ORIENTAL SERIES.

A URVAA VA TARA. . 33
thigh with lustre and blinded the persecutors. From "being
produced from the thigh (uru), the child received the name of
Aurva. The sage's austerities alarmed both gods and men,
and he for a long time refused to mitigate his wrath against the
ELshatriyaSj but at the persuasion of the Pitns, he cast the fire
of his anger into the sea, where it became a being with the face
of a horse called Haya-siras. While he was living in the forest he
prevented the wife of King Bahu from burning herself with, her
husband's corpse. Thus he saved the life of her son, with whom
she had been pregnant seven years. When the child was born
he was called Sagara (ocean) ; Aurva was his preceptor, and
bestowed on him the Agneyastra, or fiery weapon with which he
conquered the barbarians who invaded his country. Aurva had
a son named JSichlka, who was father of Jamadagni The
Hari-vansa gives another version of the legend about the off-
spring of Aurva. The sage was urged by his friends to beget
children. He consented, but he foretold that his progeny would
live by the destruction of others. Then he produced from his
thigh a devouring fire, which cried out with a loud voice, " I
am hungry ; let me consume the world." The various regions
were soon in flames, when Brahma interfered to save his
creation, and promised the son of Aurva a suitable abode and
maintenance. The abode was to be at Badava-mukha, the mouth
of the ocean ; for Brahma was born and rests in the ocean, and
he and the newly produced fire were to consume the world
together at the end of each age, and at the end of time to devour
all things with the gods, Asuras, and Rakshasas. The name
Aurva thus signifies, shortly, the submarine fire. It is also
called Ba