142 
G. S. Leonard —The Mythic History of the God Virdj. [No. 2, 
and the absurdity of identifying a god with a man so evident, as not to 
require an explanation. 
The perfect coincidence of the description of Rajdarika with that of 
her husband confirms the belief of her being a co-partner of Viraj only, as 
will plainly appear from the following extract : 
“ She had millions of Vishnus on her right arm, and a million of Brah¬ 
mas on her left; a million of S'ivas on her head, and as many Indras at her 
feet. Millions of moons shone in her nails, and as many suns in her eye¬ 
balls. Her worshippers addressed her saying “ Save us, Oh! thou source of 
the world and consort of Viraj, that givest birth to millions of Brahmas, 
Vishnus, and S'ivas, in thy hollow bowels.” 
The difference of sex in the Hindu deities is assigned to the same rea¬ 
son, which Proclus mentions concerning the Greek and Roman divinities, 
in Timaeus, p. 290. “ The division of male and female comprehends in 
itself all the plenitudes of divine orders; since the cause of all staple power 
and identity, and the leader (x<Wyos) of being, and that which invests all 
things with the first principles of conversion, is comprehended in the mas¬ 
culine order. But that which generates from itself all various progressions 
and partitions, measures of life, and prolific powers, is contained in the 
female division.” Here we see all the gods from the supreme being down¬ 
wards not only having a female energy but inseparably joined with it, as 
in the person of Adonis in the Orphic hymns. 
Mention of Virat-kshetra, the site of Viraj’s nativity, the scene of his 
incarnation, and the field of his exploits is often made in some of the Pura- 
nas. The Adhyatma Ramayana describes the sanctity of the place in 
chapter 84, which has been noticed by Dr. Aufrecht under No. 74 of his 
Catalogus Codicum Sanscriticorum. The Brahma Purana mentions it to 
be situated at the confluence of eight streams, as Aufrecht says in p. 19 
of the said Catalogue “ ad Viraj a regionem, prope octo fluminum confluen- 
tem sitam, proficiscitur.” In the Kaka-rudra-samvada, it is mentioned 
as contiguous to Chola, Videha, Kerala, &c., and to be under the con¬ 
stellation Sagittarius, with Kanchi, Karnata, &c. The Virat-bhumi, or land 
of Viraj, is famed in the Puranas for its production of diamonds which are 
thence called Viratajas, and which justifies the supposition of its being 
situated near Golconda, celebrated also for its diamond mines. The place 
in the modern Geography of India is Berar, in the Deccan, and is called 
Berar, Borar, and Borad, by the natives, and there is every reason to sup¬ 
pose this district to be the birth-place of Viraj, and more so, from the 
indisputable fact of the origination of all the early incarnations of Vishnu 
having taken place in the Deccan, then known as the land of demons. The 
Virat-bhumi is also called the Matsya-desa, or fish country, in the Maha- 
bharata, an appellation which the inhabitants of Bagura (Bogra), a district 
