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He became a Deva, but had his head turned downwards, i.e. turned towards materiality. With the powers of a Deva, but with the aspirations of an Asura, the ground was prepared for the downfall of this line. For a time, however, the Race flourished in all its materiality. The alliance between Devas and men became cemented by the performance of Vedic sacrifices. This was the first spiritual advance of the human race, through the temp- tations of Svarga life. The time of Haris Chandra is the Vedic era, when the earliest Riks of what we know as Rigveda were composed. Visvamitra and his disciples were the Vedic Rishis of this age. The Vedas tried to curb the riotous course of materiality by prescribing a number of restrictions on the enjoyment of material desires. Elaborate rules were laid down as to how the desires might be best gratified for a prolonged period in Svargaloka, by the performance of sacrifices or Yajna. The whole of the life of the regenerate classes was regulated by rigid laws and a glowing picture was given of life in Svarga after death. The sacred injunctions were not, however, potent enough to check the Kamic tendencies of the race and the cyclic law which now required the spiritual evolution of humanity was continually disregarded by the race. This was poison (gara) to the system of humanity and king Sagar imbibed this poison. Hence he was called the Poisoned. He had two wives. The sons of one wife were 60 thousand in number. They offended Kapila, an Incarnation of Vishnu, and thus were all consumed. They reached the limit of material degradation, where final extinction awaited the race. The number 60,000 is suggestive. The extinction of Sagara’s sons was attended with great changes on the earth’s surface. It is said they dug the earth and made the seas in their search for the sacrificial horse. Hence the sea is called Sagara. 254 A Study of the Bhagavata Purana This may refer to the sinking down of Atlantis when a large portion of that great continent became a sea-bed. There was a corresponding upheaval of land and the Himalayan chain reared up its head, as we can easily infer from the first appearance of the Ganges. The first flow of Ganga indicated a many sided revolution in the appearance of the earth’s surface. A new continent was formed to which India was attached as the prominent link. Spiritual sub-races grew up on the banks of the sacred river who more than atoned for the sins of their fathers. The fore-runner of the race of spirituality was Asamanjas (rising above the ordinary run). He was a Yogin not led away by the material tendencies of the age. His son was Ansumat (having the ray or light in him). Ansumat pacified Kapila. Ganga is said to be a spiritual stream flowing from the feet of Vishnu. With the advent of this stream, the spiritual rebirth of hu- manity commenced in right earnest, for the remaining period of the Kalpa. Already the path had been paved by the Karmakanda of the Vedas, which put restrictions on the wanton and reckless performance of Karma or action. The pure magnetism of the holy river helped on the process of regeneration. But this was not in it- self sufficient to cope with the forces of materiality. Accordingly we see Kalmasha or sin appearing in the line of Bhagiratha. King Kalmashapada became a Rakshasa. A Rakshasa is an elemental of destruction. When mind becomes too much identified with the gross body and its desires, its connection with the Higher Self is liable to be cut off by the action of the Rakshasas. These forces of Tamas act in different ways to serve different purposes in the economy of the Uni- verse. When the material downfall of man reaches its furthest limit in the Kalpa, the Rakshasas become Tamasic forces in man and he is unconscious of his higher nature. That sleep in time becomes a per- manent sleep, and the lower man becomes dead to his real Self. This is the real death of man, when the ray sent forth by [shvara comes back to Him, without any spiritual harvest, and what constituted the personality of man dissolves into the Material Universe. The time had come when a fresh departure was necessary in the methods pursued by the Lila Avataras for the spiritual regeneration of the Universe. They had now to appear amongst men, as ordinary beings, to give direct teachings to their votaries, to infuse as much Purnendu Narayana Sinha, M. A., B. L. 255 Satva as possible into humanity and to retard by all means the further extinction of the human race. For a time the Rakshasas reigned supreme, but not over the new continent, permeated as it was by the sacred waters of the Ganges. Their stronghold was Lanka, the remnant of the Atlantean continent. Following the descent of Ganga therefore, Vishnu incarnated himself as Rama, one of the greatest of his manifestations. The Rakshasas of Lanka were killed. Vibhishana only survived, but he was allied to Rama and so became immortal in spirituality. The Rakshasa survives in us but its energy of dissolution does not militate against the evo- lution of man. It was Rama who first gave the idea of Ishvara to the degraded human races of the present Manvantara. They knew, for the first time, that there was one greater than all the Devas—the Gods of the Vedas—and that there were planes higher than even Svarga. The path of devotion was proclaimed. And it became possible for men to cross the limits of death and of Triloki by this quality. The downfall was stopped no doubt; but the ascent was only permanently secured by Lord Sri Krishna as we shall see later on. After Rama, there is little of interest in the line of Ikshvaku. The decline commenced and the line became extinct with Sumitra, but it is said one king Maru of this line became an adept in Yoga and retired to Kalapa, where he bides his time to revive the solar dynasty towards the end of the Kaliyuga. We may take him to be the originator of another race which will be the re-incarnation of the Ikshvaku race. We have considered the line of Ikshvaku’s descendants through Purukutsa. There is another line of his descendants through Nimisha. Then we come to the Lunar Dynasty. The Lunar races first appeared while the descendants of Ikshvaku were still flourishing, though on the eve of their decline. They had immense possibilities of spiritual evolution, and the great Aryan race seems to be connected with them. The appearance of these races is almost simultaneous with the first flow of the Ganges. For we find Jahnu, who swallowed up the Ganges in her first terrestrial course, is only sixth in the line of descent from Pururavas. The Lunar dynasty originated in the union of Tara, the female principle of Brihaspati (Jupiter), and the Moon. The issue was Budha (Mercury), the direct progenitor of the Lunar dynasty. 256 A Study of the Bhagavata Purana The son of Budha was Pururavas. He married Urvasi, the renowned Deva nymph. Pururavas had six sons. But we are concerned with only two of them, Ayus and Vijaya. Vijaya gave the Adept line of the race and Ayus, the ordinary humanity. In the line of Vijaya, we find Jahnu, purified by the assimilation of Ganga, Visvamitra, pre-eminently the Rishi of the Rig Veda and one of the seven sages who watch over the destiny of the present Man- vantara, Jamadagni, another of the seven sages of our Manvantara and Parasurama one of the coming sages of the next Manvantara. We have already mentioned the part taken by Visvamitra and his sons in the composition of the Vedic Mantras. Coming to the line of Ayus, we recognise the forefathers of the Aryan races. In the short-lived branch through Kshatra-vriddha, we find the Vedic Rishi Gritsamada, his son Stinaka, the renowned Sounaka, Dirghatamas and Dhanvantari, the promulgator of Ayur-veda. But the longest history of the Race is through the descendants of Yayati. King Yayati married Devayani, the daughter of Sukra, the pre- siding Rishi of the planet Venus, and had by her two sons, Yadu and Turvasu. Sukra is the son of Bhrigu, the Rishi of Mahar Loka. De- vayana, is the path leading beyond Triloki, after death. But the King had also connection with a Danava girl, who brought forth three sons, Druhyu, Anu and Puru. For his Danava connection, King Yayati had in youth to undergo the infirmities of age. This evil was transmitted to Puru, the youngest son of the Danava girl. The line of Puru was short-lived. But it is this line that gave some of the renowned Vedic Rishis, viz. Apratiratha, Kanva, Medhatithi and Praskanva. Dushmanta, the hero of Kalidasa’s renowned drama also came of this line. Vishnu incarnated in part as Bharata, son of Dushmanta. Then there was a revolution. Bharata found that his sons were not like unto himself. So the direct line of Puru came to an end. What followed is a little mysterious. Bharata adopted Bharadvaja as his son. Bharadvaja was begotten by Brihaspati (Jupiter) on the wife of Purnendu Narayana Sinha, M. A., B. L. 257 his brother Utathya named Mamata (Egoism). Bharadvaja is one of the seven presiding Rishis of the present Manvantara. His name is connected with several Mantras of the Rig Veda. The great actors in the Kurukshetra battle were the descendants of Bharadvaja. We find much diversity of spiritual characteristics among them. The material and spiritual forces were gathered to- gether, in all possible grades from the Pandavas downward to the sons of Dhrita-rashtra and their allies. The poetical genius of the au- thor of the Mahabharata has called forth characters in the Drama of the Kurukshetra battle, that stand out in all the details of real life and find a permanent place in the genealogy of the Lunar dynasty. The study of the racial account of the line of Bharadvaja becomes there- fore extremely difficult.