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His real position is uncertain. He appears to have driven out the >S'akas, and to have established his authority over K'orthern India. He is said to have fallen in battle with his rival /Salivahana, king of the Dakhin, who also has an era called /S'aka dating from 78 a. d. YIKRAMORYA^I. ' The hero and the nymph.' A cele- brated drama by Kahdasa, translated in "Wilson's Hindu Theatre. There are many editions and translations. See Purii-ravas. YIKUKSHI. A king of the Solar race, who succeeded his father, Ikshwaku. He received the name of iSasada, ' hare-eater.' He was sent by his father to hunt and obtain flesh suitable for off'erings. Being weary and hungr}^ he ate a hare, and Vasish/ha, the priest, declared that this act had defiled all the food, for what remained was but his leavinojs. YIMADA. In the i?/g-veda it is said the Aswins gave a bride to the youthful Yimada, and the commentator explains that Yimada had won his bride at a swayam-vara, but was stopped on the way home by his unsuccessful competitors. The Aswins came to his succour, repulsed the assailants, placed the bride in their chariot, and carried her to the home of the prince. YINATA. A daughter of Daksha, one of the wives of Kasyapa, and mother of Garuc?a. According to the Bhagavata Purawa she was the wife of Tarksh^^a or Garu6?a. YINDA. Yinda and Anuviuda were joint kings of Avantij and fought in the great war. YIXDHYA. The mountains which stretch across India, and divide what Manu calls the Madhya-desa or * middle land,' the land of the Hindus, from the south, that is, they divide Hindustan from the Dakhiru The mountain is personified, and according to a legend he was jealous of the Himalaj^a, and called upon the sun to revolve round him as he did round Meru. AATien the sun refused the mountain began to raise its head to obstruct that luminary, and to tower above Himalaya and Meru. The gods invoked the aid of Agastya, the spiritual guide of Yindliya. That sage called upon the mountain to bow down before him, and afi'ord him an easy passage to and from the south. It obeyed, and Agastya passed over. But he never returned, and so the mountain remains in its humbled condition, far inferior to the Himalaya. 358 VIXDHYAVALI—VIRADHA. VIXDHYAYALI. Y^ife of Bali the Asiira. VINDHYA-A^ASIXl. ' The dweUer in the Vindlijas.' The wife of iSiva. ^iee Devi. YIPA6', YIPA*SA. The river Byas, the Hyphasis or Bibasis of the classical ^vriters. A les^end relates that it obtained its name through the sage Yasish/ha, who, wishing to commit suicide, bound his limbs with cords and threw himself into the water. The river, declining to drown him, cast him unbound (vipdsa) on its bank. YIPRACHITTI. Son of Kasyapa and Danu. He is chief of the Danavas. YiRA-BHADRA. A son or emanation of iS'iva, created from liis mouth, and having, according to the Yayu Pura72a, " a thou- sand heads, a thousand eyes, a thousand feet, wielding a thou- sand clubs, a thousand shafts ; holding the shell, the discus, the mace, and bearing a blazing bow and battle-axe ; fierce and terrific, shining with dreadful splendour, and decorated with the crescent moon ; clothed in a tiger's skin, dripping with blood, having a capacious stomach and a vast mouth armed with for- midable tusks," &c., &c. The object of his creation was to stop Daksha's sacrifice, and harry away the gods and others who were attending. He is an especial object of worship in the Mahratta country, and there are sculptures of him in the caves of Ele- phanta and Ellora, where he is represented with eight hands. YIRA-CHARITA. A book of tales by Ananta, which de- scribes the feuds between the descendants of Yikramaditya and ^alivahana. YIRADHA. A horrible man-eating Rakshasa, son of Kiila and /S'atahrada. By penance he had obtained from Brahma the boon of invulnerability. He is described as " being like a mountain peak, a man-eater, loud-voiced, hollow-eyed, large- mouthed, liuge, huge-bellied, horrible, rude, long, deformed, of dreadful aspect, wearing a tiger's skin, dripping with fat, wetted with blood, terrific to all creatures, like death with open mouth, bearing three lions, four tigers, two wolves, ten deer, and the great head of an elephant witli the tusks, and smeared with fat, on the point of an iron pike, shouting with a loud voice." Rama, with Lakshmawa and Sita, encountered him in the Daiidaka forest, when he foully abused and taunted the brothers, and seized upon Sita, The brothers proved with their arrows that VIRAJ— vis ALA. 3 5 9 lie was not invulnerable, but he caught them, threw them over his shoulders, and ran off with them as if they had been chil- dren. They broke both his arms, threw him down, beat him with their fists, and dashed him to the earth, but they could not kill him, so they dug a deep hole and buried him alive. After his burial there arose from the earth a beautiful person, who said that he was a Gandliarva who had been condemned by Kuvera to assume the shape of a Rakshasa, from which Rama had enabled him to escape. He was also called Tumburu. VIRAJ. Manu thus describes Yiraj : — " Having divided his body into two parts, the lord (Brahma) became with the half a male, and with the (other) half a female ; and in her he created Viraj. Know that I (Manu), whom that male Yiraj himself created, am the creator of all this world." {See Manu.) One passage in the it'ig-veda says, "From him (Purusha) sprang Viraj, and from Viraj (sprang) Purusha" (Muir^s Texts, v. 50, 369), like as Aditi is said to have sprung from Daksha, and Daksha from Aditi. Viraj, the male half of Brahma, is sup- posed to typify all male creatures ; and /S'ata-riipa, the female haK, all female forms. VlRA-MITRODAYA. A law-book by Mitra-misra, of autho- rity in the Benares School. It is in the form of a commentary on the Mitakshara. The text is in print. VIRATA. A country in the vicinity of the modern Jaypur. The present town of Baira^ is 105 miles south of Delhi. Its king was called Raja of YiiM-a. or Raja Vira/a. It was at his court that the Pawc^ava princes and Draupadi lived in disguise. They rendered him great services against his enemies, and he fought on their side in the great war and was killed by Dro??a. See ]Matsya. VIROCHANA. A Danava, son of Prahlada, and father of Bali. He is also called Drisana. When the earth was milked, Virochana acted as the calf of the Asuras. See Pr/thi. VIRtJPAKSHA. 'Deformed as to the eyes.' A name of ^iva, who has three eyes. Also one of the Rudras. Also a Danava, son of Kasyapa. VI.S^AKHA-DATTA. Author of the drama " Mudra-rak- shasa." He is said to be of royal descent, but his family has not been identified. VIaSALA. a name of the city UjjayinL 36o VISHNU. YISHiYU. Root, vish, 'to pervade.' The second god of the Hindu triad In the /i/g-veda Yishjm is not in the first rank of gods. He is a manifestation of the solar energy, and is described as striding through the seven regions of the universe in three steps, and enveloping all things with the dust (of his heams). These three steps are explained by commentators as denoting the three manifestations of light — fire, lightning, and the sun ; or the three places of the sun — its rising, culmination, and setting. In the Yeda he is occasionally associated with Indra. He has very little in common with the Yishwu of later times, but he is called "the unconquerable preserver," and this distincth'- indicates the great preserving power which he afterwards became. In the Brahma?ias Yishwu acquires new attributes, and is in- vested with legends unknown to the Yedas, but still very far dis- tant from those of the Pura?zas. In Manu, the name is men- tioned, but not as that of a great deity. In the ]\Iaha-bharata and in the Purawas he is the second member of the triad, the embodiment of the Satwa-guwa, the quality of mercy and good- ness, which displays itself as the preserving power, the self- existent, all-pervading spirit. As such, his votaries associate him with the watery element which spread everywhere before the creation of the world. In this character he is called Nara- yawa, ' moving in the waters,' and is represented pictoriaUy in human form slumbering on the serpent ^S'esha and floating on the waters. This, too, is the position he assumes during the periods of temporary annihilation of the universe. The worshippers of Yish/iu recognise in him the supreme bein£f from whom all things emanate. In the Maha-bharata and in the Pura?