143 
1877.] G. S. Leonard —The Mythic History of the God Virdj. 
in the north of Bengal, claim for this tract of land, because its streams 
teem with fish. 
The accounts of the origin of the world, with those of its creative 
agencies, and created bodies given both by Manu and Moses, are mere alle¬ 
gories of the natural order of things, which require some explanation. In 
the chaotic state of things there existed only the eternal and infinite soul 
of god [Brahm] filling all the 4 tohu wa-bohu\ the null and void, and over¬ 
spreading the whole with the immoveable, inactive, and all-pervading 
essence of his inscrutable nature, his entity and intellect the source of 
power. For knowledge, says the father of modern philosophy, is power, 
and infinite knowledge therefore must be the fountain of infinite power. 
He, wishing to create the world, first created the air, represented as the first 
development of the all-encompassing soul in the form of the spirit, the main 
source of motion and force, to give mobility to inert substance. To this 
followed the production of water, the atomic principles of which are con¬ 
ceived in the bosom of ether, which being agitated by the force of air or 
spirit of “ Narayana,” conceived the latent heat, represented as Brahma 
or god of fire within its bosom. This heat in its turn gave birth to Vais- 
vanara the vivifying fire. And lastly the combination of the triple prin¬ 
ciples of the spirit, gave birth to the mundane egg, or rotundity of the 
material world, which came next to be manifested in its present form 
which we call Viraj. How far these theories of the Ancient Hindus are 
correct according to the light of physical science and modern experimental 
philosophy I am unable to decide, but I am confident that some of them 
agree with the theories of the Grecian philosophers On the origin of the 
world. Thales, for instance, regarded water or fluid substance as the single 
original element from which everything came and with which everything 
returned. Anaximenes derived the origin of all material things from a sin¬ 
gle element, and according to his theory air was the source of life. Hera¬ 
clitus of Ephesus regarded fire as heat as the primary form of all matter, 
and Anaxagoras of Clazomeme, conceived a supreme mind or intelligence 
(VoSs) distinct from the visible world, to have imparted form and order 
to the chaos of nature. 
The Vedanta holds Viraj to be the result of Panchilcarana or assem¬ 
blage of the five elements, which for the sake of brevity I will quote from 
Ward’s translation of the Vedanta Sara, Vol. I, p. 371. 
“ From the five subtile elements proceeded the subtile bodies. From 
these five subtile elements in proportions of five, arose the masses of solid 
matter ; but each is distinguished by the name of the element which is 
most prevalent. In the solid mass of ether sound is found ; in air is found 
both sound and touch ; in fire sound, touch and form ; in water, sound, 
touch, form, and taste ; in earth, these four and smell. The qualities are 
