Babylon, with her walls eighty feet high and sixty miles in circumference. Grey with eld was the civilisation by the Nile; but the light that shone upon the Nile was only a reflection of that which had lit up the Euphrates long before; and the light which played upon the Euphrates had flashed upon the Ganges centuries ere "the God of Jacob" had been heard of, or the miserable tribe of nomads, in whose brain he had his origin—centuries before the sublime Adima and Heva of the Vedas had been travestied into the Adam and Eve of the Bible.
The earth, we are told in the elder legend,[1] was covered with flowers, the trees bent under their fruit, thousands of animals sported over the plains and in the air, white elephants roved unmolested under the shade of gigantic forests, and Brahma perceived that the time had come for the creation of man, to inhabit this dwelling-place. He drew from the great Soul, from the pure essence, a germ of life, with which he animated the two persons whom he made, male and female—that is, proper for reproduction, like plants and animals; and he gave them the ahancara—that is, conscience—and speech, which rendered them superior to all he had yet created, but inferior to the angels and to God. He distinguished the man by strength, shape, and majesty, and named him Adima (in Sanscrit "the first man"). The woman received grace, gentleness, and beauty, and he named her Heva (in Sanscrit "what completes life"). Therefore, in giving Adima a companion the Lord perfected the life bestowed on him ; and in thus establishing the conditions under which humanity was about to be born he proclaimed in earth and in heaven the equality of the man and woman.
The Lord then gave to Adima and to his wife, Heva, the island of Ceylon for a residence, well fitted, Irom its climate, its products, and its splendid vegetation, to be the terrestrial paradise, cradle of the human race. "Go," said he, "unite and produce beings who shall be your living image upon earth for ages and ages after you have returned to me. Your mission is confined to peopling this island, where I have gathered together everything
- ↑ Vide Ramatsariar's "Texts and Commentaries on the Vedas."
