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THEOLOGICAL ETYMOLOGIES. 447
by the primitive Sages. We find the same groundwork in several personifications
in the Puranas, only far more ample and philosophically
suggestive.
Thus Pulastya, a "Son of God," one of the first progeny, is made the
progenitor of Demons, the Rakshasas, the tempters and the devourers
of men. Pishacha, a female Demon, is a daughter of Daksha, a "Son
of God" too, and a God, and the mother of all the Pishachas.-'^ The
Demons, so-called in the Purdnas, are very extraordinary Devils when
judged from the standpoint of European and orthodox views, since
all of them, Danavas, Daityas, Pishachas, and Rakshasas, are represented
as extremely pious, following the precepts of the Vcdas, some of
them even being great Yogins. But they oppose the clergy and ritualism,
sacrifices and forms, just as the head Yogins do to this day in
India, and are no less respected for it, though they are permitted to
follow neither caste nor ritual; hence all those Puranic Giants and
Titans are called Devils. The missionaries, ever on the watch to show,
if they can, that the Hindu traditions are nothing better than a reflection
of the Jewish Bible, have evolved a whole romance on the alleged
identity of Pulastya with Cain, and of the Rakshasas with the Cainites,
the "Accursed," the cause of the "Noachian" Deluge. (See the work
of Abbe Gorresio, who "etymologizes" Pulastya's name as meaning
the " rejected," hence Cain, if you please). Pulastya dwells in Kedara,
he says, which means a "dug-up place," a "mine," and Cain is shown,
in tradition and the Bible, as the first worker in metals and a miner
thereof!
While it is very probable that the Gibborim, or Giants, of the Bible
are the Rakshasas of the Hindus, it is still more certain that both are
Atlanteans, and belong to the submerged races. However it may be,
no Satan could be more persistent in slandering his enemy, or more
spiteful in his hatred, than the Christian Theologians are in cursing
him as the father of every evil. Compare their vituperation and their
opinions about the Devil with the philosophical views of the Puranic
Sages and their Christ-like mansuetude. When Parashara, whose
father was devoured by a Rakshasa, was preparing himself to destroy,
by magic arts, the whole race, his grandsire, Vasishtha, after showing
the irate Sage, on his own confession, that there is Evil and Karma,
but no "evil Spirits," speaks the following suggestive words:
Let thy wrath be appeased : the Rakshasas are not culpable ; thy father's death
• Padma Pur&na.