220 Analysis of the Pur an as. [June, 



number of Gopas, the swains of the preceding, originate from the 

 pores of Krishna's skin ; the herds they are to attend owe their 

 existence to the same inexhaustible source. The Rasa and Radha, 

 and the origin of the kine, and their keepers, male or female, are 

 amongst the chief characteristic peculiarities of the Brahma Vai- 

 vertta Purdna. 



After Krishna's thus evolving the different orders of subordinate 

 deities, the work proceeds to describe the devotion of Siva towards 

 his creator, and takes this opportunity of expatiating upon the differ- 

 ent degrees of Bhakti, or faith, and the various kinds of Mukti, or sal- 

 vation. 



The work of creation is then resumed by Brahma, who begets by 

 his wife Savitri', a various and odd progeny, as, the science of logic, 

 the modes of music, days, years, and ages, religious rites, diseases, 

 time, and death. He has also an independent offspring of his own, 

 or Viswakerma, from his navel ; the sage Sananda, and his three 

 brothers, from his heart ; the eleven Ru'dras from his forehead, and 

 sundry sages from his ears, mouth, &c. 



The legends that follow relating to the daughters of Dharma, and 

 their marriages with various patriarchs, from whom terrestrial objects 

 proceeded, are told in the usual strain. In describing the origin of the 

 mixed classes of mankind, this work contains a peculiar legend, which 

 makes a certain number of them, the issue of the divine architect 

 Viswakerma by Ghritachi', a nymph of heaven. The chapter 

 often occurs as a separate treatise under the title of Jdti Nirnaya, 

 and is considered as an authority of some weight, with respect to the 

 descent of the mixed tribes, although of a purely legendary character. 



The succeeding sections contain some legends of little importance, 

 until the 16th, which is occupied with a short, but curious list of 

 medical writers and writings. The first work on medical science 

 entitled the A'yur Veda was, like the other Vedas, the work of 

 Brahma, but he gave it to Surya, the sun, who, like the Phoebus of 

 the Greeks, is the fountain of medical knowledge amongst the Hindus. 

 He had sixteen scholars, to each of whom a Sanhitd or compen- 

 dium is ascribed : none of the works attributed to them are now to 

 be procured. 



The chapters that next follow, relate a legendary story of the wife 

 of a Gandherva named Malavati', the efficacy of various Mantras, 

 the story of Nareda, the sage, and rules for the performance of daily 

 purificatory and religious rites. The 28th and 29th chapters, the 

 last of the book, are occupied with the description of Krishna, of his 



