CEYLON BRANCH 



— ROYAL ASIATIC SOCIETY. 



him a form as beautious as the golden mountain. Were 

 even those who have not performed any penance on earth 

 on account of their former births to bathe in this pond, and 

 witness the sacred Tdndava, significative of the five divine 

 operations (a ), they would not be born again. 



"Declaring himself the ablest of the Gods of the different 

 sects (b ), who desire to liberate sentient beings from the 

 misery of birth inherent in them, and endow them with ul- 

 timate beatitude, he (Siva) put on feet rings of bright 

 gold (c ), set up his mighty banner ( d), and being greatly 

 elated therewith danced before the graceful damsel Par- 

 vati ( e). 



" Should even those wretches so wicked in their thought, 

 word, and deed, as not to meditate on the feet of the God 



any of the Menus of the Manwantaras, or great periods. The 

 Koil Purana, a section of which is entirely devoted to the parti- 

 culars of the miracle here recorded, mentions him only as "a 

 king of Gauda (the central part of Bengal) sprung from the 

 Solar race." His son was first named Singhavarma or the lion- 

 bodied, but that after he was cured of the leprosy, he assumed 

 the title of Hiranya-varma, or the gold- bodied. I have not 

 been able to ascertain any thing as to the time when Menu, or 

 his son flourished, and am afraid that it will ever remain an un- 

 solved problem. 



(a) The five divine operations (u.^a-e^^jutc), they are 1 (^ 

 L_to.) Creation ; 2 (@@) Preservation ; 3 ru>) Destruction ; 

 4 (J^GW^irfiOTuij Concealment; and 5 (^^/«feVt£>) Mercy. 



(6) There are sixteen different sects among tbe Hindus, of 

 which the Vairavas, Vamas, Kalamuk'has, Mahavratas, Pasu- 

 patas and Saivas, worship Siva ; the Yadavas, Mayavatas, Hi- 

 ranyagarb'has, Ramanujar, Bhaskaras, and Tatvad'his worship 

 Vishnu ; the Arhatas worship Arhah, the Budd'has worship 

 Buddha, the Charvakas worship their own intellect ; and the 

 Lokayatikas worship no God at all. Some of these sects are 

 again split into several minor ones, but the limits which I have 

 prescribed to my notes will not permit my enumerating them all 

 here. 



(c) In the original (*y>«>), Kallel : massive rings of gold or 

 silver with a fringe of small bells, anciently worn by warriors 

 upon their ancles- 



(d) To set up a banner : this denotes, by way of metaphor, to 

 begin a thing with a resolution to accomplish it in despite of all 

 obstacles ; but it is also usual with the Hindus to set up banners 

 in their temples when they celebrate any festivity. 



(e) In the original Ambika ($/u>lS«&*), the same with Parvati. 



