222 Analysis of the Purlinas. [June, 



productive agent in the creation of the world, but she is regarded as 

 Maya, the goddess of delusion, the suggester of that mistaken esti- 

 mate of human existence, which is referable to the gross perceptions of 

 our elementary construction. With this character the Paurdnics 

 have combined another, and confounding the instrument with the action, 

 matter with the impulse by which it was animated, they have cho- 

 sen to consider Prakriti also as the embodied manifestation of the 

 divine will, as the act of creation, or the inherent power of creating, 

 co-existing with the supreme. This seems to be the ruling 1 idea in the 

 Brahma Vaivertta, in which the meaning of the word Prakriti, and 

 the origin of this agent in creation, are thus explained : — ■ 



" The prefix Pra means pre-eminent, Kriti means creating ; that 

 goddess who was pre-eminent in creation, is termed Prakriti : again, 

 Pra means best, or is equivalent to the term Satwa, the quality of 

 purity, Kri implies middling, the quality of passion, and 77 means 

 worse or that of ignorance. She who is invested with all power is 

 identifiable with the three properties, and is the principal in creation, and 

 is therefore termed Prakriti. Pra also signifies first or foremost, and 

 Kriti creation ; she who was the beginning of creation, is called 

 Prakriti." 



u The supreme spirit in the act of creation became by Yoga two- 

 fold, the right side was male, the left was Prakriti. She is of one form 

 with Brahme. She is Maya, eternal and imperishable. Such as the 

 spirit, such is the inherent energy (the Sakti), as the faculty of burning 

 is inherent in fire." 



The idea of personifying the divine agency, being once conceived, 

 was extended by an obvious analogy to similar cases, and the persons 

 of the Hindu triad, being equally susceptible of active energies, their 

 energies were embodied as their respective Prakritis, Saktis, or god- 

 desses. From them the like accompaniment was conferred upon the 

 whole pantheon, and finally upon man ; women being regarded as 

 portions of the primeval Prakriti. The whole being evidently a 

 clumsy attempt to graft the distinction of the sexes as prevailing in 

 earth, hell, and heaven, upon a metaphysical theory of the origin of 

 the universe. 



The primeval Prakriti, according to our authority, which now 

 becomes wholly mythological, resolved herself, by command of 

 Krishna, into five primitive portions. These were Durga, the Sakti 

 of Mahadeva ; Lakshmi, the Sakti of Vishnu ; Saraswati' the god- 

 dess of language ; Savitri, the mother of the Vedas, and Radha, the 

 favourite of Krishna. 



