OF THE HINDUS. 247 



to prepare for death, and become Pafliis. Swayambku- 

 Ta, or the fon of the felf-exifting, was the fir ft Menu, 

 and the father of mankind : his conforms name was 

 Satarupa. In the fecond Veda, the Supreme Being 

 is introduced thus fpeaking : " From me Brahma 

 was born : he is above all ; he is pitama, or the fa- 

 ther of all men ; he is Aja and Swayambhu, or felf- 

 exifting." From him proceeded Swayambhtiva, who 

 is the frrft Menu : they call him Adhna (or the mil, 

 or Protogonus :) he is the fifft of men, and Parama- 

 purujha, or the iirtt male. His help-meet Priori ti is 

 called alfo Salarupa : fhe 'is Adhna (2) or the firft : 

 ihe is Jlfoa-jenni, or the mother of the world : fhe is 

 Pea or like 7, the female energy of nature, or ihe is a 

 form of, or defcended from /: fhe is Para or the 

 greater! : both are like, Maha-deva and his SaQi (the 

 female energy of nature) whofe names are alfo lfu 

 and .///. 



Swayambhuva is Brahma in a human fhape, or the 

 fir ft Brahma : for Brahma is man individually, and alfo 

 collectively, mankind ; hence Brahma is faid to be 

 born and to die every day, as there are men fpringing 

 to life, and dying every day. Collectively he dies 

 every hundred years, this being the utmoll limits of 

 life in the CaJi-yug, according to the Pur anas : at 

 the end of the world, Brahma or mankind is faid to 

 die alfo, at the end of a hundred divine years. Swa- 

 yambhuva, in the prefent calpa, is Vi/hnu in the cha- 

 racter of Brahma-rupi Javardaua, or the ViJJniu with 

 the countenance of Brahma. To underftand this it 

 is neceflary to premife, that it has been revealed to 

 the Hindus, that, from the beginning to the end of 

 tilings, when the whole creation will be annihilated 

 and abforbed into the Supreme Being, there will 

 be five great calpas, or periods. We are now 

 the middle of the fourth ealpa, fifty years of 



(2) Adima is the feminine gender from Adima or Adlmas. 



Brahma 



