1833.] A Legend of Himélaya—by Céliddsa. 345 
AW: 
Tn him, then, the Father of Heav’n and of Earth 
Beholding a nature which freely gave birth 
EE SE 
only look upwards at their crowning lake,—but above the yet higher sphere 
of the fixed stars,—even to the highest visible celestial sphere occupied by the seven 
Rishis, (Marichi, Atri, Angiras, Pulastya, Pulaha, Kratu and Vasistha,)—whose 
stations in the pre-eminently favoured seven stars of the Great Bear, are thence ima- 
gined by the Hindas, in despite of long astronomical observation, to retain ever the 
same position with respect to the poles of the earth, unaffected by the precession 
of the equinoxes, that changes the declination as well as the longitude and right 
ascension of all inferior stars. Thus the Jéka or world to which these yet unblown 
flowers are transferred by the hands of the blessed Rishis is removed by two or 
three steps above that of Indra, Surya, and the other celestial gods, and is only 
below the seventh Jéka, the abode of Brahma : which makes it the fifth when the 
earth is not included. See Wilson’s Dictionary, Art. @Ta. 
We need not wonder therefore that in the general destruction of the three 
lower worlds, the earth, the region of Munis, and the solar heaven, by a flood at 
the close of the Manvantara,—in which the pious King Vaivasvata alone was 
preserved in an ark, accompanied by the sever. Rishis,—the highest peak of 
Him4laya should yet appear above these waters: and that the Rishis should be 
commanded by the Divine Preserver (in the shape of a fish), to fasten the ship’s 
cable to this peak, (the Hinda Ararat,) ‘thence called,’’ says Vyasa, “‘ Naubaudha- 
nam ‘or the ship-binding even to this day.’ For so we read inthe Aranya-parva or 
3rd Book of the Mahabharata, in the episode Matsydpakhydnam. 
AMANA AMAA SIA Wai! | 
=afat feaaa: Ws aa wate alfat 11 voll 
bl al a4 wets faNTa GH | 
area qe Jal we featareat | ve 
az alaare ara We feaae: ue | 
wraaaify araa afefe wcaga || ve | 
Though M. Bopp, in his ingenious preface to the German translation of this 
episode (published in 12mo. under the title of Die Stindflut, at Berlin, in 1829,) 
labours to distinguish this simpler account of the flood from that translated by Sir 
W. Jones, in As. Res. vol. i, No. ix. from the more recent Bhagavat-Purana, the 
word wjahTay in the 28th verse of the former (which cannot be properly trans- 
lated geschopfe or leute, “‘ creatures or men’’—instead of welten or “ worlds’), 
proves this deluge at least to be no less universal than that ascribed by the Bhagavat 
to the close of the Manvantara: nor does this mention of the peak of Himalaya 
above the waters (which is not in the Bhagavat) at all oblige us to suppose a 
more limited flood to be intended by the older writer. 
Ibid. And opes, &c.—The causal verb yapyafa in this stanza is explained 
by the Scholiasts faaqafa i. e. “ opens to full bloom.” This meaning does 
not occur in vocabularies : and I therefore mention it here. (Compare St. 32), 
