I.

IN olden days, when the life of man was of unlimited duration, lived King Utposhadha. On the crown of his head grew a very soft tumour, somewhat resembling a cushion of cotton or wool, without doing him any harm. When it had become quite ripe and had broken, there came forth from it a boy, shapely and handsome and gracious, perfect in every limb and joint, with a skin the colour of gold, a head like a canopy, long arms, a broad forehead, interlacing eyebrows, and a body provided with the thirty-two signs of a Mahapurusha. ² Immediately after his birth he was taken into the apartments of the women; and when King Utposhadha’s eighty thousand w^Tives saw him, milk began to flow from their breasts, and each of the women cried out, “ Let him suck me! let him suck me!” ³ Wherefore he received the name of Mandhatar. ⁴ Some of them thought that, as he came into life out of the crown of a head, he ought to receive the name of Murdhaja (crown-born); consequently the name Mandhatar is known to some, and that of Murdhaja to others.