HINDU MYTHOLOGY. PART FIRST. CHAPTER I. Brahm.-The Creation.-Brahma.-Daksha.—Viswakarma.—Nareda.—Brigu.—The Brahmadicas.-Menus and Rishis.-Suraswati. BRAHM. THE Almighty, infinite, eternal, incomprehensible, self-existent being; he who sees every thing, though never seen; he who is not to be compassed by description, and who is beyond the limits of human conception; he from whom the universal world proceeds; who is the Lord of the universe, and whose work is the universe; he who is the light of all lights, whose name is too sacred to be pronounced, and whose power is too infinite to be imagined, is BRAHM! the one unknown, true being, the creator, the preserver, and destroyer of the universe. Under such, and innumerable other definitions, is the Deity acknowledged in the Veda, or sacred writings of the Hindus; but, as has been judiciously observed, "while the learned Brahmans thus acknowledge and adore one God, without form or quality, eternal, unchangeable, and occupying all space, they have carefully confined their doctrines to their own schools, and have taught in public a religion, in which, in supposed compliance with the infirmities and passions of human nature, the Deity has been brought more to a level with our own prejudices and wants; and the incomprehensible attributes assigned to him, invested with sensible, and even human forms."*. * Mr. Erskine. B |