From this great eternal essence emanate Brahma, the Creator, whose consort is Sarasvatî;[2] Vishnu, the Preserver, whose consort is Lakshmî; and Siva, _alias_ Mahâdêo, the Destroyer, whose consort is Pârvatî. According to popular belief Jamrâj (Yamarâja) is the judicial deity who has been appointed by the greater powers to pass the final judgement on the tenor of men's lives, according to proceedings drawn up by his secretary Chitragupta. If men's actions have been good, their souls are, as the next stage, advanced a step towards the great essence, Brahma; and, if bad, they are thrown back, and obliged to occupy the bodies of brutes or of people of inferior caste, as the balance against them may be great or small. There is an intermediate stage, a 'Narak', or hell, for bad men, and a 'Baikunth', or paradise, for the good, in which they find their felicity in serving that god of the three to which they have specially devoted themselves while on earth. But from this stage, after the period of their sentence is expired, men go back to their pilgrimage on earth again. There are numerous Dêos (Devas), or good spirits, of whom Indra is the chief; [3] and Daityas, or bad spirits; and there have also been a great number of incarnations from the three great gods, and their consorts, who have made their appearance upon the earth when required for particular purposes. All these incarnations are called 'Avatârs', or descents. Vishnu has been eleven times on the globe in different shapes, and Siva seven times.[4] The avatârs of Vishnu are celebrated in many popular poems, such as the Râmâyana, or history of the Rape of Sitâ, the wife of Râma, the seventh incarnation;[5] the Mahâbhârata, and the Bhâgavata [Purâna], which describe the wars and amours of this god in his last human shape.[6] All these books are believed to have been written either by the hand or by the inspiration of the god himself thousands of years before the events they describe actually took place. 'It was', they say, 'as easy for the deity to write or dictate a battle, an amour, or any other important event ten thousand years before as the day after it took place'; and I believe nine-tenths, perhaps ninety-nine in a hundred, of the Hindoo population believe implicitly that these accounts were also written. It is now pretty clear that all these works are of comparatively recent date, that the great poem of the Mahâbhârata could not have been written before the year 786 of the Christian era, and was probably written so late as A.D. 1157; that Krishna, _if born at all_, must have been born on the 7th of August, A.D. 600, but was most likely a mere creation of the imagination to serve the purpose of the Brahmans of Ujain, in whom the fiction originated; that the other incarnations were invented about the same time, and for the same object, though the other persons described as incarnations were real princes, Parasu Râma, before Christ 1176, and Râma, born before Christ 961.