135 
1877.] G. S. Leonard— The Mythic History of the God Virdj. 
“ Possessed of innumerable heads, innumerable eyes, and innumerable 
feet, Bramha fills the heavens and earth and dwells in the human breast. 
He who knows all, and whatever was, and whatever shall be, and is separate 
from all. In his separate state he exists in a threefold form above the 
universe, the fourth part is transfused through the world. He is therefore 
called the great being ; his command is the water of life. From him pro¬ 
ceeded the Virat purusha, He is the source of universal motion ; he is not 
separate from the universe ; he is the light of the moon, of the sun, of the 
fire, of the lightning, and of all that shines. The Veda is the breath of 
his nostrils: the primary elements are his sight, the agitation of human 
affairs is his laughter, and his sleep is the destruction of the universe. In 
different forms he cherishes the creatures, as in the form of fire he digests 
their food ; in the form of air he preserves their existence, in the form of 
water he satisfies them, in the form of the sun he assists them in the affairs 
of life: and in that of the moon he refreshes them with sleep. The pro¬ 
gression of time forms his footsteps : all the gods are to him as sparks of 
fire. In the form of fire he cherishes the gods (fire is said to be the mouth 
of the gods) ; therefore I bow to him who is the universe ; to the gods 
who dwell in heaven I bow ; to the gods who dwell in space I bow; to the 
gods on earth I bow ; to the regent of waters I bow; to the gods who 
guard the region I bow.” 
The Ch’handogya Upanishad, in Section XVIII, adores him in the 
following form: “ Verily of that All-pervading Soul, the heaven is the 
head, the sun is the eye, the wind is the breath, the sky is the trunk, the 
moon is the fundament, and the earth is the feet. The altar is His breast, 
the sacrificial grass constitutes the hair of His body, the household fire 
forms His heart, the Annaharya-pachana fire forms His mind, and the 
Ahavaniya fire forms His face.” 
The Aranyaka Upanishad describes the sacrificial horse as a form of the 
Viratpurusha. 
Manu, in the first chapter of his Institutes, containing both the early 
Theogony and cosmology of the Hindus, gives the following account of the 
genesis of the world, and the origin of Viraj, as in the translation of 
Sir W. Jones : 
Verse 8. He (Brahm) having willed to produce various beings from 
his own divine substance, first with a thought created the waters, and placed 
in them a productive seed : 
Verse 9. That seed became an egg bright as gold, blazing like the 
luminary with a thousand beams ; and in that egg he was born himself, in 
the form of Brahma the great forefather of all spirits. 
Verse 10. The waters are called ndrd , because they were the produc¬ 
tion of Nara or the spirit of God, and since they were his first ayona 
