134 
G. S. Leonard —The Mythic History of the God Virdj. [No. 2, 
continues in Bengal, particularly where incendiaries grow frequent. Brahma 
or Hiranyagarbha, says Wilson, is particularly reverenced at Pokhar in 
Ajmir, and also at Bithur in the Doab. Vide id. p. 12. 
The worship of Yiraj is purely mental, without any visible form, 
symbol or figure. It was greatly in vogue during the Yedic period, when 
the Purushamedha and Asvamedha sacrifices were in use, as the Yedas 
severally attest. At present the god Yishnu, the second person of the 
“ mythological triad,” and possessing the attribute of the preservation of 
the world, is identified with Yiraj, and worshipped under that name in the 
Purusha Sukta hymn. The form of Yiraj displayed in the person of 
Krishna, an incarnation of Yishnu, tends also to corroborate this identity. 
The Mahabharata furnishes us with instances of the manifestations of Yiraj 
adored by the Panclavas and gods of all orders. 
In the Deccan, and particularly at Berar, there is still extant a Yiraj- 
worshipping sect, where notwithstanding the propagation of Hinduism 
much later than in Northern India, the forms of the ancient and primary 
modes of worship, with the usages and customs of the Yedic times, are pre¬ 
served entire from the innovations and changes of the North. 
Authorities inculcating the necessity of worshipping Yiraj may be quoted 
in great numbers from different S'astras, but for fear of tiring the patience 
of the reader with a recital of mere injunctive precepts without their proper 
formulte, I will note but a few to show how explicitly a Brahman is en¬ 
joined to pay his adoration to that deity from the earliest times, in different 
S'astras. Manu says, the recital of the Purusha hymn exculpates a man 
from every sin. 
“ Whoever daily recites the hymn addressed to the Yirat purusha, being 
solely intent upon him in heart and mind he verily pleases the god, and thereby 
avoids the miseries of life and obtains the heaven of Yishnu afterwards.” 
“ Whoever without recital of the hymn to the Purusha, either bathes 
or worships Yishnu, all his acts become null and void.” 
“ Whoso worships Yiraj with recital of the Purusha hymn, and scatters 
flowers and water upon his offerings, he has verily worshipped the whole 
universe, with whatever exists or moves in it.” (Yiraj being an epitome 
of the whole.) 
“ Whoso offers flowers or sprinkles water with recital of the Purusha 
hymn, to the gods, he does them full adoration.” 
“ Let men worship Hari, who is without beginning, middle and end, 
with the Yadvishnu mantra and Purusha sukta hymn, because in the whole 
Yeda there is nothing like these.” 
I give below an abridged translation of a few stanzas of the Purusha 
Sukta or Universal prayer from the Aranya Gana of the Sama Yeda, taken 
from “ Ward on the Hindus,” in Vol. 1, p. 289. 
