमानं चानायी अवेदसमाम्नातां देवतां वमनीषया पापीयस्या कलौ कल्पयिष्यन्ति ।

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