ing." The gods and Rishis humbly propitiated him, and when he was appeased "they apportioned to him a distinguished share in the sacrifice, and through fear resorted to him as their refuge." In another part of the same work the story is again told with considerable variation. Daksha instituted a sacrifice and apportioned no share to Rudra (Siva). Instigated by the sage Dadhichi, the god hurled his blazing trident, which destroyed the sacrifice of Daksha and fell with great violence on the breast of Narayana (Vishnu). It was hurled back with violence to its owner, and a furious battle ensued between the two gods, which was not intermitted till Brahmā prevailed upon Rudra to propitiate Nārāyana. That god was gratified, and said to Rudra, "He who knows thee knows me; he who loves thee loves me."

The story is reproduced in the Purānas with many embellishments. Daksha instituted a sacrifice to Vishnu, and many of the gods repaired to it, but Siva was not invited, because the gods had conspired to deprive him of sacrificial offerings. The wife of Siva, the mountain goddess Uma, perceived what was going on. Uma was a second birth of Sati, daughter of Daksha, who had deprived herself of life in consequence of her father's quarrel with herself and her husband, Siva. Uma urged her husband to display his power and assert his rights. So he created Vira-bhadra, "a being like the fire of fate," and of most terrific appearance and powers. He also sent with him hundreds and thousands of powerful demigods whom he called into existence. A terrible catastrophe followed; "the mountains tottered, the earth shook, the winds roared, and the depths of the sea were disturbed." The sacrifice is broken up, and, in the words of Wilson, "Indra is knocked down and trampled on, Yama has his staff broken, Saraswati and the Matris have their noses cut off, Mitra or Bhaga has his eyes pulled out, Pūshan has his teeth knocked down his throat, Chandra (the moon) is pummelled, Vahni's (fire's) hands are cut off, Bhrigu loses his beard, the Brahmans are pelted with stones, the Prajapatis are beaten, and the gods and demigods are run through with swords or stuck with arrows." Daksha then, in great terror, propitiated the wrathful deity and acknowledged his supremacy. According to some versions, Daksha himself was decapitated and his head thrown into the fire. Siva subsequently restored him and the

DAKSHA-SĀVARNA—DAMBHODBHAVA.

79

other dead to life, and as Daksha's head could not be found, it was replaced by that of a goat or ram. The Hari-vansa, in its glorification of Vishnu, gives a different finish to the story. The sacrifice was destroyed and the gods fled in dismay, till Vishnu intervened, and seizing Siva by the throat, compelled him to desist and acknowledge his master.

"This," says Wilson, "is a legend of some interest, as it is obviously intended to intimate a struggle between the worshippers of Siva and Vishnu, in which at first the latter, but finally the former, acquired the ascendancy."

Daksha was a lawgiver, and is reckoned among the eighteen writers of Dharma-sāstras.

The name Daksha was borne by several other persons.
DAKSHA-SAVARNA. The ninth Manu. See Manu.
DĀKSHĀYANA.

scendant of that sage.

Connected with Daksha. A son or de

DĀKSHAYANI. A name of Aditi as daughter of Daksha. DAKSHINĀ. A present made to Brahmans; the honorarium for the performance of a sacrifice. This is personified as a goddess, to whom various origins are assigned.

DAKSHINACHARIS. Followers of the right-hand form of Sakta worship. See Tantra.

DAMA. A son, or, according to the Vishnu Purāna, a grandson of King Marutta of the Solar race. He rescued his bride Su-manā from his rivals, and one of them, named Vapushmat, subsequently killed Marutta, who had retired into the woods after relinquishing his crown to his son. Dama in retaliation. killed Vapushmat and offered his blood in the funeral rites of Marutta, while he made an oblation of part of the flesh, and with the rest fed the Brahmans who were of Rakshasa descent.

DAMA-GHOSHA. King of Chedi and father of Sisu-pala. DAMAYANTI. Wife of Nala and heroine of the tale of Nala and Damayanti. She is also known by her patronymic Bhaimi. See Nala.

DAMBHODBHAVA.

A king whose story is related in the Mahā-bhārata as an antidote to pride. He had an overweening conceit of his own prowess, and when told by his Brahmans that he was no match for Nara and Narayana, who were living as ascetics on the Gandha-madana mountain, he proceeded thither with his army and challenged them. They endeavoured to dis

80

DAMODARA-DARSANA.

suade him, but he insisted on fighting. Nara then took a handful of straws, and using them as missiles, they whitened all the air, and penetrated the eyes, ears, and noses of the assailants, until Dambhodbhava fell at Nara's feet and begged for peace.

DĀMODARA. A name given to Krishna because his fostermother tried to tie him up with a rope (dama) round his belly (udara).

DĀNAVAS. Descendants from Danu by the sage Kasyapa. They were giants who warred against the gods. See Daityas. DANDA-DHARA. 'The rod-bearer.' A title of Yama, the

god of death.

DANDAKA. The aranya or forest of Dandaka, lying between the Godavari and Narmada. It was of vast extent, and some passages of the Rāmāyana represent it as beginning immediately south of the Yamuna. This forest is the scene of many of Rama and Sita's adventures, and is described as "a wilderness over which separate hermitages are scattered, while wild beasts and Rakshasas everywhere abound."

DANTA-VAKTRA. A Dānava king of Karūsha and son of Vriddha-sarma. He took a side against Krishna, and was eventually killed by him.

DANU. A Danava. Also the mother of the Danavas. The demon Kabandha (q.v.).

DARADA. A country in the Hindu Kush, bordering on Kashmir. The people of that country, "the Durds, are still where they were at the date of the text (of the Vishnu Purāna) and in the days of Strabo and Ptolemy; not exactly, indeed, at the sources of the Indus, but along its course above the Himalaya, just before it descends to India."-Wilson.

DARBAS. 'Tearers.' Rakshasas and other destructive demons.

All

DARDURA. Name of a mountain in the south; it is associated with the Malaya mountain in the Mahā-bhārata. DARSANA. 'Demonstration.' The Shad-darsanas or six demonstrations, i.e., the six schools of Hindu philosophy. these schools have one starting-point, ex nihilo nihil fit; and all have one and the same final object, the emancipation of the soul from future birth and existence, and its absorption into the supreme soul of the universe. These schools are:

1. Nyaya, founded by the sage Gotama. The word nyāya

means propriety or fitness, the proper method of arriving at a conclusion by analysis. This school has been called the Logical School, but the term is applicable to its method rather than to its aims. It is also said to represent "the sensational aspect of Hindu philosophy," because it has "a more pointed regard to the fact of the five senses than the others have, and treats the external more frankly as a solid reality." It is the exoteric school, as the Vedanta is the esoteric.

2. Vaiseshika, founded by a sage named Kanāda, who lived about the same time as Gotama. It is supplementary to the Nyaya, and these two schools are classed together. It is called the Atomic School, because it teaches the existence of a transient world composed of aggregations of eternal atoms.

Both the Nyaya and Vaiseshika recognise a Supreme Being. 3. Sankhya. The Sankhya and Yoga are classed together because they have much in common, but the Sankhya is atheistical, while the Yoga is theistical. The Sankhya was founded by the sage Kapila, and takes its name from its numeral or discriminative tendencies. The Sankhya-Karikā, the text-book of this school, has been translated by Colebrooke and Wilson, and part of the aphorisms of Kapila were translated for the Bibliotheca Indica by the late Dr. Ballantyne.

4. Yoga. This school was founded by Patanjali, and from his name is also called Patanjala. It pursues the method of the Sankhya and holds with many of its dogmas, but it asserts the ⚫ existence not only of individual souls, but of one all-pervading spirit, which is free from the influences which affect other souls.

5. Pūrva-mīmānsā. 6. Uttara-mīmānsā. The prior and later Mīmānsās. These are both included in the general term Vedānta, but the Purva-mīmānsā is commonly known as the Mīmānsã and the Uttara-mimānsā as the Vedanta, 'the end or object of the Vedas.' The Pūrva-mīmānsā was founded by Jaimini, and the Uttara-mīmānsă is attributed to Vyasa, the arranger of the Vedas. "The object of both these schools is to teach the art of reasoning with the express purpose of aiding the interpretation of the Vedas, not only in the speculative but the practical portion." The principal doctrines of the Vedanta (Uttara) are that "God is the omniscient and omnipotent cause of the existence, continuance, and dissolution of the universe. Creation is an act of his will; he is both the efficient and the material cause of the

F

world." At the consummation of all things all are resolved into him. He is "the sole-existent and universal soul," and besides him there is no second principle; he is adwaita, 'without a second.' Sankaracharya was the great apostle of this school.

The period of the rise of these schools of philosophy is uncertain, and is entirely a matter of inference, but they are probably later than the fifth century B.C. The Vedanta (Uttara-mīmānsā) is apparently the latest, and is supposed to have been evoked by the teachings of the Buddhists. This would bring it to within three or four centuries B.C. The other schools are to all appearance older than the Vedanta, but it is considered by some that all the schools show traces of Buddhist influences, and if so, the dates of all must be later. It is a question whether Hindu philosophy is or is not indebted to Greek teaching, and the later the date of the origin of these schools the greater is the possibility of Greek influence. Mr. Colebrooke, the highest authority on the subject, is of opinion that "the Hindus were in this instance the teachers, not the learners."

Besides the six schools, there is yet a later system known as the Pauranik and the Eclectic school. The doctrines of this school are expounded in the Bhagavad-gītā (q.v.).

:

The merits of the various schools have been thus summed up :"When we consider the six Darsanas, we shall find that one of them, the Uttara-mīmānsā, bears no title to be ranked by the side of the others, and is really little more than a mystical explanation of the practical injunctions of the Vedas. We shall also admit that the earlier Vedanta, very different from the school of Nihilists now existing under that name, was chiefly a controversial essay, seeking to support the theology of sacred writ, but borrowing all its philosophical portions from the Yoga school, the most popular at the time of its composition. Lastly, the Nyaya is little more than a treatise on logic, introducing the doctrines of the theistic Sankhya; while the Vaiseshika is an essay on physics, with, it is true, the theory of atoms as its distinguishing mark, though even to this we feel inclined to refuse the imputation of novelty, since we find some idea of it lurking obscurely in the theory of subtile elements which is brought forward in Kapila's Sankhya. In short, the basis of all Indian philosophy, if indeed we may not say the only system of philosophy really discovered in India, is the Sankhya, and this forms the basis