CHITRA-LEKHA-CHYAVANA.

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She was the

CHITRA-LEKHĀ. A picture. Name of a nymph who was skilled in painting and in the magic art. friend and confidante of Usha. See Usha.

CHITRANGADA. The elder son of King Santanu, and brother of Bhishma. He was arrogant and proud, and was killed in early life in a conflict with a Gandharva of the same

name.

CHITRANGADĀ. Daughter of King Chritra-vahana of Mani-pura, wife of Arjuna and mother of Babhru-vāhana.

CHITRA-RATHA. Having a fine car.' The king of the Gandharvas. There are many others known by this name.

CHITRA-SENA. 1. One of the hundred sons of Dhritarashtra. 2. A chief of the Yakshas.

CHITRA-YAJNA. A modern drama in five acts upon the legend of Daksha. It is the work of a Pandit named Vaidyanatha Vachaspati.

CHOLA. A country and kingdom of the south of India about Tanjore. The country was called Chola-mandala, whence comes the name Coromandel.

CHYAVANA, CHYAVĀNA. A sage, son of the Rishi Bhrigu, and author of some hymns.

In the Rig-veda it is said that when "Chyavana had grown old and had been forsaken, the Aswins divested him of his decrepit body, prolonged his life, and restored him to youth, making him acceptable to his wife, and the husband of maidens." This story is thus amplified in the Satapatha Brāhmana-The sage Chyavana assumed a shrivelled form and lay as if abandoned. The sons of Saryata, a descendant of Manu, found this body, and pelted it with clods. Chyavana was greatly incensed, and to appease him Saryata yoked his chariot, and taking with him his daughter Su-kanya, presented her to Chyavana. The Aswins endeavoured to seduce her, but she remained faithful to her shrivelled husband, and under his direction she taunted them with being incomplete and imperfect, and consented to tell them in what respect they were deficient, if they would make her husband young again. They directed that he should bathe in a certain pond, and having done so, he came forth with the age that he desired. then informed them that they were imperfect because they were excluded from a sacrifice the other gods were performing.

She

They departed and succeeded in getting admitted to join the other gods.

According to the Maha-bharata, Chyavana besought Indra to allow the Aswins to partake of the libations of soma. Indra replied that the other gods might do as they pleased, but he would not consent. Chyavana then commenced a sacrifice to the Aswins; the other gods were subdued, but Indra, in a rage, rushed with a mountain in one hand and his thunderbolt in another to crush Chyavana. The sage having sprinkled him with water and stopped him, "created a fearful open-mouthed monster called Mada, having teeth and grinders of portentous length, and jaws one of which enclosed the earth, the other the sky; and the gods, including Indra, are said to have been at the root of his tongue like fishes in the mouth of a sea monster." In this predicament "Indra granted the demand of Chyavana, who was thus the cause of the Aswins becoming drinkers of the soma."

In another part of the Maha-bhārata he is represented as exacting many menial offices from King Kusika and his wife, but he afterwards rewarded them by "creating a magical golden palace," and predicted the birth of "a grandson of great beauty and heroism (Parasu-rāma).”

The Mahā-bhārata, interpreting his name as signifying 'the fallen,' accounts for it by a legend which represents his mother, Puloma, wife of Bhrigu, as having been carried off by the demon Puloman. She was pregnant, and in her fright the child fell from her womb. The demon was softened, and let the mother depart with her infant.

The version of the story as told in the Mahā-bhārata and Puranas is that Chyavana was so absorbed in penance on the banks of the Narmada that white ants constructed their nests round his body and left only his eyes visible. Su-kanyā, daughter of King Saryata, seeing two bright eyes in what seemed to be an anthill, poked them with a stick. The sage visited the offence on Saryata, and was appeased only by the promise of the king to give him Su-kanya in marriage. Subsequently the Aswins, coming to his hermitage, compassionated her union with so old and ugly a husband as Chyavana, and tried to induce her to take one of them in his place. When their persuasions failed, they told her they were the physicians of the gods, and would

CHYAVANA-DADHYANCH..

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restore her husband to youth and beauty, when she could make her choice between him and one of them. Accordingly the three bathed in a pond and came forth of like celestial beauty. Each one asked her to be his bride, and she recognised and chose her own husband. Chyavana, in gratitude, compelled Indra to admit the Aswins to a participation of the soma ceremonial. Indra at first objected, because the Aswins wandered about among men as physicians and changed their forms at will. But Chyavana was not to be refused; he stayed the arm of Indra as he was about to launch a thunderbolt, and he created a terrific demon who was on the point of devouring the king of the gods when he submitted.

According to the Maha-bharata, Chyavana was husband of Ārushi or Su-kanya and father of Aurva. He is also considered to be the father of Harita.

The name is Chyavana in the Rig-veda, but Chyavana in the Brahmana and later writings.

DADHYANCH, DADHĨCHA. (Dadhīcha is a later form.) A Vedic Rishi, son of Atharvan, whose name frequently occurs. The legend about him, as it appears in the Rig-veda, is that Indra taught him certain sciences, but threatened to cut off his head if he taught them to any one else. The Aswins prevailed upon Dadhyanch to communicate his knowledge to them, and, to preserve him from the wrath of Indra, they took off his own head and replaced it with that of a horse. When Indra struck off the sage's equine head the Aswins restored his own to him. A verse of the Rig-veda says, "Indra, with the bones of Dadhyanch, slew ninety times nine Vritras ;" and the story told by the scholiast in explanation is, that while Dadhyanch was living on earth the Asuras were controlled and tranquillised by his appearance; but when he had gone to heaven, they overspread the whole earth. Indra inquired for Dadhyanch, or any relic of him. He was told of the horse's head, and when this was found in a lake near Kuru-kshetra, Indra used the bones as weapons, and with them slew the Asuras, or, as the words of the Vedic verse are explained, he "foiled the nine times ninety stratagems of the Asuras or Vritras." The story as afterwards told in the Mahā-bhārata and Puranas is that the sage devoted himself to death that Indra and the gods might be armed with his bones as more effective weapons than thunderbolts for the

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DAITYAS-DAKSHA.

destruction of Vritra and the Asuras. According to one account he was instrumental in bring about the destruction of "Daksha's sacrifice." See Daksha.

DAITYAS. Titans.

Descendants from Diti by Kasyapa.

They are a race of demons and giants, who warred against the gods and interfered with sacrifices. They were in turn victorious and vanquished. They and the Danavas are generally associated, and are hardly distinguishable. As enemies of sacrifices they are called Kratu-dwishas.

DĀKINĪ. A kind of female imp or fiend attendant upon Kāli and feeding on human flesh. The Dakinis are also called Asra-pas, blood drinkers.'

This name

DAKSHA. 'Able, competent, intelligent.' generally carries with it the idea of a creative power. Daksha is a son of Brahmā; he is one of the Prajapatis, and is sometimes regarded as their chief. There is a great deal of doubt and confusion about him, which of old the sage Parāsara could only account for by saying that "in every age Daksha and the rest are born and are again destroyed." In the Rig-veda it is said that "Daksha sprang from Aditi, and Aditi from Daksha." Upon this marvellous mutual generation Yaska in the Nirukta remarks, "How can this be possible? They may have. had the same origin; or, according to the nature of the gods, they may have been born from each other, and have derived their substance from each other." Roth's view is that Aditi is eternity, and that Daksha (spiritual power) is the male energy which generates the gods in eternity. In the Satapatha Brāhmana, Daksha is identified with Prajapati, the creator. As son of Aditi, he is one of the Adityas, and he is also reckoned among the Viswadevas.

According to the Maha-bhārata, Daksha sprang from the right thumb of Brahma, and his wife from that deity's left thumb. The Puranas adopt this view of his origin, but state that he married Prasūti, daughter of Priya-vrata, and grand-daughter of Manu. By her he had, according to various statements, twentyfour, fifty, or sixty daughters. The Ramayana and Mahābharata agree in the larger number; and according to Manu and the Maha-bharata he gave ten of his daughters to Dharma and thirteen to Kasyapa, who became the mothers of gods and demons, men, birds, serpents, and all living things. Twenty-seven

were given in marriage to Soma, the moon, and these became the twenty-seven Nakshatras or lunar mansions. One of the daughters, named Satī, married Siva, and killed herself in consequence of a quarrel between her husband and father. The Kāsi Khanda represents that she became a sati and burnt herself.

Another legend of the Mahā-bhārata and Purānas represents Daksha as being born a second time, in another Manwantara, as son of the Prachetasas and Marisha, and that he had seven sons, "the allegorical persons Krodha, Tamas, Dama, Vikrita, Angiras, Kardama, and Aswa." This second birth is said to have happened through his having been cursed to it by his son-in-law Siva. Daksha was in a certain way, by his mother Mārisha, an emanation of Soma, the moon; and as twenty-seven of his daughters were married to that luminary, Daksha is sometimes referred to as being both the father and the offspring of the moon, thus reiterating the duality of his

nature.

In the Hari-vansa Daksha appears in another variety of his character. According to this authority, Vishnu himself became Daksha, and formed numerous creatures, or, in other words, he became the creator. Daksha, the first of males, by virtue of yoga, himself took the form of a beautiful woman, by whom he had many fair daughters, whom he disposed of in marriage in the manner related by Manu and above stated.

An important event in the life of Daksha, and very frequently referred to, is "Daksha's sacrifice," which was violently interrupted and broken up by Siva. The germ of this story is found in the Taittiriya Sanhita, where it is related that the gods, having excluded Rudra from a sacrifice, he pierced the sacrifice with an arrow, and that Pushan, attempting to eat a portion of the oblation, broke his teeth. The story is found both in the Rāmāyana and Maha-bharata. According to the latter, Daksha was engaged in sacrifice, when Siva in a rage, and shouting loudly, pierced the offering with an arrow. gods and Asuras were alarmed and the whole universe quaked. The Rishis endeavoured to appease the angry god, but in vain. "He ran up to the gods, and in his rage knocked out the eyes of Bhaga with a blow, and, incensed, assaulted Pushan with his foot and knocked out his teeth as he was eating the offer

The