ORIENTAL SERIES.

240
PRAKRITIPRAMLOCHA.
tongue and an older race. The Prakrits are chiefly known from
the dramas in which kings and Brahmans speak Sanskrit, while
characters of inferior position speak
in different Prakrits.
Sometimes these Prakrit passages are so very debased that it
hardly seems possible for them to be specimens of really spoken
vernaculars. Such passages may perhaps be comic exaggerations
of provincial peculiarities. The Prakrits have received careful
study, and the Piulmta-prakasa, a Grammar by Vararuchi,
translated by Professor Co well, was probably written about the
beginning of the Christian era. See Katyayaua.
PEAEJ2ITL Nature ; matter as opposed to spirit. The per-
sonified will of the Supreme in the creation, and the prototype
of the female sex, identified with Maya or illusion. The Sakti
or female energy of any deity.
PEALAMBA. An Asura killed by Kn'shna, according to
the Maharbharata. His story as told in the Vishnu Purana is>
that he was an Asura and a dependant of Kansa, With the
object of devouring the boys Kn'shna and Bala-rama, he joined
them and their playmates in jumping. Pralamba was beaten
by his opponent Bala-rama, and by the rules of the game had
to carry the victor back on his shoulders to the starting-place,
He took up Bala-rama and then expanded his form, and was
making off with his rider when Bala-rama called upon Krishna
for assistance. Krishna made a long speech, and ended by tell-
ing him to suspend awhile his mortal character and do what was
right. Bala-rama laughed, squeezed Pralamba with his knees,
and beat Mm on the head with his fists till his eyes were knocked
out and his brain forced through his skull, so that he fell to the
ground and expired.
PRALAYA A dissolution of the world at the end of a kalpa.
PEAMATHAS, A class of demi-gods or fiends attendant
upon $iva,
PEAMLOCHA. A celestial nymph sent by Indra to beguile
the sage Ka?wu from his devotion and austerities. She lived
with him for some hundreds of years, which were but as a day to
the sage. When he awoke from his delusion he drove the nymph
from his presence. The child with which she was pregnant by
him came forth from ner body in drops of
perspiration, which
she left upon the leaves of the trees. These drops congealed
and became eventually the lovely nymph Marisha (q.v.).