feathered creation.

676 Visvakarma, the Mulciber of the Indian heaven.

677 "The terrific fiends named Mandehas attempt to devour the sun: for
Brahma denounced this curse upon them, that without the power to
perish they should die every day (and revive by night) and therefore
a fierce contest occurs (daily) between them and the sun." WILSON'S
Vishnu Purana. Vol. II. p. 250.

678 Said in the _Vishnu Purana_ to be a ridge projecting from the base
of Meru to the north.

679 Kinnars are centaurs reversed, beings with equine head and human
bodies.

680 Yakshas are demi-gods attendant on Kuvera the God of wealth.

681 Aurva was one of the descendants of Bhrigu. From his wrath proceeded
a flame that threatened to destroy the world, had not Aurva cast it
into the ocean where it remained concealed, and having the face of a
horse. The legend is told in the _Mahabharat_. I. 6802.

682 The word Jatarupa means gold.

683 The celebrated mythological serpent king Sesha, called also Ananta
or the infinite, represented as bearing the earth on one of his
thousand heads.

684 Jambudwipa is in the centre of the seven great _dwipas_ or
continents into which the world is divided, and in the centre of
Jambudwipa is the golden mountain Meru 84,000 yojans high, and
crowned by the great city of Brahma. See WILSON'S _Vishnu Purana_,
Vol. II. p. 110.

685 Vaikhanases are a race of hermit saints said to have sprung from the
nails of Prajapati.

686 "The wife of Kratu, Samnati, brought forth the sixty thousand
Valakhilyas, pigmy sages, no bigger than a joint of the thumb,
chaste, pious, resplendent as the rays of the Sun." WILSON'S _Vishnu
Purana_.

687 The continent in which Sudarsan or Meru stands, _i.e._ Jambudwip.

688 The names of some historical peoples which occur in this Canto and
in the Cantos describing the south and north will be found in the
ADDITIONAL NOTES. They are bare lists, not susceptible of a metrical
version.

689 Suhotra, Sarari, Saragulma, Gaya, Gavaksha, Gavaya, Sushena,
Gandhamadana, Ulkamukha, and Ananga.

690 The modern Nerbudda.

691 Krishnaveni is mentioned in the _Vishnu Purana_ as "the deep
Krishnaveni" but there appears to be no clue to its identification.

692 The modern Godavery.

693 The Mekhalas or Mekalas accordi