PRITHU is the name of several legendary kings of ancient India. It is, however, especially one king of this name who is the favorite hero of the His father was Vena, who perished through his wickedness; for when he was inaugurated mon arch of the earth, he caused it to be everywhere proclaimed that no worship should he performed, no oblations offered, and no gifts bestowed upon the Brahmans. The Rishis, or saints, hearing of this proclamation, entreated the king to revoke it, but in vain; hence they fell upon him and slew him. But the kingdom now being without a king, as Vena had left no offspring, and the people being without protection, the sages, assem bled and consulted how to produce a son from the body of the dead king. First, then, they rubbed his thigh; from it, thus rubbed, came forth a being called Nishada; and by this means the wickedness of Veua having been expelled, they proceeded to rub the right arm of the dead king, and by this friction engendered Prithu, who came forth resplend ent in person, and in his right hand the mark of the discus of Vishnu, which proved. him to be a universal emperor, one whose power would be invincible even by the gods. The miglity.Prithu soon removed the grievances of the people; he protected the earth, performed many sacrifices, and gave liberal gifts to the Brahmana. On being informed
that, in the interval in which the earth was without a king, all vegetable products had been withheld, and that consequently the people had perished, he in great wrath marched forward to assail the earth. The earth, assuming the figure of a cow, fled before him; but seeing no escape from the power of the king, at last submitted to him, and promised to renew her fertility, provided that he made all places level. Prithu therefore uprooted mountains, leveled the surface of the earth, established boundaries of towns and villages, and induced his subjects to take up their abode where the ground was made level. The earth now fulfilled her promise; and as Prithu, by thus granting her new life, became, as it were, her father, she was henceforth called Prithivl. However little the worth of this piece of popular etymology—for prithiri, or prithmi, the feminine of iwithu (Greek platu), means etymologically "the large" or " wide"—the legdnd of Prithu itself seems to record some historical fact regarding the civilizing influences exerted by a great king of Hindu antiquity.
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