CHAPTER XXXII.                          321

with the black colour, but a kind of non-existence like
the state of a sleeping person. Then God created this
world for Brahman as a cupola for him. He made it
to consist of two parts, a higher and a lower one, and
placed the sun and moon in it." Kapila declares :
" God has always existed, and with him the world, with
all its substances and bodies. He, however, is a cause
to the world, and rises by the subtlety of his nature
above the gross nature of the world." Kumbhaka
says: "The primeval one is MahdbhiXta, i.e. the com¬
pound of the five elements. Some declare that the
primeval thing is time, others nature, and still others
maintain that the director is karman, i.e. action."

In the book Vishnu-Dharma, Vajra speaks to Mar¬
kandeya : " Explain to me the times ;" whereupon the
latter answers: "Duration is dtmapurusha,^' i.e. a
breath, and purusha, which means the lord of the uni¬
verse. Thereupon, he commenced explaining to him
the divisions of time and their dominants, just as we
have propounded these things in detail in the proper
chapters (chap, xxxiii. et seq.).

The Hindus have divided duration into two periods,
a period of motion, which has been determined as time,
and a period of rest, which can be determined only in
an imaginary way according to the analogy of that
which has first been determined, the period of motion.
The Hindus hold the eternity of the Creator to be
determinable, not measurable, since it is infinite. We,
however, cannot refrain from remarking that it is
extremely difficult to imagine a thing which is deter¬
minable but not measurable, and that the whole idea
is very far-fetched. We shall here communicate so
much as will suffice for the reader of the opinions of
the Hindus on this subject, as far as we know them.

The common notion of the Hindus regarding creation The Day ot

.                      „                           .                           _                    .                Brahman a

IS a popular one, lor, as we iiave already mentioned, period of
they believe matter to be eternal.    Therefore, they do Night of
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