e been disguised
under a veil of allegory, the true significance of which it is no longer
difficult to understand. With the light which more recent investigation
has thrown upon the subject of the separation of the original
sex-elements contained in the Deity, the significance of the following
legend in the Servarasa is at once apparent.

When Parvati (Devi) was united in marriage to Mahadeva (Siva), the
divine pair had once a dispute on the comparative influence of the sexes
in producing animated beings, and each resolved by mutual agreement
to create a new race of men. The race produced by Mahadeva were very
numerous, and devoted themselves exclusively to the worship of the male
Deity, but their intellects were dull, their bodies feeble, their limbs
distorted, and their complexions of many different hues. Parvati had at
the same time created a multitude of human beings, who adored the
female power only, and were well shaped, with sweet aspects and fine
complexions. A furious contest ensued between the two nations, and the
Lingajas, or adorers of the male principle, were defeated in battle,
but Mahadeva, enraged against the Yonigas (the worshippers of the female
element), would have destroyed them with the fire of his eye if Parvati
had not interposed and appeased him, but he would spare them only on
condition that they should instantly leave the country with a promise to
see it no more, and from the Yoni, which they adored as the sole cause
of their existence, they were named Yavanas.

The fact has been noticed in a previous work(49) that, according to
Wilford, the Greeks were the descendants of the Yavanas of India, and
that when the Ionians emigrated they adopted the name to distinguish
themselves as adorers of the female, in opposition to a strong sect of
male worshippers which had been driven from the mother country. We
are taught by the Puranas that they settled partly on the borders of
Varaha-Dwip, or Europe, where they became the progenitors of the Greeks;
and partly in the two Dwipas of Cusha, Asiatic and African. In the
Asiatic Cusha-Dwip they supported themselves by violence and rapine.
Parvati, however, or their tutelary goddess, Yoni, always protected
them; and at length, in the fine country which they occupied, they
became a flourishing nation.(50) Wilford relates that there is a sect of
Hindoos who, attempting to reconcile the two systems, declare in their
allegorical style that "Parvati and Mahadeva fo