204

MÄRTTÄNDA-MARUTS.

and the whole has been narrated in the compiler's own manner, a manner superior to that of the Purānas in general, with exception of the Bhāgavata." The popular Durgā Māhātmya or Chandipatha is an episode of this Purāna. In the absence of any guide to a positive conclusion as to the date, it may conjecturally be placed in the ninth or tenth century. Professor Banerjea places it in the eighth century. This Purana has been published in the Bibliotheca Indica, and translated by the Rev. Professor K. M. Banerjea.

MĀRTTĀNDA. In the Vedas the sun or sun god.

MARTYA-MUKHA. 'Human-faced.' Any being in which the figures of a man and animal are combined.

MARUTS. The storm gods, who hold a very prominent place in the Vedas, and are represented as friends and allies of Indra. Various origins are assigned to them. They are sons of Rudra, sons and brothers of Indra, sons of the ocean, sons of heaven, sons of earth. They are armed with lightnings and thunderbolts, and "ride on the whirlwind and direct the storm." The number of them is said in one place to be thrice sixty, and in another only twenty-seven. In the Rāmāyana they are represented to have their origin in an unborn son of Diti, whom Indra dashed into forty-nine pieces with his thunderbolt, and in compassion converted into Maruts. This is also the story told in the Purānas, and they are said to have obtained their name from the words mā rodīh, 'weep not,' which Indra addressed to them. A scholiast on the Veda says, that after their birth from Diti, as above told, Siva and Parvati beheld them in great affliction, and the latter asked Siva to transform the lumps of flesh into boys; he accordingly made them boys of like form, like age, and similarly accoutred, and gave them to Pārvatī as her sons, whence they are called the sons of Rudra. Other legends are, that Parvati, hearing the lamentations of Diti, entreated Siva to give forms to the shapeless births, telling them not to weep (mā rodīh); and another, that he actually begot them in the form of a bull on Prithivi, the earth, as a cow. (See Diti.) All these legends have manifestly been invented to explain those passages of the Vedas which make the Maruts the sons of Rudra. The world of the Maruts, called Māruta, is the appointed heaven of Vaisyas. 2. The god of the wind, and regent of the north-west quarter.

MARUTTA-MATANGA.

205

MARUTTA. 1. A descendant of Manu Vaivaswata. He was a Chakravartī, or universal monarch, and performed a celebrated sacrifice. "Never," says the Vishnu Purana, "was beheld on earth a sacrifice equal to the sacrifice of Marutta. All the implements and utensils were made of gold. Indra was intoxicated with the libations of soma juice, and the Brahmans were enraptured with the magnificent donations they received. The winds of heaven encompassed the rite as guards, and the assembled gods attended to behold it." According to the Vāyu Purāṇa, Marutta was taken to heaven with his kindred and friends by Samvarta, the officiating priest at this sacrifice. But the Markandeya Purana says he was killed after he had laid down his crown and retired to the woods. 2. A king of the Solar race, who was killed by Vapushmat, and fearfully avenged by his son Dama (q.v.).

MĀTALI. Charioteer of Indra.

MATANGA. 'An elephant.' A man who was brought up as a Brahman but was the son of a Chandāla. His story, as told in the Maha-bhārata, relates that he was mercilessly goading an ass's foal which he was driving. The mother ass, seeing this, tells her foal that she could expect no better, for her driver was no Brāhman but a Chandala. Matanga, addressing the ass as "most intelligent," begged to know how this was, and was informed that his mother when intoxicated had received the embraces of a low-born barber, and that he, the offspring, was a Chandala and no Brahman. In order to obtain elevation to the position of a Brahman, he went through such a course of austerities as alarmed the gods. Indra refused to admit him. He persevered again for a hundred years, but still Indra persistently refused such an impossible request, and advised him to seek some other boon. Nothing daunted, he went on a thousand years longer, with the same result. Though dejected he did not despair, but proceeded to balance himself on his great toe. He continued to do this for a hundred years, when he was reduced to mere skin and bone, and was on the point of falling. Indra went to support him, but inexorably refused his request, and, when further importuned, "gave him the power of moving about like a bird, and changing his shape at will, and of being honoured and renowned." In the Rāmāyana, Rāma and Sītā visited the hermitage of Matanga near Rishya-muka mountain.

206

MATARI-SWAN-MATSYA PURĀNA.

MĀTARI-SWAN. An aerial being who is represented in the Rig-veda as bringing down or producing Agni (fire) for the Bhrigus. By some supposed to be the wind.

MATHURA. An ancient and celebrated city on the right bank of the Yamunā, surviving in the modern Muttra. It was the birthplace of Krishna and one of the seven sacred cities. The Vishnu Purāna states that it was originally called Madhu or Madhu-vana, from the demon Madhu, who reigned there, but that when Lavana, his son and successor, was killed by Satrughna, the conqueror set up his own rule there and built a city which he called Madhurā or Mathurā.

MĀTRIS.

2 'Mothers The divine mothers. These appear to have been originally the female energies of the great gods, as Brahmānī of Brahmā, Maheswari of Siva, Vaishnavī of Vishnu, Indrāni or Aindri of Indra, &c. The number of them was seven or eight or sixteen, but in the later mythology they have increased out of number. They are connected with the Tantra worship, and are represented as worshipping Siva and attending upon his son Kartikeya.

MATSYA. 'A fish.' 1. The Fish Incarnation. (See Avatāra.) 2. Name of a country. Wilson says, "Dinajpoor, Rungpoor, and Cooch Behar;" but there was more than one country of this name, and one would appear to have been situated in Northern India. Manu places Matsya in Brahmarshi. According to the Mahā-bhārata, King Virāta's capital was called Matsya, his people also were called Matsyas, and he himself was styled Matsya. General Cunningham finds it in the neighbourhood of Jaypur, and says that the town of Virat or Bairāt, 105 miles south of Delhi, was its capital.

MATSYA PURĀNA. This Purana is so called from its contents having been narrated to Manu by Vishnu in the form of a fish (matsya). It consists of between 14,000 and 15,000 stanzas. This work "is a miscellaneous compilation, but includes in its. contents the elements of a genuine Purāna. At the same time, it is of too mixed a character to be considered as a genuine work of the Pauranik class. Many of its chapters are the same as parts of the Vishnu and Padma Purānas. It has also drawn largely from the Maha-bharata. "Although a Saiva work, it is not exclusively so, and it has no such sectarial absurdities as the Kurma and Linga."

MAUNEYAS—MEDINĪ.

207

MAUNEYAS. A class of Gandharvas, sons of Kasyapa, who dwelt beneath the earth, and were sixty millions in number. They overpowered the Nagas, and compelled them to flee to Vishnu for assistance, and he sent Purukutsa against them, who destroyed them. MAURYA. The dynasty founded by Chandra-gupta at Patali-putra (Patna) in Magadha. According to the Vishnu. Purāna, the Maurya kings were ten in number and reigned 137 years. Their names were-(1.) Chandra-gupta, (2.) Bindu-sāra, (3.) Asoka-vardhana, (4.) Su-yasas, (5.) Dasa-ratha, (6.) Sangata, (7.) Sali-sūka, (8.) Soma-sarman, (9.) Sasa-dharman, (10.) Brihad-ratha. The names vary in other Puranas. See Chandragupta. MAYA. A Daitya who was the architect and artificer of the Asuras, as Viswa-karma was the artificer of the Suras or gods. He was son of Viprachitti and father of Vajra-kāmā and Mandodarī, wife of Rāvana. He dwelt in the Deva-giri mountains not very far from Delhi, and his chief works were in the neighbourhood of that city, where he worked for men as well as Daityas. The Mahā-bhārata speaks of a palace he built for the Pandavas. In the Hari-vansa he appears frequently both as victor and vanquished in contests with the gods.

MAYA. Illusion, deception.' 1. Illusion personified as a female form of celestial origin, created for the purpose of beguiling some individual. Sometimes identified with Durga as the source of spells, or as a personification of the unreality of worldly things. In this character she is called Māyā-devī or Mahāmāyā. 2. A name of Gaya, one of the seven sacred cities.

MĀYĀ-DEVĪ, MĀYĀ-VATĪ. Wife of the demon Sambara. She brought up Pradyumna, the son of Krishna, and subsequently married him. Pradyumna is represented as being a revived embodiment of Kāma, the god of love; and in accordance with this legend Māyā-vati is identified with his wife Rati, the Hindu Venus. See Māyā.

MAYU. 'Bleater, bellower.' The Kinnaras are called Māyus. MEDHĀTITHI. Name of a Kānwa who was a Vedic Rishi. There is a legend in one of the Upanishads that he was carried up to heaven by Indra in the form of a ram, because the god had been pleased with his austerities. Cf. Ganymede.

MEDINI. The earth. See Kaitabha.

208

MEDINI-MĪMĀNSĀ-DARSANA.

MEDINI, MEDINI - KOSHA.

A well-known Sanskrit

vocabulary. There are printed editions. MEGHA-DUTA. Cloud messenger.'

'Cloud messenger.' A celebrated poem by Kāli-dāsa, in which a banished Yaksha implores a cloud to convey tidings of him to his wife. It has been translated into English verse by Wilson, and there are versions in French and German. The text has been printed with a vocabulary by Johnson.

MEGHA-NADA. A son of Ravana. See Indra-jit.

MEKALA. Name of a mountain from which the Narmada river is said to rise, and from which it is called Mekalā and Mekala-kanya, 'daughter of Mekala.' There was a people of this name, who probably lived in the vicinity of this mountain. Their kings were also called Mekalas, and there appears to have been a city Mekalā.

ΜΕΝΑ, ΜΕΝΑΚΑ. 1. In the Rig-veda, a daughter of Vrishan-aswa. A Brahmana tells a strange story of Indra having assumed the form of Menā and then fallen in love with her. In the Purānas, wife of Himavat and mother of Umā and Ganga, and of a son named Maināka. 2. An Apsaras sent to seduce the sage Viswamitra from his devotions, and succeeding in this object, she became the mother of the nymph Sakuntalā.

MERU. A fabulous mountain in the navel or centre of the earth, on which is situated Swarga, the heaven of Indra, containing the cities of the gods and the habitations of celestial spirits. The Olympus of the Hindus. Regarded as a terrestrial object, it would seem to be some mountain north of the Himalayas. It is also Su-meru, Hemadri, 'golden mountain;' Ratnasānu, 'jewel peak;' Karnikachala, 'lotus mountain;' and Amaradri and Deva-parvata, 'mountain of the gods.'

MERU-SAVARNAS. The ninth, tenth, eleventh, and twelfth Manus, said to be the "mind-engendered sons of a daughter of Daksha by himself and the three gods Brahmā, Dharma, and Rudra, to whom he presented her on Mount Meru." The signification of the appellation Meru is obvious; that of Savarna or Savarni signifies that they were all of one caste (varna).

MIMĀNSĀ. A school of philosophy. See Darsana.

MĪMĀNSA-DARSANA. A work on the Mīmānsã philosophy. Printed in the Bibliotheca Indica.