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Malignant spirits which haunt cemeteries, lurk in trees, animate dead bodies, and delude and devour human beings. According to the YishTZu PuraTia they are "fierce beings and eaters of flesh," who were created by the Creator when he was incensed. In the Vayu Pura?ia their mother is said to have been Krodha, 'anger.' The Bluitas are attendants of /Siva, and he is held to be their king. 56 BHUTESA— BRAHMA. BHUTE^S'A, BHUTE^S^YARA. 'Lord of beings or of created things.' A name applied to Yish?zii, Brahma, and K?7shna; as 'lord of the Bhutas or goblins,' it is applied to /Siva. BHUYANES'WARA. A ruined city in Orissa, sacred to the worship of /S'iva, and containing the remains of several temples. It was formerly called Ekamra-kanana. BHUYAR. See Yyahnti. BHUYAR-LOKA. See Loka. BIBHATSU. 'Loathing.' An appellation of Arjuna. BIXDUSARA. The son and successor of Chandra-gupta. BRAHMA, BRAHMAN (neuter). The supreme soul of the universe, self-existent, absolute, and eternal, from which all things emanate, and to which all return. This divine essence is incor- poreal, immaterial, invisible, unborn, uncreated, without begin- ning and without end, illimitable, and inappreciable by the sense until the film of mortal blindness is removed. It is all-pervading and infinite in its manifestations, in all nature, animate and in- animate, in the highest god and in the meanest creature. This supreme soul receives no worship, but it is the object of that abstract meditation which Hindu sages practise in order to obtain absorption into it. It is sometimes called Kala-hansa. There is a passage in the /S'atapatha Brahma?ia which repre- sents Brahma (neut.) as the active creator. See Brahma. The Yeda is sometimes called Brahma. BRAHMA (masculine). The first member of the Hindu triad; the supreme spirit manifested as the active creator of the universe. He sprang from the mundane ^^^g deposited by the supreme first cause, and is the Prajapati, or lord and father of all creatures, and in the first place of the i?ishis or Praja- patis. When Brahma has created the world it remains unaltered for one of his days, a period of 2,160,000,000 years. The world and all that is therein is then consumed by fire, but the sages, gods, and elements survive. When he awakes he again restores crea- tion, and this process is repeated until his existence of a hundred years is brought to a close, a period which it requires fifteen figures to express. When this period is ended he himself expires, and he and all the gods and sages, and the wliole universe are resolved into their constituent elements. His name is invoked BRAHMA. 57 in religions services, "but Puslikara i^iodie Pokliar), near Ajmir, is the only place where he receives worship, though Professor Williams states that he has heard of homage being paid to him at Idar. Brahmil is said to be of a red colour. He has four heads ; originally he had five, but one was burnt off by the fire of *Siva's central eye because he had spoken disrespectfully. Hence he is called Chatur-anana or Chatur-mukha, 'four-faced,' and Ash/a- karwa, 'eight-eared.' He has four arms ; and in his hands he holds his sceptre, or a spoon, or a string of beads, or his bow Parivita, or a water jug, and the Veda. His consort is Saraswati, goddess of learning, also called Brahmi. His vehicle is a swan or goose, from which he is called Hansa-vahana. His residence is called Brahma-vfinda. The name Brahma is not found in the Vedas and Brahmawas, in which the actiA^e creator is known as HiraTiya-garbha, Praja- pati, &c. ; but there is a curious passage in the AS'atapatha Brah- nia?2a which says : " He (Brahma, neuter) created the gods. Having created the gods, he placed them in these worlds : in this world Agni, Yayu in the atmosphere, and Siirya in the sky." Two points connected with Brahma are remarkable. As the father of men he performs the work of procreation by incestuous intercourse with his own daughter, variously named Vach or Saraswati (speech), Sandliya (twilight), /S'ata-rupa (the hundred- formed), &c. Secondly, that his powers as creator have been arrogated to the other gods Yishwu and .Siva, while Brahma has been thrown into the shade. In the Aitareya Brahma?ia it is said that Prajapati was in the form of a buck and his daughter was Kohit, a deer. According to the ^S'atapatha Brahma?m and Manu, the supreme soul, the self-existent lord, created the waters and deposited in them a seed, which seed became a golden ^<g^^ in which he himself was born as Brahma, the progenitor of all the worlds. As the waters (nara) were " the place of his movement, he (Brahma) was called Xaraya?ia." Here the name Narayawa is referred distinctly to Brahma, but it afterwards became the name of Vishmi. The account of the Ramayawa is that " all was water only, in which the earth was formed. Thence arose Brahma, the self-existent, with the deities. He then, becoming a boar, raised up the earth and created the whole world with the saints, his sons. Brahma, eternal and per23etually undecaying, sjDrang from 58 BRAHMA. tlie ether ; from him was descended Marlclii ; the son of Marichi was Ka^vapa. From Kasyapa sprang Yivaswat, and Manu is declared to have been Yivaswat's son." A later recension of this poem alters this passage so as to make Brahma a mere manifestation of A'ishmi. Instead of " Brahma, the self-exis- tent, with the deities," it substitutes for the last three words, "the imperishable Vishmi." The Mshwu PuraTia says that the " divine Brahma called Xarayawa created all beings," that Pra- jrii)ati "had formerly, at the commencement of the (previous) kalpas, taken the shape of a fish, a tortoise, &c., (so now), entering the body of a boar, the lord of creatures entered the water." But this "lord of creatures" is clearly shown to be Vishmi, and these three forms, the fish, the tortoise, and the boar, are now counted among the Avataras of Yishwu. {See Avatara.) This attribution of the form of a boar to Brahma (Prajapati) had been before made by the *Satapatha Brahmawa, which also says, " Having assumed the form of a tortoise, Prajapati created offspring." The Linga Purawa is quite exceptional among the later works in ascribing the boar form to Brahma. The Maha- bharata represents Brahma as springing from the navel of Vishmi or from a lotus which grew thereout ; hence he is called Xabhi-ja, 'navel-born;' Kanja, 'the lotus;' Sarojin, 'having a lotus;' Abja-ja, Abja-yoni, and Kanja-ja, 'lotus-born.' This is, of course, the view taken by the Vaish?iavas. The same statement appears in the Eamayawa, although this poem gives Brahma a more prominent place than usual. It represents Brahma as informing Ila,ma of his divinity, and of his calling him to heaven in "the glory of Vish^m." He bestowed boons on Rama while that hero was on earth, and he extended his favours also to Rava7ia and other Rakshasas who were descen- dants of his son Pulastya. In the Purilwas also he appears as a patron of the enemies of the gods, and it was by his favour that the Daitya King Bali obtained that almost universal dominion which required the incarnation of Vishwu as the dwarf to repress. He is further represented in the Riimaya^ia as the creator of the T)eautiful Alialya, whom he gave as wife to the sage Gautama. Brahma, being thus inferior to Vishnu, is represented as giving homage and praise to Vislmu himself and to his form K?'/sh?ia, but tlie Vaish?iava autliorities make him superior to Rudrn, who, they say, sprang from his foreliead. The ^Saiva authorities BRAHMA— BRAHMAN. 59 make Maha-deva or Rudra to be tlie creator of Brahma, and represent Brahma as worshipping the Linga and as acting as the charioteer of Rudra. Brahma was the father of Daksha, who is said to have sprung from his thumb, and he was present at the sacrifice of that patriarch, which was rudely disturbed by Rudra. Then he had to humbly submit and appease the offended god. The four Ivumaras, the chief of whom was called Sanat-kumara or by the patronymic Vaidliatra, were later creations or sons of Brahma. Brahma is also called Yidlii, Vedhas, Druhi?ia, and Srash/y /, 'creator;' Dhatn and Yidhatn, 'sustainer;' Pitamaha, 'the great father ; ' Lokesa, ' lord of the world ; ' Paramesh/a, 'supreme in heaven;' Sanat, 'the ancient;' Adi-kavi, 'the first poet ; ' and Drii-ghawa, 'the axe or mallet.' BRAHMACHARl. The Brahman student. See Brahman. BRAHMADIKAS. The Prajapatis (q.v.). BRAHMA- GUPTA. An astronomer who composed the Brahma-gupta Siddhanta in A.D. 628.