144 
Gr. S. Leonard— The Mythic History of the God Viraj. [No. 2, 
partly natural and partly artificial. The active principle dwelling in the 
collected sum of solid matter is called Vaiswdnara, or he who is conscious 
of self-existence, and Virdt as he is held forth, or displayed in all crea¬ 
tures.” 
But as the being under investigation is to be considered more properly 
as an intellectual and spiritual person or the sensible emblem of an ideal 
being, rather than any real personage of history, his nature and character 
are to be sought for more in works of philosophy, theology and divinity, 
than in any other, and we must therefore explore the Vedanta, the only 
metaphysical and theological school of the Hindus, for a true account of 
this supernatural being. It conceives three orders of incorporeal natures 
in the chain of beings from the supreme to the human soul. The first 
consisting of pure intelligence (chit) composed of the causal principles of 
nature called Kdrana S'arfras. The second of intellectual beings [cheta- 
nas] composed of subtile spiritual bodies called SuJcshma or linya S'ariras. 
And the third comprised of intelligent beings [chaitanyas] joined with 
concrete, gross or material bodies called Sthula S'ariras, in which Virat the 
god manifest in nature is included. Another definition of the demiurgic 
triads will have the last to be the product or Karya S'arira ; the second, 
that by which it is produced, ling a sarira ; and the first, that from which the 
thing produced, takes its pattern, i. e. the Kdrana Starira, depicting them 
under the analogy of the archytype, architect, and the offspring, in which 
last position Viraj is taken to stand, who therefore is understood to partici¬ 
pate of the entity and omnipresence [the chief attributes of the eternal and 
infinite soul] as far as he extends throughout the duration and bounds of 
nature. 
To give a description of the theogony of Viraj, among the other per¬ 
sons of the triads, or, in other words, to show the distinction of that state of 
the divine soul from the other conditions, and the relation it bears to 
them in the order of succession, would require an exposition of the whole 
theodecy of the Vedanta system, which would be out of place here. I 
shall therefore content myself with giving a short account of these different 
degrees of divine personages, or rather the several denominations of these 
spiritual and psychological beings, in order to show the relation they bear 
to Viraj according to what I could gather about them, from the translation 
of the Vedanta Sara by Ward, Colebrooke’s Essay on the Vedanta, and 
Boer’s translation of the Upanishads. 
The first order composed of pure intelligence (chit) and possessed of 
causal form (Kdrana Sarira) and having the quality of purity or goodness 
only (Sated), is comprised of three persons according to the general or par¬ 
ticular modifications of these properties, styled totality (Samashti), and 
speciality or individuality (vyashti) , in Vedanta terminology, viz. :— 
