PRAHLADA, PRAHRADA A Daitya, son of Hiranya- kasipu and father of Ba1i Hiranya-kasipu, in his wars with the gods, had wrested the sovereignty of heaven from Indra and dwelt there in luxury. His son Prahlada, while yet a boy, became an ardent devotee of Vishnu, which so enraged his father that he ordered the boy to be killed; but not the weapons of the Daityas, the fangs of the serpents, the tusks of the celestial elephants, nor the flames of fire took any effect, and his rather was constrained to send him back to his preceptor, where l1e continued so earnest in performing and promoting the worship of Vishnu that he eventually obtained final exemption from existence. According to some accounts, it was to avenge Prahlada, as well as to vindicate his own insulted majesty, that Vishnu became incarnate as the Nara-sinha. ‘man-lion,' and slew Hiranya-kasipu. After the death of his father, Prahlada became king of the Daityas and dwelt in Patala; but, according to the Padma Purana, he was raised to the rank of Indra for life, and finally united with Vishnu. The Padma Purana carries the story farther back to previous birth. In this previous existence Prahlada was a Brahman named Soma-sarman, fifth son of Siva-sarman. His four brothers died and obtained union with Vishnu, and he desired to follow them. To accomplish this he engaged in profound meditation, but he allowed himself to be disturbed by an alarm of the Daityas, and so was born again as one of them. He took the part of his race in the war between them and the gods, and was killed by the discus of Vishnu, after that he was again born as son of Hiranya-kasipu.

PRAJA-PATI  'Lord of creatures,' a progenitor, creator. In the Veda the term is applied to Indra, Savitri, Soma, Hiranya-garbha, and other deities. In Manu the term is applied to Brahma as the active creator and supporter of the universe; so Brahma is the Prajapati. It is also given to Manu Swayam-bhuva himself, as the son of Brahma and as the secondary creator of the ten Rishis, or "mind-born sons" of Brahma, from whom mankind has descended. It is to these ten sages, as fath6IS of the human race, that the name Prajapati most commonly is given. They are Marichi, Atri, Angiras, and Pulastya. Pulaha, Kratu, Vasishtha, Prachetas or Daksha, Bhrigu, and sarada. According to some authorities the Praja-patis are only seven in number, being identical with the seven great Rishis. (See Rishi) The number and names of the praja-patis vary in different authorities: the Maha-bharata makes twenty-one.

PRAKASAS Messengers of Vishnu, also called Vishnu-dutas.  

PRAKRITA The Prakrits are provincial dialects of the Sanskrit, exhibiting more or less deterioration from the original language; and they occupy an intermediate position between that language and the modern vernaculars of India, very similar to that of. the Romance languages between the Latin and the modern languages of Europe. They resemble the European languages also in another respect: they have in them a small proportion of words, which have not been affiliated on the original classical language, and are apparently remnants of a different tongue and an older race. The Prakrits are chiefly known from the dramas in which kings and Brahmans speak Sanskrit, while characters of inferior position speak in different prakrits. Sometimes these Prakrit passages are so very debased that it hardly seems possible for them to be specimens of really spoken vernaculars. Such passages may perhaps be comic exaggerations of provincial peculiarities. The Prakrits have received careful study, and the Prakrita-prakasa, a Grammar by Vararuchi, translated by Professor Cowell, was probably written about the beginning of the Christian era. See Katyayana.  

PRAKRITI  Nature; matter as opposed to spirit. The personified will of the Supreme in the creation, and the prototype of the female sex, identified with Maya or illusion. The Sakti or female energy of any deity.  

PRALAMBA An Asura killed by Krishna, according to the Maha-bharata. His story as told in the Vishnu purana is, that he was an Asura and a dependant of Kansa. With the object of devouring the boys Krishna and Bala-rama, he joined them and their playmates in jumping. Pralamba was beaten by his opponent Bala-rama, and by the rules of the game had to carry the victor back on his shoulders to the starting-place. He took up Bala-rama and then expanded his form, and was making off with his rider when Bala-rama called upon Krishna for assistance. Krishna made a long speech, and ended by telling him to suspend awhile his mortal character and do what was right. Bala-rama laughed, squeezed Pralamba with his knees, and beat him on the head with his fists till his eyes were knocked out and his brain forced through his skull, so that he fell to the ground and expired.  

PRALAYA A dissolution of the world at the end of a kalpa.

PRAMATHAS A class of demi-gods or fiends attendant upon Siva.  

PRAMLOCHA A celestial nymph sent by Indra to beguile the sage Kandu from his devotion and austerities. She lived with him for some hundreds of years, which were but as a day to the sage. When he awoke from his delusion he drove the nymph from his presence. The child with whom she was pregnant by him came forth from her body in drops of perspiration, which she left upon the leaves of the trees. These drops congealed and became eventually the lovely nymph Marisha (q.v.).  

PRANA 'Breath or life.' In the Atharva-veda it is personified and a hymn is addressed to it.  

PRASANNA-RAGHAVA A drama by Jaya-deva in seven acts. It has been printed at Benares.  

PRASENA Son of Nighna and brother of Satra-jit or Sattra-jita. He was killed by a lion. See Syamantaka.  

PRASNA Name of an Upanishad (q.v.).  

PRASUTI A daughter of Manu and wife of Daksha.  

PRATARDANA Son of Divodisa, king of Kasi. The whole family of Divodasa was slain by a king named Vita-havya. The afflicted monarch through a sacrifice performed by Bhrigu obtained a son, Pratardana, who became a mighty warrior, and avenged the family wrongs upon his father’s foe. Vita-havya then flew to the sage Bhrigu for protection, and was by him raised to the dignity of a Brahmarshi. 

PRATISAKHYAS Treatises on the phonetic laws of the language of the Vedas, dealing with the euphonic combination of letters and the peculiarities of their pronunciation as they prevailed in the different Sakhas or Vedic schools. These treatises are very ancient, but they are considerably later than the hymns, for the idiom of the hymns must have become obscure and obsolete before these treatises were necessary. Four such treatises are known :-

Rig-veda-One, which is considered to belong to the Sakhala-sakha of this Veda, and is ascribed to Saunaka. It has been edited and translated into German by Max Muller, and into French by M. Regnier.

Yajur-veda – Taittiriya-pratisakhya, belonging to the Black Yajur, printed in the Bibliotheca Indica and also in the Journal of the Americal Oriental Society, with a translation by Professor Whitney.

Vajasaneyi-pratisakhya – Belonging to the White Yajur. It is attributed to Katyayana, and has been edited and translated by Weber.

Athatva-veda – The Saunakiya Chaturadhyayika, i.e., Saunaka’s treatise in four chapters. Edited and translated into English by Whitney. No Pratisakhya of the Sama-veda has been discovered. 

PRATI-SHTHANA An ancient city, the capital of the early kings of the Lunar race; “it was situated on the eastern side of the confluence of the Ganges and Jumna," opposite to the modern Allahabad. The capital of Salivahana on the Godavari, supposed to be the same as "Pattan" or "Pyetan."  

PRAUDHA-BRAHMANA One of the eight Brahmanas of the Sama-veda. It contains twenty-five sections, and is therefore also called Pancha-vinsa.  

PRAYAGA The modern Allahabad. The place where the Ganges, Jumna, and the fabled subterranean Sarasvati unite, called also Tri-veni, ‘the triple braid.' It has always been a celebrated place of pilgrimage.  

PRETA A ghost; an evil spirit animating a dead carcase, and haunting cemeteries and other places.  

PRISHADHRA A son of Manu Vaivaswata, who, according to the Hari-vansa and the puranas, became a Sudra because he killed the cow of his religious preceptor.  

PRISHATA Drupada's father. 

PRISNI In the Vedas and Puranas, the earth, the mother of the Maruts. The name is used in the Vedas also for a cow. There were several females of this name, and one of them is said to have been a new birth of Devaki.  

PRITHA A name of Kunti 

PRITHI, PRITHU, PRITHI-VAINYA Prithi or Prithi-vainya, i.e., Prithi, son of Vena, is mentioned in the Rig-veda, and he is the declared Rishi or author of one of the hymns. The Atharva-veda says, " She (Viraj) ascended: she came to men. Men called her to them, saying, ‘Come, Iravati.' Manu Vaivaswata was her calf, and the earth her vessel Prithi-vainya milked her; he milked from her agriculture and grain. Men subsist on agriculture and grain." The Satapatha Brahmana refers to Prithi as "first of men who was installed as a king." These early allusions receive a consistent form in the puranas, and we have tile following legend: - Prithi was son of Vena, son of Anga He was called the first king, and from him the earth received her name Prithivi. The Vishnu Purana says that the Rishis "inaugurated Vena monarch of the earth," but he was wicked by nature and prohibited worship and sacrifice. Incensed at the decay of religion, pious sages beat Vena to death with blades of holy grass In the absence of a king robbery and anarchy arose, and the Munis, after consultation, proceeded to rub the thigh of the dead king in order to produce a son. There came forth "a man like a charred log, with fiat face and extremely short." This man became a Nishida, and with him came out the sins of -the departed king. The Brahmans then rubbed the right arm of the corpse, "and from it sprang the majestic Prithu, Vena's son, resplendent in body, glowing like the manifested Agni ... At his birth all creatures rejoiced, and through the birth of this virtuous son Vena, delivered from the hell called Put, ascended to heaven." Prithu then became invested with universal dominion. His subjects, who had suffered from famine, be-sought him for the edible plants, which the earth withheld. In anger he seized his bow to compel her to yield the usual supply. She assumed the form of a cow and fled before him. Unable to escape, she implored him to spare her, and promised to restore all the needed fruits if a calf were given to her, through which she might be able to secrete milk. "He therefore, having made Swayam-bhuva Manu the calf, milked the earth, and received the milk into his own hand for the benefit of mankind. Thence proceeded all kinds of corn and vegetables upon which people subsist now and perpetually. By granting life to the earth Prithu was as her father, and she thence derived the patronymic appellation Prithivi." This milking the earth has been made the subject of much allegory and symbolism. The Matsya Purina specifies a variety of milkers, gods, men, Nagas, Asuras, &c, in the follow style: - "The Rishis milked the earth through Brihaspati; their calf was Soma, the Vedas were the vessel, and the milk was devotion." Other Puranas agree with only slight deviations. "These mystifications," says Wilson, "are all, probably, subsequent modifications of the original simple allegory which typified the earth as a cow, who yielded to every class of beings the milk they desired, or the object of their wishes."  

PRITHVI 'The broad.' The earth or wide world. In the Vedas the earth is personified as the mother of all beings, and is invoked together with the sky. According to the Vedas there are three earths corresponding to the three heavens, and our earth is called Bhumi. Another name of the earth is Urvi, ‘wide.’ In the Vishnu Purina she is represented as receiving her name from a mythical person named Prithu, who granted her life, and so was to her as a father. See above, Prithi or Prithu. 

PRITAU A king of the Solar race, a descendant of Ikshwaku. There are many Prithus. See Prithi.

PRIYA-DARSI See Asoka.  

PRIYAM-VADA A Vidya-dhara, son of the king of the Gandharvas.