At the period when this world and all it contains were buried under the waters, _Tot_, or “intellect” lay reclined in the sleep of unity, on the head of _Adsesh_,[30] the supporter of the earth. From the navel of this exalted being appeared the lotus flower, called by the Hindoos _Kawal_;[31] out of which arose _Brahma_, from the members of whose mighty existence all created beings hastened into the area of visibility. It is recorded in other treatises of this sect, that they give the name of _Naráyan_, or “the majesty without color,”[32] that is, “without the qualities of accidents,” to the absolute essence and abstract being of God, who is in pure space. They say, moreover, that his essence, which is devoid of all forms, made a personage called _Brahma_, who was constituted the medium of creation, so that he brought all other existences from behind the curtain of nonentity into the luminous area of being. In like manner that sublime essence manifested itself in the soul of Vishnu, so that he became an _Avatár_, and to him is confided the preservation of whatever Brahma created. That glorious essence next called up Mahadeo, for the purpose of destroying Brahma’s creation, whenever infinite wisdom requires the transformation of the visible into the invisible world; from which three agents arises the arrangement of all things in the universe.[33] They say that _Brahma_ is an aged man with four heads; _Naráyan_, or _Vishnu_, holds in his hand the _Chakra_, or _Disk_, “a sort of weapon;” he always assumes the _Avatárs_, or “incarnations;” of which ten are greatly celebrated. _Avatár_[34] means appearance or manifestation; _Karan_[35] signifies cause; Brahma, Vishnu, and Mahadeo are called _Trikaran_, or the three causes. In the Satya-Jog there was a Rakshas[36], named _Sámak Asur_, who performed such great religious austerities, that he became enabled to work miracles; he having taken the Anant-Ved[37] which was in Brahma’s possession, and from which are derived the four Vedas given to mankind, fled into the water; on this, Vishnu, on the fifth day of the fifth month, _Chét_,[38] “March-April,”[39] in the _Kishn Bichah_, having assumed the _Matsyávátar_, or “the form of a fish,” plunged into the water, slew the Rakshas, and recovered the Veda: this was the first Avatar. The second was the _Kurmávátar_, or “that of the tortoise.” _Anant Ved_ signifies “the numberless Vedas;” _Matsya_, “a fish;” _Avatár_, “descent,” or “manifestation;” _Chét_, “the fifth solar month;” _Kishn Bicheh_, “that portion of the month which is without moonlight and when the nights are dark.”