ORIENTAL SERIES.

VASA VA-DA TTA VASISHTHA. 339
wine. She is said to have sprung from the churning of the
ocean. The goddess of wine is also called Mada and Sura.
YASANTA. Spring and its deified personification.
YASANTA-SENA. The heroine of the drama called Mnch-
chhakaft, 'the toy cart.'
YASAYA-DATTA. A princess of UjjayinI, who is the heroine
of a popular story by Subandhu. The work has been printed
by Dr. F. Hall in the Bibliotheca Indica. He considers it to have
been written early in the seventh century. See Udayana,
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7 YASISHrHA. Most wealthy. A celebrated Yedic sage
to whom many hymns are ascribed. According to Manu he
was one of the seven great JRishis and of the ten Prajapatis,
There was a special rivalry between him and the sage Yiswamitra,
who raised himself from the Kshatriya to the Brahman
caste. Yasishftia was the possessor of a " cow of plenty," called
Nandini, who had the power of granting him all things (vasu)
he desired, hence his name. A law-book is attributed to him,
or to another of the same name. Though Yasish/ha is classed
among the Prajapatis who sprang from Brahma, a hymn in the
.Rig-veda and the commentaries thereon assign him a different
origin, or rather a second birth, and represent him and the sage
Agastya to have sprung from Mitra and Yaruwa. The hymn says,
" Thou, YasisMia, art a son of Mitra and Yanma, born a Brah-
man from the soul of Urvasi. All the gods placed in the vessel
thee the drop which had fallen through divine contemplation."
The comment on this hymn says, "When these two Adityas
(Mitra and Yaruwa) beheld the Apsaras Urvasi at a sacrifice their
seed fell from them. ... It fell on many places, into a jar, into
water, and on the ground. The Muni Yasishflia was produced
on the ground, while Agastya was born in the jar."
There is a peculiar hymn attributed to YasisMha in the JSig-
veda ("Wilson, iv. 121), beginning "Protector of the dwelling,"
which the commentators explain as having been addressed by
him to a house-dog which barked as he entered the house of
Vanwa by night to obtain food after a three days' fast. By it
the dog was appeased and put to sleep, " wherefore these verses
are to be recited on similar occasions by thieves and bxirglars."
In tho same Yeda and in the Aitareya Brahmawa, Yasishrfha
appears as the family priest of King Sudas, a position to which
his rival Yiswamitra aspired. This is amplified in the Maha-