1832.] Analysis of the Puranas. 223 



In the same manner as the primary creator of the world multiplies 

 his appearances, and without losing any of his individual substance, 

 occupies by various emanations from it different frames, so the radical 

 Prakriti exists in different shapes, and in various proportions, distin- 

 guished as Ansas, portions, Kalus, divisions, and Kaldnsas and 

 Ansdnsas, or subdivisions, or portions of portions. Thus Ganga, 

 Tulasi, Manasd, Shasht'M, and Kali, are Ansarupas, or forms 

 having a portion of the original Prakriti ; Swdhd, Swadhd, Dakshi- 

 nd, Sicasti, a host of virtues and vices, excellences and defects, and 

 all the wives of the inferior deities are Kaldrupas, forms constituted 

 of a minor division of Prakriti ; whilst all the female race are animated 

 by her minuter portions, or subdivisions, and they are virtuous or 

 vicious, according as the quality of goodness, passion, or ignorance, 

 derived from their great original, predominates, in the portion of which 

 they are respectively constituted. Women who go astray, therefore, 

 have by this system, a better excuse than the stars. 



The compiler of this Purdna is very little scrupulous as to the 

 consistency of his narrative, and assigns to the principal goddesses other 

 orioins than that which he gives in the beginning of the Brahma 

 K'handa, or in the first chapter of this section. Thus Saraswati', who 

 came out from the mouth of Krishna in the former, and in the 

 latter, is said to be one of the five subdivisions of Prakriti, is now 

 described as proceeding from the tongue of Radha ; and Lakhsmi',w1io 

 in one place is also a portion of Prakriti, and in another issues from 

 the mind of Krishna, is described in this part of the work, as one 

 of two goddesses, into which the first Saraswati was divided ; the 

 two being Saraswati' proper, and Kamala or Lakshmi'. These 

 incoherencies are quite characterstic of this Purdna y which from 

 first to last is full of contradictory repetitions, as if the writer was 

 determined to make a large book out of a few ideas, the precise 

 nature of which he forgot as fast as he committed them to paper. 



After this account of the origin of the principal female forms, the 

 third chapter contains a more particular description of the sphere of 

 Krishna or Goloka. It then repeats an account of the creation of 

 the world, through the agency of Brahma ; and the following chapters 

 of the section, are devoted to legendary stories of the principal 

 Prakritisy or Saraswati', Ganga, Tulasi, Savitri, Lakshmi, Swaha, 

 Swadha, Dakshina, Shasht'ht', Mangala, Chandi', Manasa, 

 Surabhi, Radhika and Durga. In the course of these narratives vari- 

 ous others are introduced, illustrative of the characters of gods, saints, 

 heroes, and heroines, all tending to show the fervour with which 



