Contenido - ContentsFull text of "Supplement to a Classical dictionary of India: illustrative of the mythology, philosophy, literature, antiquities, arts, manners, customs &c. of the Hindus"PREFACE | A1 | A2 | B1 | B2 | C | D1 | D2 | E | F | G | H1 | H2 | I | J1 | J2 | K1 | K2 | L | M1 | M2 | O | P1 | P2 | R1 | R2 | S1 |
P2Pandu or Prana: (sáns. hindú). A son of Dhatri and Ayati, who was o Indian Epic Poetry, p. 92. t Ibid. J Ibid. married to Pundarika, and was the ancestor of Usanas the preceptor of the Daityas. Panini: (sáns. hindú). " The greatest known grammarian of ancient India, whose work on the Sanskrit language has up to the present day remained the standard of Sanskrit grammar. Its merits are so great, that Panini was ranked among the Rishis, or inspired seers, and at a later period of Sanskrit literature, was supposed to have received the fundamental rules of his work from the god Siva himself. Of the personal history of Pinini nothing positive is known, except that he was a native of the village Salatura, situated north-west of Attock, on the Indus - whence he is also surnamed Salaturiya - and that his mother was called Dakshi, wherefore, on his mother's side, he must have been a descendant of the celebrated family of Daksha. A tale-book, the Kathasaritsdgara (i. e.y the ocean for the rivers of tales,) gives, indeed, some circumstantial account of the life and death of Panini; but its narrative is so absurd, and the work itself of so modern a date - it was written in Cashmere, at the beginning of the twelfth century - that no credit whatever can be attached to the facts related by it, or to the inferences which modern scholars have drawn from them. According to the views expressed by Goldstucker {Panifiif his place in Sanskrit Literature: London, 1861,) it is probable that Panini lived before Sakyamuni, the founder of the Buddhist religion, whose death took place about 543 B. c, but that a more definite date of the great grammarian has but little chance of ascertainment in the actual condition of Sanskrit philosophy. The grammar of Panini consists of eight Adhyayas, or books, each book comprising four Padas, or chapters, and each chapter a number of Sutras (q. v.,) or aphoristical rules. The latter amount in the whole to 3996; but three, perhaps four, of them did not originally belong to the work of Panini. The arrangement of these rules differs completely from what a European would expect in a grammatical work, for it is based on the principle of tracing linguistic phenomena, and not concerned in the classification of the linguistic material, according to the so-called parts of speech. A chapter, for instance, treating of a prolongation of vowels, will deal with such a fact whenever it occurs, be it in the formation of bases, or in conjugation, declension, composition, &c. The rules of conjugation, declension, &c., are, for the same reason, not to be met with in the same chapter or in the same order in which European grammars would teach them; nor would any single book or chapter, however apparently more systematically arranged - from a European point of view - such as the chapters on affixes or composition, suffice by itself to convey the full linguistic material concerned in it, apart from the rest of the work. In a general manner, Panini's work may therefore be called a natural history of the Sanskrit language, in the sense that it has the strict tendency of giving an accurate description of facts, instead of making such a description subservient to the theories according to which the linguistic material is usually distributed by European grammarians. Whatever objections may be raised against such an arrangement, the very fact of its diffisring from that in our grammars makes it peculiarly instructive to the European student, as it accustoms his mind to survey language from another point of view than that usually presented to him, and as it must induce him, too, to question the soundness of many linguistic theories now looked upon as axiomatic truths. As the method of Panini requires in a student the power of combining many rules scattered all over the work, and of combining, also, many inferences to be drawn from these rules, it exercises, moreover, on the mind of the student an effect analogous to that which is supposed to be the peculiar advantage of the study of mathematics. The rules of Panini were criticised and completed by Katyayana, who, according to all probability, was the teacher, and therefore the contemporary of Patanjali; and he, in his turn, was criticised by Patanjali, (q. v.,) who sides frequently with Panini. These three authors arc the canonical triad of the grammarians of India; and their works are, in truth, so remarkable in their own department, that they exceed in literary merit nearly all, if not all, grammatical productions of other nations, so far as the two classes are comparable. The rules of Panini were commented on by many authors. The best existing commentary on them is that called the Kasikavritti, by Yamana Jayaditya, which follows these rules in their original order. At a later period, attempts were made to arrange the rules of Panini in a manner which approaches more to the European method; the chief work of this category is the Siddhanta Kaumuti, by Bhattojidikshita. Panini mentions, in his Sutras, several grammarians who preceded him, amongst others, Sakatayana. Manuscripts of a grammar ascribed to a grammarian of this name exist in the Library of the India Office in London, and in the Library of the Board of Examiners at Madras. On the ground of a few pages only of the latter an attempt has been very recently made to prove that this grammar is the one referred to by Panini, and therefore older than the work of the latter. But the facts adduced in proof of this hypothesis are so ludicrously weak, and the reasoning upon them so feeble and inconclusive, whereas the evidence in favour of the comparatively recent date of this work is so strong, that no value whatever can be attached to this hasty hypothesis. For the present, therefore, Panini's work still remains the oldest existing grammatical work of India, and probably of the human race. The Sutras of Panini with a modern commentary by two native pandits, and with extracts from the Varttikas of Katyayana and the Mahabhashya of Patanjali, were edited at Calcutta in 1809. This edition, together with the modern commentary, but with garbled extracts from the extracts mentioned, was re-printed at Bonn in 1839-1840 by Dr. O. Bochthngk, who added to it remarks of his own and some indices. For the literature connected with Panini, see Colebrooke's preface to his Grammar of the Sanskrit Language (Calc. 1805,) and Goldbtucker's Fdniniy &c., as mentioned above.*' - Chambers* Eiicyclopcedia, VII, 231. Pannagari: (sáns. hindú). A teacher of the Rig Veda, who was previously a pupil of Bashkili. Papa: (sáns. hindú). The name of one of the Narakas. Para: (sáns. hindú). The son of Anga, a descendant of Anu; also a son of Prithusena, a descendant of Hastin; and of Samara, in the same line. Para or Para, A river in Malwa, the Parvati, Para, Supreme, infinite; and Para, the farther bank or limit, the point that is to be attained by crossing a river or sea, or figuratively the world or existence. Vishnu, then, is Para, that which nothing surpasses; and Para, the end or object of existence; he is Apara para, the farthest bound of that which is illimitable, or space and time: he is Param parabhyah, above or beyond the highest being, beyond or superior to all the elements: he is Paramartha rupi, or identical with final truth, or knowledge of soul: he is Brahma para, the object or essence of spiritual wisdom. Paraparabhuta is said to imply the farther limit (Para) of rudimental matter. See Wilson's Notes to Vishnu Purana, 113.. Paradas: (sáns. hindú). See Pahlavas. Paramanu: (sáns. hindú). A measure of time, equal to one Anu. Param: (sáns. hindú). The duration of Brahma's life, consisting of a hundred of his years. Paramatma: (sáns. hindú). A name of Vishnu, meaning ' supreme spirit.' Parameshthin: (sáns. hindú). The son of Indrayumna, a descendant of Bharata. Paramiksha: (sáns. hindú). A son of Anu. Paran: (sáns. hindú). The heavenly one, in Tamil. It corresponds with Brahm, or Para Brahm of the Upanishads. In the South there has been a controversy whether Vishnu or Siva is Paran, or the supreme Being. Pararddham: (sáns. hindú). I, Half of the duration of Brahma's life; 2, That number which occurs in the eighteenth place of figures, enumerated according to the rule of decimal notation. Paras: (sáns. hindú). A class of deities, consisting of twelve, to appear in the ninth Manwantara. Parasara: (sáns. hindú). A great sage, the son of Sakti, and grandson of Vasishtha. In order to avenge the death of his father, who had been devoured by a Rakshas, he commenced a sacrifice to effect the destruction of all the Rakshasas, but was dissuaded from it by his grandsire; who showed him that his father's death was the work of destiny. Pulastya taught him the Vishnu Parana, which he related to Maitareya, to convey the truths that the world was produced from Vishnu; that it exists in him; that he is the cause of its continuance and cessation; that he is the world. Parasara was also the Vyasa of the twenty-sixth Dwapara, and a teacher of a branch of the Rig Veda, and of the Sama Veda. Buchanan has noticed the incompatibility of Parasara's genealogy with his being, as it is stated, cotemporary with Santanu, king of Hastindpur, that prince being the 44th in descent from Atri, who is cotemporary with Vasishtha, who again is but three generations anterior to Parasara; he supposes therefore that many generations in the line of Vasishtha must have been omitted. It is not necessary, however, to attempt to reconcile these incongruities, for the coetaneous existence of Atri and Vasishtha is less chronological than mythological, or perhaps, as they are both enumerated amongst the stars of the great bear, astronomical; it extends throughout the Manwantara; their immediate successors, who hold a sacred character, enjoy a like longevity, and are similarly cotemporary, at any period, Avith their ancestry and posterity; if we consider them as mere mortals we must suppose that Parasara preceded the great war by three generations, Krishna Dvvaipayana Vyasa, his son, being the father of Dhritarashtra, Pandu, and Vidura, by the widows of Vichitravirya. Vyasa was, however, cotemporary with his grandson and their descendants, agreeably to the above system of saintly immortality. Mr. Bentley places Parasara, about 575, b. c, (Hindu Astronomy); Buchanan, about 1300, B.C., (Genealogies of the Hindus); and Wilford, 1391, B.C., (As. Res. IX, 87); Wilson's Works, III, 123. 2, A second Parasara is the author of a celebrated code of laws; he is mentioned by Yajnavalka in his standard work, and often quoted by the commentaries; 3, There is a third of the same name the reputed author of a Tantra; and, 4, A fourth, the author of an astronomical work. Parasikas: (sáns. hindú). The people of Pars, or Persians. Parasarama or Rama: (sáns. hindú). of the axe (Parusa). See Rama. Paravatas: (sáns. hindú). A class of deities of the Second Manwantara. Paravrij: (sáns. hindú). An outcast mentioned in the Rig Veda who was blind and lame, but restored to sight and the power of walking by the Asvins. O. S. T., V, 246, Paravrit - A prince, the son of Rukmakavacha, and father of Jyamagha. Parijata tree: (sáns. hindú). A celestial tree, produced at the churning of the ocean, from the whirlpool of the deep, the delight of the nymphs of heaven, perfuming the world with its blossoms. Krishna, at the desire of his wife Satyabhama carried off this tree from the gardens of Indra. Sachi excited Indra to prevent its removal. A conflict ensued between the gods and Krishna, which is narrated at great length in the Hari V., and with some variations in the Vishnu Purana. Krishna was victorious, and took the tree to Dvvaraka where it was planted in Satyabhama's garden. When Krishna abandoned his mortal body the tree proceeded to heaven again along with the Sudharman palace. Parikshit : (sáns. hindú). The son of Abhimanyu and grandson of Arjuna. After the destruction of the Kurus the child (Parikshit) was killed in the womb of his mother Uttara, by the magic Brahma weapon hurled by Aswatthaman, but restored to life again by Krishna. When the Pandava princes determined to renounce the world and retire into the forest, the Rajah Yudhishthira gave the Raj of Hastinapur to Parikshit. The commencement of the Kali age is placed at the beginning of the reign of Parikshit, though according to the usual notions it commenced from the death of Krishna. The Vyasa who arranged or compiled the Puranas flourished during the reign of Parikshit. The prince himself died of the bite of a snake, according to the Maha Bharata, and it is said the Bhagavata Purana was related to him between the bite and its fatal effect. The king had incurred the imprecation of a hermit by which he was sentenced to die of the bite of a venomous snake, at the expiration of seven days; and in preparation for this event, he repaired to the banks of the Ganges; thither also went the gods and sages to witness his death. Amongst the latter was Suka the son of Vyasa; and it was in reply to Parikshit's question " what should a man do who is about to die" that he narrated the Bhagavata, as he had heard it from Vyasa; believing that nothing secures final happiness so certainly as to die while the thoughts are wholly engrossed by Vishnu. V. P. Parinamin: (sáns. hindú). That which may be modified, one of the definitions of Pradhana, q. v. Paripatra: (sáns. hindú). l, A range of mountains the northern portion of the Viudhya chain; 2, A prince, the son of Ahiuagu, a descendant of Kusa. Pariplava: (sáns. hindú). A prince, the son of Sukhibala, or Sukhinala, of the race of Puru. Pariyatra: (sáns. hindú). A mountain range, to the west of Meru, called in the Vishnu Purana the limitative mountains in the west. It is said in Wilson's notes to be the same as Paripatra, the northern and western portion of the Vindhya. Parivatsara: (sáns. hindú). One of the five Cyclic years, or Yugas, q. v. Parjanya: (sáns. hindú). The thundering rain god. There are several hymns in the Rig Veda which celebrate Parjanya, as the procreative and stimulating fructitier. " The winds blow, the lightnings fall, the plants shoot up; the heaven fructifies; food is produced for all created things, when Parjanya, thundering, replenishes the earth wdth moisture." Parjanya forms the subject of two papers by Dr. G. Biihler, containing a comparison of Parjanya with the Lithuanian god Perkunas, the god of thunder. Dr. Biihler holds Parjanya to have been decidedly distinct from Indra. " Taking a review of the whole, we find that Parjanya is a god who presides over the lightning, the thunder, the rain, and the procreation of plants and living creatures. But it is by no means clear whether he is originally a god of the rain or a god of the thunder." He inclines, however, to think that from the etymology of his name, and the analogy between him and Perkunas, he was originally the thunder god. In his German essay, his conclusion is that Parjanya is " the god of thunderstorms and rain, the generator and nourisher of plants and living creatures."- iVwir, 0. S. jT., F, 142. Parjanya is also represented as the brother of Aditi, and husband of Prithivi, the Earth. He is also described as the father of Soma, and the protector of the Soma plant. 2, A Lokapala, the regent of the north'and kiug of clouds; 4, The wife of Marichi, whose son became a Lokapala. Parna: (sáns. hindú). One of the fifteen teachers of the White Yajush. Pars wanatha: (sáns. hindú). The twenty-third of the Tirthankaras, or deified saints of the Jainas in the present era. He and Mahavira, the twenty-fourth, are regarded with the greatest veneration throughout Hindustan. At Belupura, near Benares, there is a temple honoured as the birth-place of Paraswanatha. Parvana Sraddhas: (sáns. hindú). Ancestral oblations, or the worship of progenitors, at certain lunar periods. Parvas: (sáns. hindú). Days of periodical impurity when a wise man must desist from the study of the Vedas. Parvasa: (sáns. hindú). Called also Sarvagas the son of Paurnamasa, and brother of Kasyapa. Parvasi: (sáns. hindú). The wife of Parvasa, and mother of Yajnavama and Kasyata, who were both founders of Gotras or families. Parvati: (sáns. hindú). The daughter of Himalaya and spouse of Mahadeva. Her name was changed to Durga (q. v.); she is also called Devi, Uma, &c. Dr. Muir quotes various passages to show the dignity to which this goddess has eventually been elevated in the estimation of her worshippers; and that she has now attained a far higher rank in4he Indian pantheon than was originally enjoyed by the daughter of Daksha and Himavat. O. S. T., IV, 372. Parvatiyas: (sáns. hindú). A designation of many of the aboriginal tribes of India, meaning *' dwellers in mountains," from Parvati, a mountain. Pasupati: (sáns. hindú). A name of Siva. There is a treatise on the Pasupata worship, or worship of Siva by Pasupati. Pasupati: (sáns. hindú). One of the eight Rudras, the one who has the place of fire. Pasuyajna: (sáns. hindú). One of the five great sacrijScial ceremonies; the sacrifice of a horse or animal. See Aswamedha. Patala: (sáns. hindú). The lowest of the seven regions in the interior of the earth, extending downwards ten thousand yojanas. These seven are Atala, Vitala, Nitala, Gabhastimat, Mabatala, Sutala, and Patala. Their soil is severally white, black, purple, yellow, saiuly, stony, and of gold. They are embellished with magnificent palaces, in which dwell numerous Dinavas, Daityas, Yakshas, and great snake gods. The Muni Narada, after his return from those regions to the skies, declared amongst the celestials that Patdla was much more delightful than Indra's heaven. * What* exclaimed the sage, * can be compared to Pataja, where the Nigas are decorated with brilliant and beautiful and pleasure-shedding jewels ;' and who will not delight in Patala where the lovely daughters of the Daityas and Danavas wander about, fascinating even the most austere; where the rays of the sun diffuse light, and not heat, by day; and where the moon shines by night for illumination, not for cold; where the sons of Danu, happy in the enjoyment of delicious viands and strong wines, know not how the time passes ? There are beautiful groves and streams and lakes where the lotus blows; and the skies are resonant with Koil's song. Splendid ornaments, fragrant perfumes, rich unguents, the blended music of the lute and pipe and tabor; these and many other enjoyments are the common portion of the Danavas, Daityas, and snakegods, who inhabit the regions of Patala. Below the seven Patdlas is the form of Vishnu, from the quality of darkness, which is called Sesha. Vishnu Purana, p. 205. Patala, Patanga: (sáns. hindú). The names of two of the seven suns into which the solar rays dilate at the great Pralaya, when Vishnu assumes the character of Rudra the destroyer, and descends to reunite all his creatures with himself. Pataliputra or Palibothra: (sáns. hindú). The metropolis of Magadha. Pathya: (sáns. hindú). A teacher of the Sama Veda. Patumat: (sáns. hindú). One of the A.ndhra kings of Magadha, the son of Meghaswdti. Patumitra: (sáns. hindú). One of the kings of Mekala, a country in the Narbada. Vishnu Purana, p. 479. Paulomi: (sáns. hindú). The wife of Brighu, a descendant of the daughters of Daksha, Paulomas : (sáns. hindú). Distiuguished Danavas; powerful, ferocious and cruel. The Vishnu Purana states that Puloma, who was married to Kasyapa, bore him thirty thousand of them. Paundraka: (sáns. hindú). A Vasudeva, who assumed the insignia and style of Krishna, and was supported by his friend and ally the king of Kasi. Krishna marched against them and destroyed them both. The son of the king of Kasi then sent a magical being against Krishna; but the discus, Sudarsana, speedily destroyed it, with the army of Kasi, and the demi-gods attendant upon Siva: the discus afterwards set on fire the city of Benares consuming it and its inhabitants. In this legend, says Professor Wilson, we have a contest between the followers of Vishnu and Siva intimated, as, besides the assistance given by the latter to Paundrakaj Benares has been from all time, as it is at present, the high place of the Saiva worship. Paundras: (sáns. hindú). The inhabitants of Pundra, a western province of Bengal. Pauras: (sáns. hindú). A race of kings whose dynasty continued three hundred years. Vishnu Purana, p. 477. Puravas: (sáns. hindú). Descendants of Puru. Pauravi: (sáns. hindú). A title, attached to the second Rohini, wife of Vasudeva, to distinguish her from the first, the mother of Balarama. Paumamasa: (sáns. hindú). The son of Marichi and Sambhuti. Paurnamasi: (sáns. hindú). The day of full moon one of the seasons when gifts are meritorious. Pausha: (sáns. hindú). The name of one of the lunar months, corresponding to December. Paushinji: (sáns. hindú). A teacher of the Sama Veda. Pavaka, Pavamana: (sáns. hindú). Two of the brilliant sons of Agni. According to the Vayu Purana Pauvamana is the fire produced by friction, or Nirmathaya; and Pivaka is electric or Vaidyata fire. The Bhagavata makes these two fires the sons of Antarddhina. When dominion over different provinces of creation was assigned to different beings, Pavaka was made chief of the Vasus, Pavitras: (sáns. hindú). Que of the five classes of deities of the fourteenth Manwantara. Payoshni: (sáns. hindú). A river which the Vishnu Purana says rises from the Riksha mountains; but the Vayu and Kurma bring it from the Viudhya range. There are several indications of its position in the Mahabharata, but none very precise. Its source appears to be near that of the Krishna; it flows near the beginning of the Dandaka forest, which should place it rather near to the sources of the Godaveri; it passes through Vidarbha or Berar, and Yudhishthira having bathed in it, comes to the Vaidurya mountain and the Narbada river. These circumstances make it likely that the Payin Ganga is the river in question. Phalana: (sáns. hindú). A lunar month corresponding nearly to January. Pindaraka: (sáns. hindú). A Tirtha. A village in Guzerat, still held in reverence from the following legend connected with it. The three sages Viswamitra, Kanwa, and Narada were here observed by some boys who determined to play a trick upon them. They accordingly took a boy named Samba, and having dressed him as a damsel, conducted him to the sages, and with deep respect enquired, what child will this female, the wife of Babhra, who is anxious to have a son give birth to. The sages, knowing what was done, replied, " She will bring forth a club that shall crush the whole of the Yadava race." The boys related all that had occurred to Ugrasena; and as foretold a club was produced from the belly of Samba. Ugrasena had the club which was of iron, ground to dust, and thrown into the sea; but the particles of dust there became rushes; one part, which could not be broken, was swallowed by a fish; the fish was caught, the iron spike was extracted from its belly, and was taken by a hunter named Jara. This hunter afterwards shot Krishna with an arrow tipped with the iron spike. So was it determined by fate. V. P. Pindas: (sáns. hindú). Balls of food, offered at Suddas. They are made of boiled rice, sesamum seeds, honey and butter; various kinds of fruit of pulse, and of grain, water, frankincense, sugar and milk, are also mixed up in them at times; the size differs from that of a fowl's egg to that of a cocoauut; but the Phida is usually of such a magnitude as to be conveniently held in the hand. Pingala: (sáns. hindú). One of the eleven Rudras, according to the enumeration in the Matsya Purana. Pipal Tree: (sáns. hindú). Ficus religiosa: the one in Vipula mountain, on the west of Meru, is said in the Vishnu Purana to spread over eleven hundred yojanas. Pippala: (sáns. hindú). The name of one portion of Jambu-dwipa, according to the Mahabharata; the other portion is called Sasa; the two are reflected in the lunar orb as in a mirror. Pippalada: (sáns. hindú). A disciple of Devadarsa and teacher of the Atharva Veda. Pipru: (sáns. hindú). One of the demons of drought, represented in the Rig Veda as one of the malevolent powers in the atmosphere, to encounter whom Indra marches forth accompanied by the Maruts, and sometimes attended by Vishnu. The dreadful battles which are described are evidently personifications of the storms which occur at the bursting of the monsoons in India. Pisacha: (sáns. hindú). A daughter of Daksha, and wife of Kasyapa. Pisacha Marriage: (sáns. hindú). A marriage in which a damsel is neither purchased, nor seduced, nor carried away captive, but simply taken at a disadvantage; an outrage, says Mr. Wheeler, " far more likely to be committed amongst a peaceful community than amongst a race of chivalrous warriors, like the Kshatriyas." " If a damsel found herself likely to become a mother, without being able to furnish a satisfactory reason for her maternity, she would naturally plead that she had been victimised by a Pisacha; and probably from this circumstance the term came to be applied to all cases in which a damsel had been taken at a disadvantage by a mortal lover." In modern times the belief is still common in the rural districts of India that such events occui'. Pisachas: (sáns. hindú). Evil spirits or demons, supposed to haunt the earth and inhabit trees and forests. The term is constantly applied to the wild mountain tribes, the aborigines. One of the hymns of the Rig Veda calls upon Indra to destroy the tawny coloured fearfully roaring Pisachas, and to annihilate the Rakshasas. Pisachika: (sáns. hindú). A river that has its rise on the Riksha mountains. PithastanaS: (sáns. hindú). Fifty-one places where, according to the Tantras, the limbs of Sati fell, when scattered by her husband Siva, as he bore her dead body about, and tore it to pieces, after she had put an end to her existence at Daksha's sacrifice. This part of the legend seems to be an addition to the original fable, and bears some analogy to the Egyptian fable of Isis and Osiris. At the Pitha stanas of Jivalakmukhi, Vindhyavasini, Kalighat, and others, temples are erected to the different forms of Devi or Sati, not to the phallic emblem of Siva, which if present, is there as an accessory and embellishment, not as a principal, and the chief object of worship is a figure of the goddess; a circumstance in which there is an essential difference between the temples of Durga and shrines of Osiris. - Wilson's IS/otes to Vishnu Purana. Pitri-loka: (sáns. hindú). One of the seven spheres above the earth, the heaven of Pitris and Brahmans. Pitris: (sáns. hindú). Progenitors; born from the side of Brahma; they are also called the sons of Angiras. In the divisions of the celestial sphere the path of the Pitris is said in the Vishnu Purana to be in the north of Agastya, and south of the line of the Goat; exterior to the Vaiswanara path. The Pitris derive satisfaction from ancestral offerings in the day of the new moor. A Sradda at certain seasons will content them for a thousand years. The songs of the Pitris are said to confer purity of heart, integrity of wealth, prosperous seasons, perfect rites, and devout faith; all that men can desire. The various descriptions of food, &c., that should be offered to deceased ancestors, are mentioned in the Vishnu Purana. Pitrayajna: (sáns. hindú). Obsequial rites; or libations to the manes; one of the great obligations or sacrifices. Pivari: (sáns. hindú). The wife of Vedasiras; they had many children, who constituted the family, or Brahmanical tribe of Bhargavas, sons of Bhrigu. Piyadasi, or Piyadasano: (sáns. hindú). An Indian king identified both by name and circumstances, with Asoka. There are many inscriptions on columns and rocks, by a Buddhist prince, in an ancient form of letter and the Pali language, found in India; and many of these are attributed to Asoka. Their purport agrees with his character, and their wide diffusion with the traditionary report of the number of his monuments. His date is near that of Antiochus the Great. See Wilson's Notes to Vishnu Purana, p. 470. Plaksha: (sáns. hindú). One of the seven Dwipas, or great insular continents; surrounded with a sea of sugar cane juice or Ikshu; the king was named Midhatithe; the Dwipa was divided amongst his seven sons, and each division was named after the prince to whom it was subject. The several kingdoms were bounded by as many ranges of mountains, in which the sinless inhabitants ever dwell, along with celestial spirits and gods; in them are many holy places; and the people there live for a long period, exempt from care and pain, and enjoying uninterrupted felicity. There are also in the seven divisions of Plaksha seven rivers flowing to the sea, whose names alone are sufficient to take away sin; the people who drink of their waters are always contented and happy; and there is neither decrease nor increase amongst them. Vishnu Purana, p. 197. Pongal, or Sankranti : (sáns. hindú). The Pongal is the greatest of the unsectarian festivals of the Hindus. It is celebrated at their astronomical new year when the sun enters Capricorn about the 1 1 th of January; and lasts three days; during which the Hindus employ themselves in mutual visits and compliments, something in the same manner as the Europeans do on the first day of the year. The feast of the Pongal is a season of rejoicing for two special reasons. The first is, that the month of Magha, i. e., December - January, every day in which is unlucky, is now over; and the other, that it is succeeded by a mouth, each day of which is lucky. For the purpose of averting the evil effect of the baleful month of Magha, about four o'clock in the morning, a sort of Sannyasis, i. e., penitents, go from door to door of every house, beating on a plate of iron or copper, which produces a piercing sound. All who sleep, being thus roused, are counselled to take wise precautions, and to guard against the evil presages of the month, by expiatojy offerings, and sacrifices to Siva, who presides over it. With this view, every morning, the women scour a space of about two feet square before the door of the house, upon which they draw several white lines with flowers; and upon these they place several little balls of cow-dung, sticking in each a citron blossom. These little balls are probably designed to represent Vighnesvara, the remover of obstacles, whom they desire to propitiate with the flower. Each day these little lumps of cow-dung, with their flowers, are picked up and preserved in a private place, till the last day of the month Magha; and when that comes, the women, who are alone charged with this ceremony, put the whole in a basket, and march from the house, with musical instruments before them, clapping their hands, till they reach some waste place where they dispose of the relics. Then, with the first day of the new month begins the festival, the first day of which is called Bhogi Pongal, i. c, Indra's Pongal, and it is kept by inviting the near relations to an entertainment, which passes off with hilarity and mirth. The second day is called Sorya Pongal, t. e. Pongal of the sun, because it is set apart in honour of the sun. Married women, after purifying themselves by bathing, which they perform by plunging into the water without taking off their clothes, and coming out all wet, set about boiling rice with milk, in the open air, and not under any cover; and when it begins to simmer, they make a loud cry, all at once, repeating the words: Pongal, Pongal ! The vessel is then lifted off the fire, and set before the idol of Vighnesvara, which is placed close by, and after having been offered to the image, part of the rice is given to the cow; and the remainder distributed among the people. This is the great day of visits among the Hindus. The salutation begins with the question, *' has the milk boiled ?" to which the answer is, " it has boiled ;" and from this the festival takes its name "Pongal" i. e. "boiling-" The third day is called the Pongal of cows. On it they mix in a great vessel filled with water, some saffron, cotton seeds, and leaves of the Margosa tree; and then going several times round all the cows and oxen belonging to the house, they springle them with the water, as they turn to the four cardinal points; and make the Sashtauga, or prostration of the eight members, before them four times. This ceremony is performed by the men only. Next the cows are all dressed out, their horns being painted with various colours, and garlands of flowers and foliage put round their necks and over their backs. They likewise add strings of cocoauuts and other fruits, which are soon shaken off by the brisk motion of the animals, which these trappings occasion, and are picked up by children and others, who follow the cattle on purpose, and greedily eat what they gather, as something sacred. The cattle then, being driven in herds through the villages, and made to scamper about from side to side by the jarring noise of many sounding instruments, are, during the remainder of the day, allowed to feed at large without a keeper; and whatever trespasses they commit are suffered to pass without notice or restraint. At the conclusion of the festival they take the idols from the temples, and carry them in pomp to the place where the cattle have been again collected. The girls of pleasure, named Devadasis, who are found at all ceremonies, are also not wanting here. Abbe Dubois. Prabha: (sáns. hindú). The daughter of Swarbhana, and wife of Namuchi; according to the Matsya Purana she was the wife of the sun, by whom he had Prabhata; according to the Bhagavata she was the wife ofKalpa, who had by herPratah, (dawn) Madhyadina, (noon) and Saya, (evening.) Prabhakara: (sáns. hindú). A Rishi of the house of Atri, who married the ten daughters of Raudraswa, a descendant of Puru. Prabhasa: (sáns. hindú). (Light.) l. One of the deities called Vasus, because they are always present in light, or luminous irradiation; 2, A place of pilgrimage in the west of India on the coast of Guzerat, near the temple of Somanath, and town of Pattan Somanath. In the Mahabharata it is placed near Dvvaraka. It was visited by Arjuna, and afterwards by Balarama during the great war. Before the destruction of Dwaraka Krishna issued a proclamation that all the people of the city should go to the sea-shore at Prabhasa and pay their devotioDS to the deity of Dwaraka. Prabhata: (sáns. hindú). A son of Vivaswat, the Sun, by his wife Prabha. Prachetas: (sáns. hindú). l, A deity who presides over the tongue; 2, A son of Duryaman, a descendant of Druhya; 3, Prachetasas - The ten sons of Prachinaverhis, who, instructed by their father, plunged into the depths of the ocean, and with minds wholly devoted to Narayana, the sovereign of the universe, were engrossed by religious austerity for ten thousand years; on which, Vishnu, being pleased with them, appeared to them amidst the waters, of the complexion of the full-blown lotus leaf. Beholding him mounted on the king of birds, Garuda, the Prachetasas bowed down their heads in devout homage; when Vishnu said to them, *' Receive the boon you have desired; for I, the giver of good, am content with you, and am present." The Prachetasas replied to him with reverence, and told him that the cause of their devotions was the command of their father to effect the multiplication of mankind. The god, having accordingly granted to them the object of their prayers, disappeared, and they came up from the water. The Prachetasas took to wife Marisha (q. v.) and from her was born the eminent patriarch Daksha, who had in a former life been born as a son of Brahma. Vishnu Purana. Prachinaverhis: (sáns. hindú). The eldest of the six sons of Havu'dhana; he was a great prince and patriarch by whom mankind was multiplied after the death of Ilavirdhana; he was called Prachinaverhis from his placing upon the earth the sacred grass, pointing to the east. He married Savarna, the daughter of the ocean, who was the mother of ten sons, styled Prachetasas, who were in the sea for ten thousand years. Vishnu Purana. Prachinvat: (sáns. hindú). A prince, the son of Janamejaya, and grandson of Puru. Pradarsanas: (sáns. hindú). A class of deities of the third Manwantai-a. Pradhana: (sáns. hindú). Primary or crude matter; a form of Vishnu; it is also designated Prakriti, Nature; it comprehends both causes and effects; it is durable, self-sustained, uudecaying; the mother of the world; without begiuning; and that into which all that is produced is resolved. Pradhana, when unmodified, is according to the Sankhyasand Pauranics, nothing more than the three qualities in equiiibrio, or goodness, foulness, and darkness neutralising each other. Saukhya Karika, p. 52. Pradhanatma: (sáns. hindú). A name of Vishnu, meaning, one with crude nature, or Viswabhavana. Pradosha: (sáns. hindú). A son of Kalpa, and Dosha. Pradosha had two brothers Nisitha and Vyushta; the three names mean the beginning, middle and end of night. Pradyota: (sáns. hindú). A king of Magadha, son of the minister Simika, who having killed his sovereign placed his son Pradyota on the throne; the dynasty lasted one hundred and thirty-eight years. Pradyumna: (sáns. hindú). The son of Krishna and Rukmini - the incarnate Indian Cupid. He is called in the South Manmatha (the confounder of the mind) and in the North of India, Kama (Desire.) He is said to be the mental son of Vishnu, and to have become incarnate in Pradyumna, the first born of the 108,000 sons of Krishna. His history is thus related in the Vishnu Purana. " When Pradyumna was but six days old, he was stolen from the lying-in chamber by Sambara, terrible as death; for the demon foreknew that Pradyumna, if he lived, would be his destroyer. Taking aAvay the boy, Sambara cast him into the ocean, swarming with monsters, into a whirlpool of roaring waves, the haunt of the huge creatures of the deep. A large fish swallowed the child, but he died not, and was born anew from its belly: for that fish, with others, was caught by the fishermen, and delivered by them to the great Asura Sambara. His wife Mayadevi, the mistress of his household, superintended the operations of the cooks, and saw, when the fish was cut open, a beautiful child, looking like a new shoot of the blighted tree of love. Whilst wondering who this should be, and how he could have got into the belly of the fish, Narada came to satisfy her curiosity, and said to the graceful dame, "This is the son of him by whom the whole world is created and destroyed, the son of Vishnu, who was stolen by Sambara from the lying-in chamber, and tossed by him into the sea, where he was swallowed by the fish. He is now in thy power; do thou, beautiful woman, tenderly rear this jewel of mankind." Thus counselled by Narada, Mayadevi took charge of the boy, and carefully reared him from childhood, being fascinated by the beauty of his person. Her affection became still more impassioned when he was decorated with the bloom of adolescence. The gracefully moving Mayavati then, fixing her heart and eyes upon the light-minded Pradyumna, gave him, whom she regarded as herself, all her magic (and illusive) powers. Observing these marks of passionate affection, the son of Krishna said to the lotus-eyed Mayadevi, " Why do you indulge in feelings so unbecoming the character of a mother ?" To which she replied, " Thou art not a son of mine; thou art the son of Vishnu, whom Kala Sambara carried away, and threw into the sea: thou wast swallowed by a fish, but wast rescued by me from its belly. Thy fond mother, O beloved, is still weeping for thee." When the valiant Pradyumna heard this he was filled with wrath, and defied Sambara to battle. In the conflict that ensued, the son of Madhava slew the whole host of Sambara. Seven times he foiled the delusions of the enchanter, and making himself master of the eighth, turned it against Sambara, and killed him. By the same faculty he ascended into the air, and proceeded to his father's house, where he alighted, along with Mayavati, in the inner apartments. When the women beheld Pradyumna, they thought it was Krishna himself. Rukmini, her eyes dimmed with tears, spoke tenderly to him, and said, " Happy is she who has a son like this, in the bloom of youth. Such would be the age of my son Pradyumna, if he was alive. Who is the fortunate mother adorned by thee ? and yet from thy appearance, and from the affection I feel for thee, thou art assuredly the son of Hari." At this moment Krishna accompanied by Narada, arrived; and the latter said to the delighted Rukmini, " This is thine own son, who has come hither after killing Sambara, by whom, when an infant, he was stolen from the lying-in chamber. This is the virtuous Mayivati, his wife, and not the wife of Sambara. Hear the reason. When Maumatha, the deity of love, had perished,* the goddess of beauty, desirous to secure his revival, assumed a delusive form, and by her charms fascinated the demon Sambara, and exhibited herself to him in various illusory enjoyments. This thy son is the descended Kama; and this is the goddess Rati, his wife. There is no occasion for any uncertainty: this is thy daughter-in-law." Then Rukmini was glad, and Kesava also; the whole city resounded with exclamations of joy, and all the people of Dwaraka were surprised at Uukmini's recovering a son who had so long been lost. Pradyumna is represented as a man, with a crown on his head; and his ears, neck, breast, arms, hands, feet, and the remaining part of his body, are adorned with various ornaments of pearls, precious stones, gold and silver. On his shoulders he wears a Bahupattai, i. e., a shoulder-girdle. In one of his hands he holds a bow of sugar-cane, with a string of insects; and in the other an arrow, ready for discharge. On his back he carries a quiver, with five sorts of arrows, consisting of five kinds of flowers. His standard is a fish; his vehicle, a parrot; and the color of his body, yellow. Rati his wife, is represented as a female with long black hair, braided into a pigtail that reaches to the ground. Like her husband, she wears also a crown, and is on the whole adorned and equipped similar to him, Prahlada - The son of Hiranyakasipu, a daitya, but from the influence of a prior existence, a worshipper of Vishnu. In the war between the gods and demons, however, he takes part with his family, and is killed by the discus of Vishnu. He is again born of the same parents, and with the same name, and is then the Prahlada who is the hero of the usual story, the pious son of an impious father, the latter of whom was destroyed by Vishnu in the Narisinha or man-lion avatara, and the former was raised to the rank of Indra for life, and finally united with Vishnu. The V. P., contains a full account of the cruelties to which Prahlada was subjected by his father in order to compel him to renounce the "When he wrs reduced to ashes by a fiery glance from Siva, in resentment of his inflaming him with passion for Uma. worship of Vishnu; but all in vain; he remains firm throughout. It is said in the Bhagavata that Hiranyakasipu at last asks his son, why, if Vishnu is everywhere, he is not visible in a pillar in the hall where they are assembled. He then rises and strikes the column with his fist, on which Vishnu, in a form which is neither wholly a lion nor a man, issues from it, and a conflict ensues, which ends in Hiranyakasipu's being torn to pieces, V. P., Book I, Chap. XX.- Wilson's Notes. Prajani: (sáns. hindú). A prince, the son of Pransa, descendant of Nedishta. Prajapatis: (sáns. hindú). Progenitors of mankind. The seven mind-born sons of Brahmi, viz; Brighu, Pulastya, Angiras, Marichi, Daksha, Atri, and Vasishta. Considerable variety prevails in this list; " but the variations are of the nature of additions made to an apparently original enumeration of but seven." The names of Pulaka and Kratu, occur in some. The Vishnu Purana gives nine names. The Padma Purana substitutes Kardama for Vasishtha. The Matsya agrees with Manu in adding Narada to the list. Others include Adhai'ma, and Ruchi, and Gautama. " Altogether therefore we have seventeen instead of seven. The simple statement that the first prajapatis sprang from the mind or will of Brahma, has not contented the depraved taste of the mystics; and in some of the Puranas they are derived from various parts of Brahma's body. - See Wilson's Notes, p. 50. Prajapati-yajna: (sáns. hindú). Propagation of offspring; a recent addition to the five great obligations of Manu. Prajapatya: (sáns. hindú). l, A particular sacrifice performed before appointing a daughter to raise issue in default of male heirs; 2, A sort of penance, eating once a day for three days in the mornings, once in the night for three nights, subsisting three days on food given as alms, and fasting three days more. Prajna: (sáns. hindú). A synonymn of Mahat. That by which the properties of things are known. Prakrita: (sáns. hindú). Primary Creation: Elemental Dissolution: Nature. The general resolution of the elements into their pi'imitive source. Prakrita is generally translated Nature. See Pjadhana. Prakriti: (sáns. hindú). The goddess nature; the female principle; the passive agent in creation. Vishnu as Purusha, combines with Prakriti, and engenders creation. Pralaya: (sáns. hindú). " Dissolution." The dissolution of all things is of four kinds: Naimittaka, occasional; Prakrittika, elemental; Atyantika, absolute; Nitya, perpetual. 1, The first occurs when the sovereign of the world reclines in sleep; 2, In the second the mundane egg resolves into the primary element from whence it was derived; 3, Absolute non-existence of the world is the absoi'ptiou of the sage through knowledge, into the supreme spirit; 4, Perpetual destruction is the constant disappearance, day and night, of all that are born. Vishnu Purana. Professor Wilson states, " the first is called Naimittaka, * occasional' or * incidental,' or Brahmya, as occasioned by the intervals of Brahma's days; the destruction of creatures, though not of the substance of the world, occurring during his night. The general resolution of the elements into their primitive source, or Prakriti, is the Prakritika destruction, and occurs at the end of Brahma's life. The third, the Absolute or final, is individual annihilation; Moksha; exemption for ever from future existence. The Bhagavata here notices the fourth kind, Nitya, or constant dissolution; explaining it to be the imperceptible change that all things suffer, in the various stages of growth and decay, life and death. The various conditions of beings subject to change are occasioned by that constant dissolution of life which is rapidly produced by the resistless stream of time, taking everything perpetually away." Pramlocha: (sáns. hindú). A celestial nymph. One of the Apsarasas, of the Daivika, or divine class, of whom there are ten enumerated. It was Pramlocha, who interrupted the penance of Kandu, and remained on earth with him for so many years. See Kandu. Pramoda: (sáns. hindú). Pleasure. A son of Brahma. The virtues and vices are enumerated as the progeny of Brahma. Prana: (sáns. hindú). l, A measure of time equal to a respiration, six respirations make one vikala; 2, A son of Dhatri and Ayati; 3. One of the seven Rishis of the third Manwantara. Pranayama: (sáns. hindú). Suppression of breathing. It is performed by three modifications of breathing: the first act is expiration, which is performed through the right nostril, whilst the left is closed with the fingers of the right hand: this is called Rechakas, the thumb is then placed upon the right nostril, and the fingers raised from the left, through which breath is inhaled; this is called Puraka: in the third act both nostrils are closed, and breathing suspended; this is Kumbhaka: and a succession of these operations is the practice of Pi'anayama. Pransu: (sáns. hindú). l, One of the ten sons of the Manu Vaivaswata; 2, The son of Vatsapri. Prapti: (sáns. hindú). One of the wives of Kansa. Prasada: (sáns. hindú). (Favour) one of the sons of Dharma. Prasena: (sáns. hindú). The son of Nighana and brother of Satrajit. It was to Satrijit the Sun presented the Syamantaka gem which he wore on his neck. Satrajit, fearing that Krishna would ask him for the jewel transferred it to his brother Prasena. But though the jewel was an inexhaustible source of good to a virtuous person, if it were worn by a man of bad character it would cause his death. Prasena having taken the gem, and hung it about his neck, mounted his horse and went to the woods to hunt. In the chase he was killed by a lion. The precious gem afterwards came into the possession of Akrura. Prasenajit: (sáns. hindú). l, A prince, the son of Kusaswa; 2, The son of Susandhi, of the family of Ikshvaku. " Susandhi fortunate and wise. Two noble sons had he, to wit Dhruvasandhi and Prasenajit." Professor Wilson places this prince, the twenty-fourth of the line of Ikshvaku, in the sixth century before Christ. Prasraya: (sáns. hindú). (Affection.) One of the allegorical sons of Dharma (moral and religious duty.) /span> Prastara: (sáns. hindú). A prince, the son of Udgitha, a descendant of Bharata. PraBtutas: (sáns. hindú). A class of deities of the sixth Manwantara. PraSUSraka: (sáns. hindú). A priuce, the son of Maru, a descendant of Kusa. In the Vishnu Purana it is said that Maru is still living in the village called Kalapa. Prasuti: (sáns. hindú). One of the daughters of the Manu Svvayambhuva, who was married to Daksha; they had twenty-four daughters, all plainly allegorical, being personifications of intelligence and virtues and religious rites. Pratah: (sáns. hindú). (Dawn.) The son of Kalpa and Prabhah. Pratarddana: (sáns. hindú). The son of Divodasa, (king of Benares) so named from destroying the race of Bhadrasreuya. He had various other appellations, as Satrajit, ' the victor over his foes,' from having vanquished all his enemies: Vatsa, or ' child,' from his father's frequently calling him hy that name; Ritadhwaja, ' he whose emblem is truth,' being a great observer of veracity; and Kuvalayaswa, because he had a horse called Kuvalaya. Vishnu Purana, p. 408. In the notes it is said that from the scanty and ill-digested notices in other Puranas it appears that Divodasa, on being expelled from Benares, took some city and district on the Gomati, from the family of Bhadrasreuya; that Durdama recovered the country; and that Pratarddana again conquered it from his descendants. Pratibandhaka: (sáns. hindú). A king of Mithila, the son of Maru, of the family of Janaka. Pratibimba: (sáns. hindú). ' Reflection' a form of Brahma. V. P., p. 40, note 15'. Pratihara: (sáns. hindú). A prince, the son of Parameshtiu, of the race of Bharata. Pratihartta: (sáns. hindú). The son of Pratihara, and father of Bhava, of the race of Bharata. Pratikshatra: (sáns. hindú). l, A king of Kasl, the son of Kshatravriddha; 2, A son of Saima, of the Yadava race. Pratipa: (sáns. hindú). The son of Dilipa, a descendant of Kuru. Pratisarga: (sáns. hindú). Secondary creation - that which took place at the commencement of the present Kalpa; water, and even the earth, being in existence, and consequently having been preceded by the creation of Mahat and the elements. Pratisukya: (sáns. hindú). A short section of the Vedas; or more strictly, a collection of phonetic rules, peculiar to one of the different branches of the four Vedas. - Muller, A. S. L., p, 119. Pratishthana: (sáns. hindú). The capital city of Sudyumna; situated on the eastern side of the confluence of the Ganges and Jumna; the country between which rivers was the territory of the direct male descendants of Vaivaswata. In consequence of his having been a female formerly, Sudyumna was excluded from any share in his paternal dominions; but his father, at the suggestion of Vasishtha, bestowed upon him the city Pratishthana, and he gave it to Pururavas. Prativahu: (sáns. hindú). The youngest son of Swaphalka. Prativindya: (sáns. hindú). One of the sons of Yudhishthira by Draupadi. Prativyoman: (sáns. hindú). A prince, the son of Vatsavyuha, of the family of Ikshvaku. Pratyahara: (sáns. hindú). Restraining the organs of sense from susceptibility to outward impressions, and directing them entirely to mental perceptions. This is one of the means for effecting the entire subjugation of the senses; and if they are not completely controlled the sage cannot accomplish his devotions. Pratyaya Sarga: (sáns. hindú). Intellectual creation of the Sankhya philosophy; the creation of which we have a notion, or to which we give assent; in contradistinction to organic creation, or that existence of which we have no sensible perception. In its specific sub-divisions it is the notion of certain inseparable properties in the four different orders of beings: obstruction, or solidity in inanimate things; inability or imperfection in animals; perfectibility in man; and acquiescence or tranquil enjoyment in gods. V. P., Notes. 37. Pratyusha: (sáns. hindú). (Daybreak.) One of the deities called Vasus. Prava: (sáns. hindú). One of the daughters of Daksha who was married to Kasyapa. Pravaha: (sáns. hindú). The name of one of th . winds; so termed because it bears along the planets, which turn round, like a disc of fire, driven by the aerial wheel.Pravilasena: (sáns. hindú). One of the kiugs of Andhra, the son of Talaka. Pravira: (sáns. hindú). l, The son of Prachinvat, or according to the Mahabharata the son of Puru; 2, One of the sons of Hariyaswa, a descendant of Hastin. Prayag: (sáns. hindú). The Hindu name of Allahabad. Prayaschitta: (sáns. hindú). * Expiation* or ' sacred philosophy,' created from the eastern mouth of Brahma. Prekshagara: (sáns. hindú). House of seeing; a sort of theatre; a place made for seeing the sacrifice; a sort of stockade used as a place where spectacles could be witnessed. Preta-rat: (sáns. hindú). The Lord of the dead; a name of Yama, the Hindu Pluto. Prishadaswa: (sáns. hindú). A prince, the son of Anaranya. Prishadhra: (sáns. hindú). One of the sons of the Manu Vaivaswata, who, in consequence of the crime of killing a cow was degraded to the condition of a Sudra. This story, says Professor Wilson, has been modified apparently at different periods, according to a progressive horror of the crime. The Vishnu Purana simply states the fact. The Vayu says he was hungry, and not only killed, but ate the cow of his spiritual preceptor Chyavana. In the Markandeya he is described as being out a hunting, and killing the cow of the father of Babhravya, mistaking it for a Gavaya or Gayal. The Bbagavata, as usual, improves upon the story, and says that Prishadhra was appointed by his Guru Vasishtha to protect his cattle. In the night a tiger made his way into the fold, and the prince in his haste, and in the dark, killed the cow upon which he had fastened, instead of the tiger. In all the authorities the effect is the same, and the imprecation of the offended sage degraded Prishadhra to the caste of a Sudra. According to the Bhagavata, the prince led a life of devotion, and perishing in the flame of a forest, obtained final liberation. The obvious purport of this legend, and of some that follow, is to account for the origin of the different castes from one common ancestor. Prishata: (sáns. hindú). The youngest of the hundred sons of Somaka. Prishtaja: (sáns. hindú). One of the sons of Kumara. Prisni: (sáns. hindú). A prince, the son of Anamitra. Pritha, or Kunti: (sáns. hindú). The daughter of Sura, and wife of Pandu. For her history see Kunti; also Karna. Prithivi: (sáns. hindú). Earth, as one of the elements in Hindu philosophy, where it is said to be produced from the rudiment of smell. The waters becoming productive, engendered the rudiment of smell; whence an aggregate (earth) originates, of which smell is the property. V. P., p. 16. Prithivi: (sáns. hindú). Earth personified as a goddess. The Vishnu Purana contains a hymn of adoration addressed by the goddess to Narayana when he was incarnate as a boar, and descended to the subterrene regions. When Prithu took up his divine bow Ajagava, and marched forth to assail the Earth, the latter, assuming the figure of a cow, fled hastily from him, and traversed, through fear of the king, the regions of Brahma and the heavenly spheres; but wherever went the supporter of living things, there she beheld Vainya with uplifted weapons; overcome with apprehension the goddess Earth addressed Prithu, who made Swayambhuva Manu, a calf to milk the Earth for the benefit of mankind. By granting life to the Earth, Prithu was as her father, and she thence derived the patronymic Prithivi (the daughter of Prithu). There are many mystifications in the Puranas of the original simple allegory, which typified the Earth as a cow who yielded to every class of beings the milk they desired, or the object of their wishes, V. P., Notes. See Dyaus. Prithu: (sáns. hindú). 1, The most distinguished individual of this name was the son of Vena (q. v.) engendered by friction from the right arm of his dead father (V.P., 101.) He was resplendent in person as if the blazing deity of Fire had been manifested. At the birth of Prithu all living creatures rejoiced: and Vena, delivered by his birth from the hell named Put, ascended to the realms above. The mighty Prithu was invested by the gods with universal dominion, and soon removed the grievances of the people whom his father had oppressed. They complained of the want of edible fruits and plants, and said they were suffering from famine. On hearing this Prithu took up his divine bow, Ajagava, and soon extorted a promise from the Earth to supply mankind with all that was necessary for their sustenance. The legend of Prithu occurs in most of the Puranas, and all the versions are essentially the same. See Vishnu Purana, p. 104. 2. A prince, the son of Prastara, 3. A prince, the son of Anenas, and grandson of Kakutsha. 4. A prince, the son of Para, a descendant of Hastin. a; A prince, the son of Anaranya, and father of Trisauku of the line of Ikshvaku. " Anaranya, strong to fight, His son was Prithu, glorious name. From him the wise Trisanku came." Prithudana, Prithujaya, Prithukarman, Prithukirtti, Prithusravas, Prithyasas: (sáns. hindú). Six princes, the most renowned of the million sons of Sasavindu. Prithugas: (sáns. hindú). A class of deities of the sixth Manwantara. Prithuloksha: (sáns. hindú). A prince, the son of Chaturanga, a descendant of Anu. Prithurukman: (sáns. hindú). The brother of Jayamagha, and son of Paravrit, a descendant of Sasavindu. Priti: (sáns. hindú). * Affection': (sáns. hindú). One of the daughters of Daksha who was married to the sage Pulastya. Priya: (sáns. hindú). A princess in the city of Kapila, who was seized with white leprosy and taken to a distant jungle, and placed in a large cave where she was supplied with fire, fuel, and all kinds of food. At the same time, Rama, Raja of Benares, was seized with the same disorder, and abandoned his Raj, retiring to the same jungle. Subsequently he found a remedy in the root, leaves, fruit, and bark of a certain tree, and his body became pure as gold. Ultimately he fell in with Priya, cured her leprosy, and married her; and they resided in the city of Koli. Wheeler's Notes to the Mahabharata. Priyamitra: (sáns. hindú). After TripHshta, (q. v.), had been born as a lion, and had migrated through various forms, he became the Chakravartti Priyamitra in the division of the world Mahavideha. After a victorious reign of eighty-four lakhs of years he became an ascetic for a further period of a hundred lakhs, and was then translated to one of the higher heavens. - Wilson, 292. Priyavrata: (sáns. hindú). The eldest son of the divine Manu Swayambhuva. He married Kimya the daughter of the patriarch Kardama, and had by her two daughters, Samrat and Kukshi, and ten sons, wise, valiant, modest and dutiful, named Agnidhra, Agnibahu, Vapushmat, Dyutimat, Medha, Medhatithi, Bhavya, Savala, Putra, and the tenth was Jyotishmat, illustrious by nature as by name. These were the sons of Priyavrata, famous for strength and prowess. Of these, three, or Medha, Putra, and Agnibahu, adopted a religious life: remembering the occurrences of a prior existence, they did not covet dominion, but diligently practised the rites of devotion in due season, wholly disinterested, and looking for no reward. V, P. Priyavrata having divided the earth into seven continents, gave them respectively to his other seven sons. According to the Bhagavata, he drove his chariot seven times round the earth, and the ruts left by the wheels became the beds of the oceans, separating it into seven Dwipas. To Agnidhra he gave Jambudwipa; to Medhatithi he gave Plaksha-dwipa: he installed Vapushmat in the sovereignty over the Dwipa of Salmali; and made Jyotishmat king of Kuga-dwipa: he appointed Dyutimat to rule over Krauncha-dwipa; Bhavya to reign over Saka-dwipa: and Savala he nominated the monarch of the Dwipa of Pushkara. Proshakas, Proshtas: (sáns. hindú). Inhabiters of valleys, a designation of some aboriginal tribes. Pudkalai: (sáns. hindú). One of the wives of Ayanas. Pujari: (sáns. hindú). An inferior priest who officiates in the pagodas, offering sacrifices, and receiving those offerings which are brought by the people in fulfilment of vows. Puje: (sáns. hindú). Adoration of the deity; worship of the gods with various ceremonies and offerings: the term is also applied to the respect or homage paid to superiors. Pulaka: (sáns. hindú). A Prajapati. One of the mind-born sons of Brahma; he was married to Kshama (Patience) one of the daughters of Daksha, by whom he had three sons, Karmasa, Arvarivat, and Sahishna. Pulastya: (sáns. hindú). Another Prajapati who was also one of the mindborn sons of Brahma. It was he who appeared to Parasara, and communicated to him the Vishnu Purana, as a summary or compendium of Puranic traditions. Pulastya was married to Priti, (Affection) one of the daughters of Daksha. In the Vishnu Purana it is said their son, now known as the sage Agastya, was called in a former birth, or in the Swayambhuva Manwantara, Dattoli. The Vayu specifies three sons of Pulastya Dattoli, Vedabahu, and Vinita; also a daughter, Sadwati, married to Agni. Pulastya is considered as the ancestor of the Rakshasas, as he is the father of Visravas, the father of Ravana and his brethren. Pulimat: (sáns. hindú). One of the Andhra kings, the son of Gomatiputra: he reigned twenty-eight years. Pulindaka: (sáns. hindú). One of the ten Sungas, who reigned at Magadha for a hundred and ten years after the Mauryan dynasty. Pulindaka was the son of Ardraka, and only reigned three years. Pulindas: (sáns. hindú). A name applied to any wild or barbarous tribe; in the Vishnu Purana it refers to the people of the deserts along the Indus: but Pulindas are met with in many other positions, especially in the mountains and forests across Central India, the haunts of the Bhils and Gonds. Ptolemy places the Pulindai along the banks of the Narmada. Notes to Vishnu Purana, 1 86. Puloma: (sáns. hindú). One of the daughters of Vaiswanara; the other was named Kalika; both were married to Kasyapa, and became the mothers of sixty-thousand distinguished Danavas, who were powerful, ferocious, and cruel. Puloman: (sáns. hindú). l, A Danava; one of the distinguished sons of Kasyapa and Danu; 2, A son of Viprachitti, and father of Sachi the wife of Indra. Pulomarchish: (sáns. hindú). The last of the Andhrabhritya kings; the Vishnu Purana states that there were thirty of them whose united reigns amounted to four hundred and fifty-six years. Pulomavit: (sáns. hindú). One of the Andhra kings, the son of Swdtikarua: he reigned thirty-six years. Puman: (sáns. hindú). Incorporated spirit; the same as Purusha. In the Notes to the Vishnu Parana it is said the meaning is that Vishnu is any form of spiritual being that is acknowledged by different philosophical systems; or that he is the Brahma of the Vedanta, the Iswara of the Patanjala, and the Purusha of the Sankhya school. Punarvasu: (sáns. hindú). l, A lunar mansion in Airavati, in the Northern Avashthana; 2, A Yadava chief, the son of Abhijit. Pundarika: (sáns. hindú). l, One of the serpent-kings, of the progeny of Kadru; 2, A prince, the son of Nabhas, a descendant of Kusa. Pundarika: (sáns. hindú). (Pundarika.) 1, A daughter of Vasishtha, and wife of Prana; 2, One of the Apsarases. Pundarikaksha: (sáns. hindú). A name of Vishnu, occurring in the first line of the Vishnu Purana; it means having eyes like a lotus, or heartpervading; or Pundarika is explained, * supreme glory,' and Aksha imperishable. Pundra: (sáns. hindú). l, A prince, one of the sons of Bali a descendant of Anu; 2, The name of a fabulous city between the Himavat and Hemakuta mountains. Pundras: (sáns. hindú). The inhabitants of the western provinces of Bengal; sometimes the term designates the provinces themselves, and includes the districts of Dinajpur, Rangpur, Birbhum, Burdwan, Midnapur, the jungle Mehats, &c. Punul: (sáns. hindú). The Tamil name of the sacred thread worn by the Brahmins, Kshatriyas and Vaisyas. Punya: (sáns. hindú). l, (Merit.) A daughter of the sage Kratu, according to the Vayu list; 2, A river in Behar, now termed Pun-pun. Punyajanas: (sáns. hindú). A class of Rakshasas, who destroyed Kusasthali, the capital of Kakudmin, surnamed Raivata, whilst he was on a visit to the region of Brahma. Pur: (sáns. hindú). One of the synoDyms of Mahat, defined in the Vishnu Purana to be " that by which the concurrence of nature occupies and fills all bodies." Puraka: (sáns. hindú). A modification of breathing so termed; the act is performed as follows: the thumb is placed in the right nostril, and the fingers raised from the left, through which breath is inhaled. Puranas: (sáns. hindú). There are eighteen large treatises so designated. The following is a list of them: - 1. Brahma Purana. A brief account of the contents of each of the above will be found under their separate titles. The Preface to the Vishnu Purana by Dr. Wilson contains the following excellent remarks on their general character. " The different works known by the name of Puranas are evidently derived from the same religious system as the Ramayana and Mahabharata, or from the mytho-heroic stage of Hindu belief. They present, however, peculiarities which designate their belonging to a later period, and to an important modification in the progress of opinion. They repeat the theoretical cosmogony of the two great poems; they expand and systematize the chronological computations; and they give a more definite and connected representation of the mythological fictions, and the historical traditions. But besides these and other particulars, which may be derivable i from an old, if not from a primitive era, they offer characteristic ' peculiarities of a more modern description, in the paramount importance which they assign to individual divinities, in the variety and purport of the rites and observances addressed to them, and in the invention of new legends illustrative of the power and graciousness of those deities, and of the efiicacy of implicit devotion to them. Siva and Vishnu, under one or other form, are almost the sole objects that claim the homage of the Hindus in the Puranas; departing from the domestic and elemental ritual of the Vedas, and exhibiting a sectarial fervour and exclusiveness not traceable in the Ramayana, and only to a qualified extent in the Mahabharata. They are no longer authorities for Hindu belief as a whole; they are special guides for separate and sometimes conflicting branches of it, compiled for the evident purpose of promoting the preferential, or in some cases the sole worship of Vishnu or of Siva. *' That the Puranas always bore the character here given of them, may admit of reasonable doubt; that it correctly applies to them as they now are met with, the following pages will irrefragably substantiate. It is possible, however, that there may have been an earlier class of Puranas, of which those we now have are but the partial and adulterated representatives. The identity of the legends in many of them, and still more the identity of the words - for in several of them long passages are literally the same - is a sufficient proof that in all such cases they must be copied either from some other similar work, or from a common and prior original. It is not unusual also for a fact to be stated upon the authority of an * old stanza,' which is cited accordingly; shewing the existence of an earlier source of information: and in very many instances legends are alluded to, not told; evincing acquaintance with their prior narration somewhere else. The name itself, Purdua, which implies * old,' indicates the object of the compilation to be the preservation of ancient traditions, a purpose in the present condition of the Puranas very imperfectly fulfilled. Whatever weight may be attached to these considerations, there is no disputing evidence to the like effect afforded by other and unquestionable authority. The description given by Mr. Colebrooke of the contents of a Purana is taken from Sanskrit writers. The Lexicon of Amara Sinha gives as a synonym of Purana, Pauchalakshanam, * that which has five characteristic topics :' and there is no difference of opinion amongst the scholiasts as to what these are. They are, as Mr. Colebrooke mentions; 1, Primary creation, or cosmogony; 2, Secondary creation, or the destruction and renovation of worlds, including chronology; 3, Genealogy of gods and patriarchs; 4, Reigns of the Manus, or periods called Manwantaras; and 5, History, or such particulars as have been preserved of the princes of the solar and lunar races, and of their descendants to modern times. Such, at any rate, were the constituent and characteristic portions of a Purana in the days of Amara Sinha, fifty-six years before the Christian era; and if the Puranas had undergone no change since his time, such we should expect to find them still. Do they conform to this description ? Not exactly in any one instance; to some of them it is utterly inapplicable; to others it only partially applies. There is not one to which it belongs so entirely as to the Vishnu Purana, and it is one of the circumstances which gives to this work a more authentic character than most of its fellows can pretend to. Yet even in this instance we have a book upon the institutes of society and obsequial rites interposed between the Manwantaras and the genealogies of princes, and a life of Krishna separating the latter from an account of the end of the world, besides the insertion of various legends of a manifestly popular and sectarial character. No doubt many of the Puranas, as they now are, correspond with the view which Col. Vans Kennedy takes of their purport. " I cannot discover in them," he remarks, " any other object than that of religious instruction." The description of the earth and of the planetary system, and the lists of royal races which occur in them, he asserts to be " evidently extraneous, and not essential circumstances, as they are entirely omitted in some Puranas, and very concisely illustrated in others; while, on the contrary, in all the Puranas some or other of the leading principles, rites, and observances of the Hindu religion are fully dwelt upon, and illustrated either by suitable legends or by prescribing the ceremonies to be practised, and the prayers and invocations to be employed, in the worship of different deities." Now, however accurate this description may be of the Puranas as they are, it is clear that it does not apply to what they were when they were synonymously designated as Paucha-lakshanas, or * treatises on five topics ;' not one of which five is ever specified by text or comment to be " religious instruction." In the knowledge of Amara Sinha the lists of princes were not extraneous and unessential, and their being now so considered by a writer so well acquainted with the contents of the Puranas as Col. Vans Kennedy, is a decisive proof that since the days of the lexicographer they have undergone some material alteration, and that we have not at present the same works in all respects that were current under the denomination of Puranas in the century prior to Christianity. " The inference deduced from the discrepancy between the actual form and the older definition of a Purana, unfavourable to the antiquity of the extant works generally, is converted into certainty when we come to examine them in detail; for although they have no dates attached to them, yet circumstances are sometimes mentioned or alluded to, or references to authorities are made, or legends are narrated, or places are particularized, of which the comparatively recent date is indisputable, and which enforce a corresponding reduction of the antiquity of the work in which they are discovered. At the same time they may be acquitted of subservience to any but sectarial imposture. They were pious frauds for temporary purposes: they never emanated from any impossible combination of the Brahmans to fabricate for the antiquity of the entire Hindu system any claims which it cannot fully support. A very great portion of the contents of many, some portion of the contents of all, is genuine and old. The sectarial interpolation or embellishment is always sufliciently palpable to be set aside, without injury to the more authentic and primitive mateiial; and the Puranas, although they belong especially to that stage of the Hindu religion in which faith in some one divinity was the prevailing principle, are also a valuable record of the form of Hindu belief which came next in order to that of the Vedas; which parafted hero-worship upon the simpler ritual of the latter; and which had been adopted, and was extensively, perhaps universally, established in India at the time of the Greek invasion. The Hercules of the Greek writers was indubitably the Balarama of the Hindus; and their notices of Mathura on the Jumna, and of the kingdom of the Suraseni and the Pandaean country, evidence the prior currency of the traditions which constitute the argument of the Mahabharata, and which are constantly repeated in the Puranas, relating to the Pandava and Yadava races, to Krishna and his contemporary heroes, and to the dynasties of the solar and lunar kings. " The theogony and cosmogony of the Puranas may probably be traced to the Vedas. They are not, as far as is yet known, described in detail in those works, but they are frequently alluded to in a strain more or less mystical and obscure, which indicates acquaintance with their existence, and which seems to have supplied the Puranas with the groundwork of their systems. The scheme of primary or elementary creation they borrow from the Sankhya philosophy, which is probably one of the oldest forms of speculation on man and nature amongst the Hindus. Agreeably, however, to that part of the Pauranik character which there is reason to suspect of later origin, their inculcation of the worship of a favourite deity, they combine the interposition of a creator with the independent evolution of matter, in a somewhat contradictory and unintelligible style. It is evident too that their accounts of secondary creation, or the developement of the existing forms of things, and the disposition of the universe, are derived from several and different sources; and it appears very likely that they are to be accused of some of the incongruities and absurdities by which the narrative is disfigured, in consequence of having attempted to assign reality and significancy to what was merely metaphor or mysticism. There is, however, amidst the unnecessary complexity of the description, a general agreement amongst them as to the origin of things, and their final distribution; and in many of the circumstances there is a striking concurrence with the ideas which seem to have pervaded the whole of the ancient world, and which we may therefore believe to be faithfully represented in the Puranas. *' The Pantheism of the Puranas in one of their invariable characteristics, although the particular divinity, who is all things, from whom all things proceed, and to whom all things return, be diversified according to their individual sectarial bias. They seem to have derived the notion from the Vedas: but in them the one universal Being is of a higher order than a personification of attributes or elements, and, however imperfectly conceived, or unworthily described, is God. In the Puranas the one only Supreme Being is supposed to be manifest in the person of Siva or Vishnu, either in the way of illusion or in sport; and one or other of these divinities is therefore also the cause of all that is, is himself all that exists. The identity of God and nature is not a new notion; it was very general in the speculations of antiquity, but it assumed a new vigour in the early ages of Christianity, and was carried to an equal pitch of extravagance by the Platonic Christians as by the Saiva or Vaishnava Hindus. It seems not impossible that there was some communication between them. We know that there was an active communication between India and the Ked Sea in the early ages of the Christian era, and that doctrines, as well as articles of merchandise, were brought to Alexandria from the former. Epiphanius and Eusebius accuse Scythianus of having imported from India, in the second century, books on magic, and heretical notions leading to Manichaeism, and it was at the same period that Ammonius instituted the sect of the new Platonists at Alexandria. The basis of his heresy was, that true philosophy derived its origin from the eastern nations: his doctrine of the identity of God and the universe is that of the Vedas and Puranas; and the practices he enjoined, as well as their object, were precisely those described in several of the Puranas under the name of Yoga. His disciples were taught " to extenuate by mortification and contemplation the bodily restraints upon the immortal spirit, so that in his life they might enjoy communion with the Supreme Being, and ascend after death to the universal parent." That these are Hindu tenets the following pages will testify; and by the admission of their Alexandrian teacher, they originated in India. The importation was perhaps not wholly unrequited; the loan may not have been left unpaid. It is not impossible that the Hindu doctrines received fresh animation from theh* adoption by the successors of Aramonius, and especially by the mystics, who may have prompted, as well as employed, the expressions of the Purauas. Anquetil du Perron has given, in the introduction to his translation of the * Oupnekhat,' several hymns by Synesius, a bishop of the beginning of the fifth century, which may serve as parallels to many of the hymns and prayers addressed to Vishnu in the Vishnu Purana. '* But the ascription to individual and personal deities of the attributes of the one universal and spiritual Supreme Being, is an indication of a later date than the Vedas certainly, anil apparently also than the Ramayana, where Rama, although an incarnation of Vishnu, commonly appears in his human character alone. There is something of the kind in the Mahabharata in respect to Krishna, especially in the philosophical episode known as the Bhagavat Gitd. In other places the divine nature of Krishna is less decidedly affirmed; in some it is disputed or denied; and in most of the situations in which he is exhibited in action, it is as a prince and warrior, not as a divinity. He exercises no superhuman faculties in the defence of himself or his friends, or in the defeat and destruction of his foes. The Mahabharata, however, is evidently a work of various periods, and requires to be read throughout carefully and critically before its weight as an authority can be accurately appreciated. As it is now in type - thanks to the public spirit of the Asiatic Society of Bengal, and their Secretary, Mr. J. Prinsep - it will not be long before the Sanskrit scholars of the continent will accurately appreciate its value. " The Puranas are also works of evidently different ages, and have been compiled under different circumstances, the precise nature of which we can imperfectly conjecture from internal evidence, and from what we know of the history of religious opinion in India. It is highly probable, that of the present popular form* of the Hindu religion, none assumed their actual state earlier than the time of Saukara Acharya, the great Saiva reformer, who flourished, in all likelihood, in the eighth or ninth century. Of the Vaishnava teachers, Ramanuja dates in the twelfth century, Madhwacharya in the thirteenth, and Vallabha in the sixteenth; and the Puranas seem to have accompanied or followed their innovations, being obviously intended to advocate the doctrines they taught. This is to assign to some of them a very modern date, it is true; but I cannot think that a higher can with justice be ascribed to them. This, however, applies to some only out of the number, as I shall presently proceed to specify. " Another evidence of a comparatively modern date must be admitted in those chapters of the Puranas which, assuming a prophetic tone, foretell what dynasties of kings will reign in the Kali age. These chapters, it is true, are found but in four of the Puranas, but they are conclusive in bringing down the date of those four to a period considerably subsequent to Christianity. It is also to be remarked, that the Vayu, Vishnu, Bhagavata, and Matsya Puranas, in which these particulars are foretold, have in all other respects the character of as great antiquity as any works of their class. *o The invariable form of the Puranas is that of a dialogue, in which some person relates its contents in reply to the inquiries of another. This dialogue is interwoven with others, which are repeated as having been held on other occasions between different individuals, in consequence of similar questions having been asked, The immediate narrator is commonly, though not constantly, Lomaharshana or Romaharshana, the disciple of Vyasa, who is supposed to communicate what was imparted to him by his preceptor, as he had heard it from some other sage. Vyasa, as will be seen in the body qf the work, is a generic title, meaning an * arranger' or * compiler.' It is in this age applied to Krishna Dwaipayana, the son of Parasara, who is said to have taught the Vedas and Puranas to various disciples, but who appears to have been the head of a college or school, under whom various learned men gave to the sacred literature of the Hindus the form in which H now presents itself. I|i this task tjie disciples, as they are termed, of Vyasa were rather his colleagues and coadjutors, for they were already conversant with what he is fabled to have taught them; and amongst them, Lomaharshana represents the class of persons who were especially charged with the record of political and temporal events. He is called Suta, as if it was a proper name; but it is more correctly a title; and Lomaharshana was * a Suta,' that is, a bard or panegyrist, who was created, according to the text, to celebrate the exploits of princes; and who, according to the Vayu and Padraa Puranas, has a right by birth and profession to narrate the Puranas, in preference even to the Brahmans. It is not unlikely therefore that we are to understand, by his being represented as the disciple of Vyasa, the institution of some attempt, made under the direction of the latter, to collect from the heralds and annalists of his day the scattered traditions which they had imperfectly preserved; and hence the consequent appropriation of the Puranas, in a great measure, to the genealogies of regal dynasties, and descriptions of the universe. However this may be, the machinery has been but loosely adhered to, and many of the Puranas, like the Vishnu, are referred to a different narrator." Preface to V. P. " The Puranas are uniformly stated to be eighteen in number. It is said that there are also eighteen Upa-Puranas, or minor Puranas, but many of them are not now procurable. The following eighteen are specified in the Devi Bhagavata:
Of the contents of these books very little is known. There are many local legends of particular temples which are sometimes designated Upa-Puranas. Many ancient notions and traditions arc preserved in the Puranas, but they have been so much mixed up with sectarian views, intended to favour the popularity of particular forms of worship, or articles of faith, that they cannot be received as authorities for the mythological religion of the Hindus at any remote period." Purandara: (sáns. hindú). The Indra of the seventh (the present) Manwantara. Puranjaya: (sáns. hindú). 1, A king of Ayodhya; son of Vikukshi, whose reign preceded that of Ikshvaku. Puranjaya assisted the gods in their contest with the Asuras. As he destroyed the demon host whilst seated on the hump of a bull, he obtained the appellation Kakutstha, q. v; 2, A prince, the son of Srinjaya; 3, A Yavana chief, the son of Vindhyasakti. Puravati: (sáns. hindú). A river not identified. Purohita: (sáns. hindú). A family priest, or chaplain. " The most ancient name for a priest by profession," says Prof. Max Müller " is Purohita, which means prepositus or prceses. The Purohita, however, was more than a priest. He was the friend and counsellor of the chief, the minister of the king, and his companion in peace and war. The original occupation of the Purohita may have consisted in the performance of the usual sacrifices; but, with the ambitious policy of the Brahmaus, it soon became a stepping stone to political power." The office of a Purohita uow-a-days is, in the words of the Abbe Dubois, to prognosticate what are good and what are evil days for beginning any affair, or for putting it off; to avert, by Mantras or prayers, the pernicious effects of maledictions or the influence of malign constellations; to assign names to new born children and calculate their nativity; to bless new houses, wells, or tanks; to purify temples and consecrate them; to imbue idols with the divine essence: all these ceremonies, and many others of smaller importance, are the province of the Brahmaus called Purohitas. The most important of the ceremonies over which they preside are those of marriages and burials. They are so complex that an ordinary Brahman would be found incapable of performing them. A regular study is necessary for the exactness and precision which they require j and Mantras are requisite of which the greater part are ignorant. The Purohitas alone are accomplished in the management of these rites, the detail of which they have in writing, in certain formularies, which they permit nobody to see, not even the other Brahmans. Indeed the principal Mantras that are used are not reduced into writing, from the fear that some other Brahmans might acquire them, and so become their rivals, to the diminution of their exclusive profits. The father teaches them to his son, and thus they pass from generation to generation in one family. This shows that it is self-interest rather than superstition which occasions this reserve. By hindering the other Brahmans from learning these ceremonies and the corresponding Mantras, the Purohitas render themselves more necessary to the people, and to the Brahmans themselves, v/ho cannot dispense with their services on many occasions. One of the highest privileges attached to the profession of the Purdhita is the exclusive right of publishing the Hindu Almanac. There are but few who are found capable of making the calculations; perhaps one or two only in a district. It is not upon a knowledge of the motions of the heavenly bodies that the Hindu Almanac is compiled, but upon the approximation and agreement of numerous tables and formulse of great antiquity, and therefore the calculation is very complicated, and much time, attention, and labour is required to arrive at exact conclusions. On the first day of the year, the Purohita assembles the principal inhabitants of the place where he lives. In their presence he announces, by sound of trumpet, who is to be supreme over the stars. He determines also the quantity of rain and of drought, and foretells, in short, whether it is to be a year of health or of disease; whether the deaths or the births shall predominate, and many other contingencies of equal importance. The Purohita is essentially a family priest and a religious preceptor. Amongst the poorer classes he may officiate for very many families, in which case he employs assistants, and gives them a stipulated share of the gifts and other perquisites which he may receive. But amongst the richer classes, the duties of a Purohita are confined to a single family, and under such circumstances his influence becomes paramount in the household. He performs all the necessary religious rites and ceremonies for the members of the family, and imparts religious instruction from the sacred books. At the same time, he is the repository of all the family secrets, and the confidential and authoritative counsellor in all times of doubt and difficulty. He is also frequently engaged in more secular matters, such as the settlement of disputes; and in modern times a Hindu Zemindar or Raja has occasionally employed his Purohita as an ambassador or envoy. Purnasa: (sáns. hindú). (Parnasa). A river that rises in the Paripitra mountain. Purnotsanga: (sáns. hindú). One of the thirty Andhrabhritya kings, the son of Sri Satakarni; his reign lasted eighteen years. Puru: (sáns. hindú). 1, One of the sons of the Manu Chakshusha; 2, the youngest son of king Yayati, who consented to give his youth and vigour to his father, and receive in exchange Yayati's infirmities. After Yayati had had a thousand years experience of the vanity of sensual pleasures, he restored his youth to Puru, and installed him in the sovereignty of Pratishthana. The descendants of Puru were numerous and celebrated; and included the Pindavas and Kauravas. See page 367. Puruhotia: (sáns. hindú). A prince, the son of Anuratha, one of the descendants of Jyamagha. Purujanu: (sáns. hindú). One of the kings of Kampilya, the son of Susanti. Purukutsa: (sáns. hindú). A king, who reigned in the banks of the Narmada, to whom the Vishnu Purana was repeated. He was the son of Mandhatri, and assisted the snake-gods by destroying the Gandharbas in the regions below the earth. Purumidha: (sáns. hindú). One of the sons of Has tin, the founder of Hastinapur. Pururavas: (sáns. hindú). The son of Budha and Sudyumna (Ila.) He was a prince renowned for liberality, devotion, magnificence, love of truth, and for personal beauty. Urvasi having incurred the imprecation of Mitra and Varuna, determined to take up her abode in tho world of mortals; and descending accordingly, beheld Pururavas. As soon as bhe eaw him she forgot all reserve, and disregarding tho delights of Swarga, became deeply enamoured of the prince. Beholding her infinitely superior to all other females in grace, elegance, symmetry, delicacy, and beauty, Pururavas was equally fascinated by Urvasi: both were inspired by similar sentiments, and mutually feeling that each was eveiy thing to the other, thought no more of any other object. Confiding in his merits, Pururavas addressed the nymph, and said, *' Fair creature, I love you; have compassion on me, and return my affection." Urvasi, Imlf averting her face through modesty, replied, " I will do so, if you will observe the conditions I have to propose." " What are they?" inquired the prince; "declare them." "I have two rams," said the nymph, " which I love as children; they must be kept near my bedside, and never suffered to be carried away: you must also take care never to be seen by me undressed; and clarified butter alone must be my food." To these terms the king readily gave assent. After this, Pururavas and Urvasi dwelt together in Alakii, sporting amidst the groves and lotus-crowned lakes of Chaitraratha, and the other forests there situated, for sixty-one thousand years. The love of Pururavas for his bride increased every day of its duration; and the affection of Urvasi augmenting equally in fervour, she never called to recollection residence amongst tho immortals. Not so with the attendant spirits at tho court of Indra; and nymphs, genii, and quiristers, found heaven itself but dull whilst Urvasi was away. Knowing the agreement that Urvasi had made with the king, Viswavasu was appointed by the Gandharbas to effect its violation; and he, coming by night to the chamber where they slept, carried off one of the rams. Urvasi was awakened by its cries, and exclaimed, " Ah me ! who has stolen one of my children ? Had I a husband, this would not have happened ! To whom shall I apply for aid ?" The Raja overheard her lamentation, but recollecting that he was undressed, and that Urvasi might see him in that state, did not move from the couch. Then the Gandharbas came and stole the other ram; and Urvasi, hearing it bleat, cried out that a woman had no protector who was the bride of a prince so dastardly as to submit to this outrage. This incensed Pururavas highly, and trusting that the nymph would not see his person, as it was dark, he rose, and took his sword, and pursued the robbers, calling upon them to stop, and receive their punishment. At that moment the Gandharbas caused a flash of brilliant lightning to play upon the chamber, and Urvasi beheld the king undressed: the compact was violated, and the nymph immediately disappeared. The Gandharbas, abandoning the rams, departed to the region of the gods. Having recovered the animals, the king returned delighted to his couch, but there he beheld no Urvasi; and not finding her anywhere, he wandered- naked over the world, like one insane. At length coming to Kurukshetra, he saw Urvasi sporting with four other nymphs of heaven in a lake beautified with lotuses, and he ran to her, and called her his wife, and wildly implored her to return. " Mighty monarch," said the nymph, " refrain from this extravagance. I am now pregnant: depart at present, and come hither again at the end of a year, when I will deliver to you a son, and remain with you for one night." Pururavas, thus comforted, returned to his capital. Urvasi said to her companions, " This prince is a most excellent mortal: I lived with him long and affectionately united." " It was well done of you," they replied; " he is indeed of comely appearance, and one with whom we could live happily for ever." When the year had expired, Urvasi and the monarch met at Kurukshetra, and she consigned to him his first-born Ayus; and these annual interviews were repeated, until she had borne to him five sons. She then said to Pururavas, *' Through regard for me, all the Gandharbas have expressed their joint purpose to bestow upon my lord their benediction: let him therefore demand a boon." The Raja replied, " My enemies are all destroyed, my faculties are all entire; I have friends and kindred, armies and treasures: there is nothing which I may not attain except living in the same region with my Urvasi. My only desire therefore is, to pass my life with her." When he had thus spoken, the Gandharbas brought to Pururavas a vessel with fire, and said to him, " Take this fire, and, according to the precepts of the Vedas, divide it into three fires; then fixing your miud upon the idea of living with Urvasi, offer oblations, and you shall assuredly obtain your wishes." The Raja took the brasier, and departed, and came to a forest. Then he began to reflect that he had committed a great folly in bringing away the vessel of fire instead of his bride; and leaving the vessel in the wood, he went disconsolate to his palace. In the middle of the night he awoke, and considered that the Gandharbas had given him the brasier to enable him to obtain the felicity of living with Urvasi, and that it was absurd in him to have left it by the way. Resolving therefore to recover it, he rose, and went to the place where he had deposited the vessel; but it was gone. In its stead he saw a young Aswattha tree growing out of a Sami plant, and he reasoned with himself, and said, " I left in this spot a vessel of fire, and now behold a young Aswattha tree growing out of a Sami plant. Verily I will take these types of fire to my capital, and there, having engendered fire by their attrition, I will worship it." V. P. Having thus determined, he took the plants to his city, and prepared their wood for attrition, with pieces of as many inches long as there are syllables in the Gayatri; he recited that holy verse, and rubbed together sticks of as many inches as he recited syllables in the Gayatri. Having thence elicited fire, he made it threefold, according to the injunctions of the Vedas, and offered oblations with it, proposing as the end of the ceremony reunion with Urvasi. In this way, celebrating many sacrifices agreeably to the form in which offerings are presented with fire, Pururavas obtained a seat in the sphere of the Gandharbas, and was no more separated from his beloved. Thus fire, that was at first but one, was made threefold in the present Manwantara by the son of Ila." Pururavas is also called Vikrama; and the legend forms the subject of Kalidasa's drama. " Vikrama and Urvasi; or the Hero and Nymph." The legend as related in the Satapatha Brahmana differs from the above in several particulars. An explanation of the myth is given by Max Müller in his Comparative Mythology,* (* Chips from a German Workshop, Vol. II, p. 101) " One of the myths of the Veda which expresses this correlation of the Dawn and the Sun, this love between the mortal and the immortal, and the identity of the morning dawn and the evening twilight, is the story of Urvasi and Pururavas Urvasi was originally an appellation and meant dawn." Another explanation is that Pururavas personifies the sun; while Urvasi is the morning mist. Urvasi is an Apsarasas; and the Apsarasas are *' personifications of the vapours which are attracted by the sun, and form into mists or clouds." Dr. Goldstucker holds therefore that the legend represents the absorption by the sun of the vapour floating in the air. When Pururavas becomes distinctly visible, Urvasi vanishes; because when the sun shines forth, the mist is absorbed. Purusha: (sáns. hindú). Spirit. The first form of Vishnu. Mahat is also called Purusha from its abiding within the body. Purushottama: (sáns. hindú). A common title of Vishnu, implying supreme best spirit. Purva-bhadrapada: (sáns. hindú). A lunar mansion in Vaiswanari, in the Southern Avashthina. Purvachitti: (sáns. hindú). One of the Apsarasas; of the Daivika or divine class. Purvaja: (sáns. hindú). An appellation of Vishnu, meaning produced or appearing before creation; the Orphic irpuroyouos: animating nature and existing before it. Purvashada: (sáns. hindú). A lunar mansion in Ajavithi, in the Southern Avashthana. Purvaphalguni: (sáns. hindú). A lunar mansion in Arshabhi, in the Central Avashthana, Pushan - A solar deity. " Pushan is a protector and multiplier of cattle and of human possessions in general. As a cow-herd he carries an ox-goad, and he is drawn by goats. In character he is a solar deity, beholds the entire universe, and is a guide on roads and journeys, and to the other world. He is called the lover of his sister Surya. He aids in the revolutions of day and night; and shares with Soma the guardianship of living creatures. He is invoked along with the most various deities, but most frequently with Indra." He is the lord of all things moving and stationary, the inspirer of the soul, au unconquerable protector and defender, and is besought to give increase of wealth. He is said to regard and to see clearly and at once all creatures. He is not only the tutelary god of travellers, but also, like Savitri and Agni, and the Greek Hermes, axpvxoTroixTros, who conducts departed spirits on their way to the other world. Many hymns are addressed to Pushan, some of which are translated by Dr. Muir, (O. S. T., V, p. 174) " from which it will appear that the character of this god is not very distinctly defined; and that it is difficult to declare positively what province of nature or of physical action he is designed to represent, as is at once manifest in the case of Dyaus, Prithivi, Agni, Indra, Parjanya, and Surya." Some of the hymns in the Rig Veda are exclusively devoted to the celebration of Pushan. The single or detached verses of other hymns in which he is mentioned are numerous. He is mentioned as ' abounding in wealth,' as * bringing blessings' as * most bountiful,' * beneficient,' * distinguished by all divine attributes.' He is associated with Savitri, and is described as moving onward under his impulse, and as knowing and perceiving all creatures. In some hymns Pushan is connected with the marriage ceremonial, being besought to take the bride's hand and lead her away, and to bless her in her conjugal relation. Pushkalas: (sáns. hindú). The designation of Kshatriyas inKrauncha Dwipa. Pushkara: (sáns. hindú). The last of the seven great insular continents, or Dwipas, encompassing the sea of milk, and being itself surrounded by a sea of fresh water. Pushkara is represented as a terrestial paradise; where all the inhabitants are happy, and rejoice in total exemption from sickness and decay. They live a thousand years undisturbed by anger or affection. There is neither virtue nor vice, killer nor slain: there is no jealousy, envy, fear, hatred, covetousness, nor any moral defect; neither is there truth or falsehood. V.P. 201. Pushkara: (sáns. hindú). l. One of the sons of Bharata; he was king of Gandhara, residing at Pushkaravati; 2, The brother of Nala, who engaged him in the gambling match which cost him his kingdom. (See Nala.) . Pushkaras: (sáns. hindú). The designation of brahmans in Krauncha Dwipa. Pushkaravarttakas: (sáns. hindú). A designation of the class of clouds Pakshaja; so termed from their including water in their vortices; they are the largest and most formidable of all, and are those which, at the end of the Yugas and Kalpas, pour down the waters of the deluge. Pushkarin: (sáns. hindú). A prince the son of Urukshaya, a descendant of Bharata. - Pushkarini: (sáns. hindú). The daughter of the patriarch Anaranya, and mother of the Manu Chakshusha.Pushpadanta: (sáns. hindú). One of Siva's principal attendants. " On the summit of Kailasa, a lofty peak of the Himalaya range, resided the mighty deity Maheswara, attended by innumerable spirits and genii, and worshipped even by the superior divinities. The daughter of the mountain monarch, and the spouse of Mahadeva, propitiated her lord by her celestial strains; and, being pleased by her adulations, he proffered her whatever boon she might request. Her only demand was to receive instruction from his lips, and to hear from him such narrations as were yet unknown to the immortals or herself. Siva, giving orders that no person should be admitted, proceeded to reveal to the goddess those narratives which illustrate the felicity of the gods, the troubles of mankind, and the intermediate and varying conditions of the spirits of earth and heaven. It happened that Pushpadanta came to the palace gate and was refused admission by the warder. As he was a great favourite with his master and had always ready access to his person, the refusal excited his astonishment and curiosity; and, rendering himself invisible, he passed in, determined to ascertain why entrance was so rigorously barred. In this manner having come to where Siva and Bhavani were seated, he over-heard all the marvellous stories repeated by the deity. When these were concluded, he retired as he had entered, unobserved, and going home communicated the narrative to his wife Jaya, it being impossible to keep wealth or secrets from a woman. Jaya, equally unable to preserve silence, communicated what she had heard to her fellow attendants on Parvati; and the affair soon became known to the goddess and her lord. As the punishment of impertinence, Pushpadanta was condemned to a human birth, and his friend Malyavan, who presumed to intercede for him, was sentenced to a like fate. Being, however, subdued by the distress of Jaya, the offended goddess fixed a term to their degradation, and thus spake. ' When Pushpadanta, encountering a Yaksha, who has been doomed by Kuvera to haunt the Vindhya mountains as a goblin, shall recollect his original condition, and shall repeat the tales he has rashly over-heard, the curse shall no more prevail.* So saying, she ceased, and the two culprits, instantly, like a flash of lightning, blazed and disappeared. After a due interval Pushpadanta was born at Kausambi as Vararuchi, and when arrived at years of discretion found the goblin, and recollecting his origin, repeated to him the seven great narratives of Siva, each comprehending a hundred thousand verses - Wilson's Works, III, 160-163. Pushpadantha: (sáns. hindú). One of the serpent kings; of the progeny of Kadru. Pushpaka: (sáns. hindú). The name of Rama's car. Pushpatmitra: (sáns. hindú). The first king of the Sunga Dynasty; ho reigned at Mekala, a country on the Narbada; he was the general of the last Maurya prince, whom he put to death, and ascended the throne himself; the dynasty lasted a hundred and twelve years. Pushpavat: (sáns. hindú). A prince, the son of Kishabha. Pushpottara: (sáns. hindú). One of the heavens of the Jainas. When Priyamitra returned to the earth in the Bharata division as Nandana, after an existence of twenty-five lakhs of years, he was raised to the dignity of king of the gods in the Pushpottara heaven, in which capacity he preserved his ancient faith, offering flowers to, and bathing daily, the hundred and eighty images of the Arhats. Such exalted piety was now to meet with its reward, and the pains of existence were to be terminated in the person of the Tirthankara Mahavira or YavMhamina.- Wilson, I, 293. Pushti: (sáns. hindú). "Thriving'; 1, A daughter of Daksha and wife of Dharma; 2, A daughter of Paurnamasa, Pushya: (sáns. hindú). l, A prince, the son of the saintly king Yajnawalkya; 2, The eighth lunar mansion; in Airavata, in the Northern Avashthana. *' The morning dawned with cloudless ray On Pushya's high auspicious day, And Cancer with benignant power Looked down on Rama's natal hour." Puskola: (sáns. hindú). The palm leaf upon which the native books are written in Ceylon. Putana: (sáns. hindú). A female fiend or Asura, the daughter of Bali; she was known as a child killer, and attempted the life of Krishna when he was an infant, but was killed herself in the act. Putra: (sáns. hindú). One of the three sons of Priyavrata who adopted a religious life; remembering the occurrences of a prior existence, he did not covet dominion, but diligently practiced the rites of devotion. Puyavaha: (sáns. hindú). One of the Narakas, that in which crimes of violence, &c., are punished. R1Radha: (sáns. hindú). One of Krishna's favourite mistresses. The Gita Goviuda is a poem ou their attachment to each other. The poet opens the first interview of Krishna and Radha with an animated description of a night in the rainy season, in which Krishna is represented as a wanderer, and Radha, daughter of the shepherd Nanda, is sent to offer him shelter in their cottage. Nanda thus speaks to Radha " The firmament is obscured by clouds; the woodlands are black with Tamala trees; that youth who roves in the forest will be fearful in the gloom of night; go, my daughter, bring the wanderer to my rustic mansion." Such was the command of Nanda the herdsman, and hence arose the love of Radha and Madhava.* Raga: (sáns. hindú). Love. One of " the five afilictions*' in the Patanjala philosophy; the other four are Avidya, Asmita, Dwesha, and Abhinivesa. Raghu: (sáns. hindú). A distinguished mythical Maharaja of the solar race, the son of Dilipa, and sovereign of Ayodhya, celebrated for his learning, his riches, his bravery, and his uniform success. The Raghuvansa narrates his wonderful achievements and varied conquests, and concludes with the following legend. A brahman named Koutsya, a disciple of the great Rishi Varatanta, having completed his course of studies, asked his guru what acknowledgment he should make to show his gratitude. The tutor professed himself satisfied with the services the disciple had rendered; the latter, however, insisting on bestowing a gift, the guru asked for fourteen crores of rupees. For this enormous sum Koutsya applied to Maharaja Raghu, who having just emptied his treasury by the performance of the sacrifice termed Visvajit-yajna, determined to conquer Kubera (the god of riches), who was so alarmed at the prospect that he at once sent innumerable crores to the Maharaja. * Tod's Rajast'han, Vol. I, p. 540, which contains a beautiful engraving of Krishna and Radha. The money was then given to the brahman, who in return blessed the king with the promise of a good son, and in due course the illustrious Aja was born. Raghu: (sáns. hindú). 1, A prince of the lunar race, the son of Dirghabihu; 2, One of the sons of Yadu, the founder of the Yddava race. Raghuvansa: (sáns. hindú). An epic poem by Kalidasa. The poem describes the exploits of a line of princes descended from the Sun, of whom Rama was the boast and ornament. It has been translated into Latin by Stenzler, and into French by M. Hippolyte Fauche. The Idylls from the Sanskrit by Mr. T. H. Griffiths are chieiSy taken from the Raghuvansa. See Dilipa. Rabat: (sáns. hindú). One who is entirely free from evil desire, and in consequence possessed of supernatural powers. Rahu: (sáns. hindú). One of the nine planets of the Hindus; an imaginary being supposed to cause the eclipses of the sun and moon. Rahu according to the Padma Purana and Bhagavata, was the son of the Danava Viprachitti; at the churning of the sea of milk he insinuated himself amongst the gods, and obtained a portion of the Amrita or nectar; the sun and the moon observed the theft, and informed Vishriu of it, who, as a punishment beheaded the Daitya; the head became immortal in consequence of the Amrita having reached the throat, and was transferred as a constellation to the skies; and as the sun and moon detected his presence amongst the gods and made known his theft, Rahu pursues them with implacable hatred, and his efforts to seize them are the causes of eclipses; Rihu typifying the ascending and descending nodes. Rahu is also called the king of meteors. The Vishnu Purana states that eight black horses draw the dusky chariot of Rahu, and once harnessed are attached to it for ever. On the Parvas (the nodes, or lunar and solar eclipses) Rahu directs his course from the sun to the moon and back again from the moon to the sun, taking up the circular shadow of the earth. Rahula: (sáns. hindú). A prince, the son of Sakya. A name, says Dr. Wilson, of considerable chronological interest; for Sakya is the name of the author or reviver of Buddhism, whose birth appears to have occurred in the seventh, and death in the sixth century before Christ (b. c. 621 - 543.) Sakya, as the twenty-second of the line of Ikshvaku is contemporary with Ripunjaya, the last of the kings of Magadha. The chronology is not easily adjusted, but it is not altogoiher incompatible. The Buddhists always consider their teacher Sakya to be descended from Ikshvaku. In Tibet, where several sects of Buddhists are found, some of them profess themselves to be followers of Rahula. Raivata: (sáns. hindú). l, One of the sons of Priyavrata according to the Bhagavata list, and the Manu of the fifth Manwantara. Four Manus were descended from Priyavrata, who in consequence of propitiating Vishnu by his devotions, obtained these rulerships of the Manwantara, for his posterity. The Markandeya contains a legend of the birth of Raivata, as the son of king Durgamjl, by the nymph Revati, sprung from the constellation Revati. 2. An appellation of one of the eleven Rudras. 3. A name of Kakudmin (q. v.) the eldest of the sons of Revati; he visited Brahma, and gave his daughter in marriage to Balarama. 4. The name of a mountain.
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