They say, that the Almighty, having united himself with Brahma’s body, created the world through his medium: Brahma thus became the Creator, and brought mankind into existence, making them of four classes, namely: the _Brahman_, _Chattriya_, _Vaisya_, and _Sùdra_. To the first were assigned the custody of laws and the establishment of religious ordinances; the second class was formed for the purposes of government and external authority, being appointed the medium for introducing order into human affairs; the third was composed of husbandmen, cultivators, artisans, and tradesmen; and the fourth for every description of service and attendance. All races not comprised in one of these four divisions are not accounted of human origin but of demoniacal descent: however the demons or Rakshas, through the practice of religious austerities, attained to such dignity that Brahma, Vishnu, and Mahesh (Siva) became their attendants. Thus Rávan,[69] through the efficacy of religious mortification, became lord of the world and its inhabitants; Brahma was reader of the Vedas at his court; the sun filled the office of cook; the clouds were his cup-bearers, and the wind his chamberlain. [70]Finally, according to the sectaries, the life of Brahma lasts a hundred extraordinary years of three hundred and sixty days, with nights corresponding to the days,[71] so that up to the present time, that is, the period of composing this work, in the year of the Hejira 1055 (A. D. 1645), there have elapsed four thousand seven hundred and forty-six years of the Kali-Yug. So many Brahmas have appeared, that the sums of their years exceed the limits of human comprehension; they have merely a tradition that one thousand Brahmas have successively appeared and been annihilated; so that the present is the thousand and first, of whose life fifty years and half a day are expired, which commences the half-day of the fifty-first year. As soon as the age of Brahma terminates, according to the preceding calculation, or amounts to the destined number, he then forms twelve blazing suns, whose heat and splendor consume alike both earth and water, so that there remains not a vestige of this world or its productions, and mankind plunge beneath the waters, which catastrophe is called _Pralaya_, in Hindawi: after this event, another Brahma appears and creates the world anew, which process of dissolution and reproduction continues to all eternity. The _Hakim Umr Khakani_ says: “Those who adorn the heavens, which are a particle of time, Come, and depart again, re-appear on the same stage―― For, in the skirts of heaven and the robe of earth, there is A creation which is successively born as long as God exists.”