"Kirata" of small stature in the Eastern Himalayas, against which Vishnu's bird fights, Çunamukhas (Dog-heads), "brow-eyed" cannibals, "one-footed" men, who bring as tribute very swift horses, occur in the Indian epics, and in other writings. On the divine mountain Meru, according to the Indians, dwell the Uttara Kuru, 28
Megasthenes and Eratosthenes in Strabo, pp. 689, 690; Arrian, "Ind." 3, 8.
29
Lassen explains Paropamisus as Paropa-nishadha, "lower mountain," in opposition to Nishadha, "high mountain," by which the high ridge of the Hindu Kush is meant,
30
Muir, "Sanskrit Texts," 22, 324, 328.
31
Strabo, pp. 690, 691.
32
Diod. 2, 35; Strabo, pp. 700, 717.
33
Megasthenes in Strabo, pp. 690, 702; cf. Arrian, "Ind." 4. Diodorus allows the upper Ganges a breadth of 30 stades, at Palibothra a breadth of 32 stades – 2, 37; 17, 93.
34
Arrian, "Ind." 4.
35
Diod. 2, 37.
36
Strabo, p. 691.
37
Diod. 2, 37.
38
Strabo, p. 695.
39
Diod. 2, 37.
40
Strabo, pp. 690, 691.
41
Aristobulus in Strabo, pp. 692, 693; cf. Curtius, 8, 30, ed. Mützell.
42
These statements, which are quite correct, are found in Megasthenes in Strabo, p. 76; Diod. 2, 35.
43
Strabo, p. 695; Diod. 2, 35.
44
Strabo, pp. 690, 693.
45
Strabo, p. 695.
46
Strabo, p. 694; Arrian, "Ind." 11.
47
Strabo, pp. 692, 693. Arrian ("Ind." 7) mentions the Sanskrit name of the umbrella palm,
48
Arrian, "Ind." 6, 17; Strabo, pp. 96, 690, 696, 701, 706, 709.
49
Max Müller, "Hist. of Sanskrit Liter." p. 481 ff. Kaegi, "Rigveda," 1, 9 ff.
50
Roth, "Literatur des Veda," s. 120.
51
In the later hymns of the Rigveda, Angiras and Bhrigu are combined with other sages and minstrels of old time into a septad of saints (10, 109, 4), and designated the great saints. They are, beside Bhrigu and Angiras, Viçvamitra, Vasishtha, Kaçyapa, Atri, Agastya. The eight saints from whom the eight tribes of the Brahman priests now in existence are derived are: Jamadagni, Gautama, Bharadvaja, Viçvamitra, Vasishtha, Kaçyapa, Atri, Agastya. Jamadagni is said to have sprung from Bhrigu; Gautama and Bharadvaja from Angiras.
52
Muir, "Sanskrit texts," 3, 117 ff.; 121 ff.
53
A. Weber, "Ind. Studien," 1. 88.
54
Muir, "Sanskrit texts," 12, 160 ff.
55
Kuhn in Weber, "Ind. Stud." 1. 202. The Çatapatha-Brahmana (Weber, "Ind. Stud." 1. 161) tells us that Manu, when washing his hands in the morning, took a fish in his hands, which said to him – "Spare me, and I will save thee; a flood will wash away all creatures." The fish grew to a monstrous size, and Manu brought him to the ocean; and it bid Manu build a ship, and embark on the ocean. When the flood rose, the fish swam beside the ship, and Manu attached it by a rope to the horn of the fish. Thus the ship passed over the northern mountains. And the fish told Manu that he had saved him, and bade him fasten the ship to a tree. So Manu went up as the waters sank from the northern hills. The flood carried away all creatures; Manu alone remained. Eager for posterity, Manu offered sacrifice, and threw clarified butter, curdled milk, and whey into the water. After a year a woman rose out of the water, with clarified butter under her feet. Mitra and Varuna asked her whether she was their daughter, but she replied that she was the daughter of Manu, who had begotten her, and she went to Manu and told him that he had begotten her by the sacrifice which he had thrown into the water. He was to conduct her to the sacrifice, and he would then receive posterity and herds. And Manu did so, and lived with her with sacrifice and strict meditation, and through her began the posterity of Manu. Cf. M. Müller, "Hist. of Sanskrit Liter." p. 425 ff. The later form of the Indian legend of the flood is found in an episode of the Maha-bharata. Here the fish appears to Manu when he is performing some expiatory rites on the shore of a river. The fish grew so mighty that Manu was compelled to bring it into the Ganges, and when it became too large for this into the ocean. When swimming in the ocean the fish announced the flood, and bade Manu and the seven saints (Rishis) ascend the ship, and take with them all kinds of seeds. Then the fish drew the ship attached to his horn through the ocean, and there was no more land to be seen; for several years all was water and sky. At last the fish drew the ship to the highest part of the Himavat, and with a smile bade the rishis bind the ship to this, which to this day bears the name of Naubandhana (ship-binding). Then the fish revealed himself to the seven saints as Brahman, and commanded Manu to create all living creatures, gods, Asuras, and men, and all things movable and immovable; which command Manu performed. The legend overlooks the fact that the new creation was unnecessary, as we have already been told that Manu brought seeds of everything on board ship. The poems of the Rigveda present no trace of the legend of the flood. It may have arisen in the land of the Ganges, from the experience of the floods there, unless it is simply borrowed from external sources. In any case it is of later date; the Çatapatha-Brahmana is one of the later Brahmanas. Weber, "Ind. Stud." 9, 423; Kuhn, "Beiträge," 4, 288. I cannot follow De Gubernatis, "Letture," p. 228, ff,
56
Kaegi, "Rigveda," 2, 58.
57
On the Bhrigus see A. Weber, "Z. D. M. G." 9, 240. Kuhn, "Herabkunft," s. 21 ff.
58
On the Sarayu, which is mentioned, "Rigveda," 4, 30, 14, and 10, 64, 9, cf. Lassen,
59
"Rigveda," 1, 126, 1; 8, 21, 18.
60
Muir,
61
"Rigveda," 7, 18, 2; in Muir,
62
"Rigveda," 1, 28, 5; 6, 47, 29.
63
"Rigveda." 6, 75, in Muir,
64
Roth, "Das lied des Arztes," "Rigveda," 10, 97. "Z. D. M. G." 1871, 645.
65
Muir,
66
Muir,
67
"Rigveda," 10, 21, 5. Above, p. 29.
68
"Rigveda,"
