The creation of the Prajapatis—of Duty, truth, Penance etc., No distinction of castes.

Bhrigu said Brahman first created a few Brahmanas who passed by the name of Prajapatis (lord of creation). Effulgent like the fire or the Sun, they were created out of the energy of that First-born Being.

The powerful Lord then created Truth, Duty, Penance, the eternal Vedas, all sorts of pious deeds, and Purity, for enabling creatures to acquire heaven (by practising them).

After this, the gods and the Danavas, the Gandharvas, the Daityas, the Asuras, the great snakes, the Yakshas, the Rakshasas, the Serpents, the Pishachas, and mankind with their four divisions, viz., Brahmanas, Kshatriyas, Vaishyas, and Shudras, O foremost of twice-born ones, and all the other orders of creatures, were created.

The complexion of the Brahmanas was white; that of the Kshatriyas was red; that of the Vaishyas yellow; and that of the Shudras was black.

Bharadwaja said If the distinction between the four castes be made by means only of colour, then it seems that all the four orders have been intermixed.

Lust, anger, fear, cupidity, grief, anxiety, hunger, exhaustion, possess and prevail over all men. How can men be distinguished by the attributes?

The bodies of all men sweat and puss urine, faeces, phlegm, bile and blood. How then can men be divided into classes?

Mobile objects are endless in number; the immobile objects are also innumerable. How then can so many different objects be divided into classes?

Bhrigu said There is in fact no distinction between the different castes. The whole world at first consisted of Brahmanas. Created equally by Brahman, men have, on account of their acts, been divided into various castes.

They who found excessive pleasure in enjoyment become possessed of the attributes of harshness and anger, endued with courage, and were unmindful of the works of piety and worship,-those Brahmanas possessing the quality of Darkness, became Kshatriyas.

Those Brahmanas again who, unmindful of the duties laid down for them, became endued with both the qualities of Goodness and Darkness, and follow the professions of cattletending and agriculture, became Vaishyas.

Those Brahmanas again who were given to untruth and injuring other creatures possessed of cupidity, performed all sorts of works for their maintenance and had no purity of behaviour, and thus possessed of the quality of Darkness, became Shudras.

Divided by these occupations, Brahınanas, falling away from their own order became members of the other three castes. All the four castes, therefore, have always the right to perform all pious rites and sacrifices.

Thus were the four castes at first created equally by Brahman who ordained for all of them the observances described (in the Vedas). Cupidity alone brought about the fall of many, who were possessed by ignorance.

The Brahmanas are always devoted to the Brahma-scriptures and practising vows and restraints, are capable of understanding Brahima. Their penances, therefore, never prove fruitless.

They amongst them are not Brahmanas who cannot understand that every created thing is Supreme Brahma. These, falling away, became members of various (inferior) castes.

Destitute of the light of knowledge, living a loose life of dissolution they are born as Pishas and Rakshasas and Ghosts, and as Mleccha tribes.

The great Rishis who at the beginning were created (by Brahman's Will) afterwards themselves created, through their penances, men devoted to the duties laid down for them and rites laid down in the Eternal Vedas.

That other Creation, however, which is eternal and undecaying, which depends upon Brahma and has originated from the Primeval God, and which has Yoga for its support, is a mental one.