138 
G. S. Leonard —The My thic History of the God Viraj. [No. 2, 
Vedas it is said to be uncontrovertible, and no authority contrary to it is 
to be deemed valid. 
The Brahma Vaivarta, a comparatively recent and Yaishnavite Purana 
in which Krishna is extolled above all other gods, and identified with Nara- 
yana, makes Maha Viraj the offspring of that god b}^ his consort Radha in 
Goloka, and progenitor of Brahma, Vishnu, S'iva, and other gods. (Vide 
Aufrecht’s analysis of the said work for his account of Viraj, “ Radhae 
filius Krishnae pars sedecima et ejus progenies.)” 
The following account of the nativity of Viraj is given in the third 
chapter of the Prakriti Khan da of the said Purana: 
“ The egg remained in the water a whole age of Brahma, and then on 
a sudden it burst into twain, from which issued forth an infant bright as 
millions of suns, a suckling hahe, crying with hunger. The lord of the 
world being thus exposed in the water like a child abandoned by its parents, 
looked upwards like a helpless orphan. He the Great Virat, then swollen 
in bulk, more than the bulkiest object, became huger than the hugest body, 
in the same manner as an atom which on the one hand is minuter than the 
minutest particle, forms the hugest body on the other. He was the re¬ 
ceptacle of innumerable worlds, he seemed the Great Vishnu in his nature, 
and was a sixteenth part of the essence of Krishna. Every pore of the 
hairs on his body exhibited a world of worlds, which Krishna himself was 
unable to number. For it may he possible to count the grains of sand on 
earth, but not the worlds, the Brahmas, Vishnus, and S'ivas, that grew in 
his person. His body was composed of the universe stretching from the 
highest Empyrean to the lowest Tartarus, and called the mundane egg, with 
Brahma, Vishnu, and S'iva contained in it.” 
The same Purana gives us two other accounts of the different minor or 
Kshudra Virajes, one of whom was born in a pore of hair in the body of the 
major and the others in every world which appeared in the pores of hair 
upon him. The seventh chapter of the said Purana, describes the formation 
of the earth from the body of Viraj, in contradiction to that of Madhu- 
kaitabha as Aufrecht mentions. “ Terra ex illuvie, quae in corpore Virajis 
in aqua stantis adhserebat, orta est.” 
The Matsya Purana, which has been analyzed by Aufrecht in No. 95, 
of his Catalogus Codicum Sanscriticorum, gives the following account of 
Viraj in the third chapter. 
“ De creatione a Brahmane facta. Cui ut Savitrim sive Satarupam 
undecunque intueretur, quatuor (immo quinque) facies oriuntur. Eorum 
filius Manu Svayambhuva (aliis nominibus Viraj sive Adhipurusha appella- 
tus) nascitur, a quo reliqui Manues descendunt.” 
That “ Brahma the creator took Savitri or S'atarupa for his wife, who 
bore Svayambhuva Manu, who was also called Viraj or the First Male, and 
