ORIENTAL SERIES.

PRITH1PRITHU. 243
" a man like a charred log, with flat face and extremely short."
This man became a Nishada, and with him came out the sins of
the departed king. The Brahmans then rubbed the right arm
of the corpse, "and from it sprang the majestic Pnthu, Vena's
son, resplendent in body, glowing like the manifested Agni .
At his birth all creatures rejoiced, and through the birth of this
virtuous son Vena, delivered from the hell called Put, ascended
to heaven." Pnthu then became invested with universal
dominion. His subjects, who had suffered from famine, besought
him for the edible In anger
plants which the earth withheld.
he seized his bow to compel her to yield the usual
supply. She assumed the form of a cow and fled before him.
Unable to escape, she implored him to spare her, and promised
to restore all the needed fruits if a calf were given to her, through
which she might be able to secrete milk.
" He therefore, hav-
ing made Swayam-bhuva Manu the calf, milked the earth, and
received the milk into his own hand for the benefit of mankind.
Thence proceeded all kinds of corn and vegetables upon which
people subsist now and perpetually. By granting life to the
earth Prithu was as her father, and she thence derived the
patronymic appellation PnthivL" This milking the earth has
been made the subject of much allegory and symbolism. The
Matsya Pura?ia specifies a variety of milkers, gods, men, Nagas,
"
The Rishis milked the
Asuras, &c., in the follow style :
earth through Brihaspati ;
. .
their calf was Soma, the Vedas were
the vessel, and the milk was devotion." Other Purawas agree with
only slight deviations.
"
These mystifications," says "Wilson, "are
all, probably, subsequent modifications of the original simple alle-
gory which typified the earth as a cow, who yielded to every class
of beings the milk they desired, or the object of their wishes."
PJSJTHIVL The broad/ The earth or wide world. In
the Yedas the earth is personified as the mother of all beings, and
is invoked together with the sky. According to the Yedas there
are three earths corresponding to the three heavens, and our
*
earth is called Bhumi Another name of the earth is TJryi, wide.'
In theYish?iu Purawa she is represented as receiving her name
from a mythical person named Prithu, who granted her life,
and so was to her as a father. See above, PnthI or Pnthu.
PjRJTHTI A king of the Solar race, a descendant of Iksh*
waku, There are many Pnthus. See Pnthi