£54 AX ESSAY OV THE 



is a legend of the greatest importance, and said to 

 be extracted from tlie Padma. It contains the 

 history of Noah and his three sons, and is writ- 

 ten in a masterly style. But unfortunately there 

 is not a word of it to be found in that Pur an a. 

 It is, however, mentioned, though in less explicit 

 terms, in many Puran'as, and the pandit took 

 particular care in pointing out to me several pas- 

 sages which confirmed, more or less, this interest- 

 ing legend. Of these I took little notice, as his 

 extract appeared more explicit and satisfactory ; 

 and I do not now recollect in what Puran'as, or 

 other books, they are contained. It is acknow- 

 ledged, that the three sonsof Savayambhuva are in- 

 carnations of theTRiMURTi ; and they are declared, 

 in general, in the Puranas, to have been created 

 by the Deity to marry the three daughters of the 

 first man, with a view to avoid the defilement of 

 human conception, gestation, and birth. 



Dacspia and Brahma' in a human shape; Card- 

 DAJiA, or Capila, or Cabil, (the name of Cain 

 among Muselmans^) wasS'ivA; and the benevolent 

 Ruchi, was Vishnu : one of Ruchi's titles is S'ar- 

 MA and S'ama: S'iva is called Ha and Ham in 

 the objective case; and Brahma, or Dacsha, is 

 declared to be Praja'pati, nearly synonymous 

 with Jya'pati. 



In the Mahd-Bharata^ section of the Adipurva, 

 there is a much more positive passage. D'harma, 

 or the first man, sprang from the right side of 

 Brahma', which was cut open for that purpose; 

 to him were born three sons, S'ama, Cama, and 

 IIarsha. 



The rest of the legend, about the intoxication 

 of Noah, is from what my pandit picked up in 

 conversation with me. 



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