PRIT'HIVI or Urvi, the goddess of the earth, is by some termed a form of Lakshmi, by others of Parvati. Her husband is Prit'hu produced by churning the right arm of a deceased tyrant who had died without issue, that he might have a posthumous son, who is represented as a form of Vishnu. As a form of Lakshmi, Prit'hivi is the Indian Ceres. Daily sacrifices are offered to her. The Hindus divide the universe into ten parts, to each of which a deity is assigned. Prit'hivi is the goddess of the earth. Viswakarma, the artificer of the universe, that is, the lord of creation, assum ing that character, moulded the earth, and it be came Prit'hivi-conspicuous ; and that name, Prit' hivi, is therefore assigned to the earth. In Hindu mythology, Urvi means broad and wide; the earth goddess is typified as a cow, which yields to every class of beings the milk they desired as the ob ject of their wishes. In the Vedas the earth is personified as the mother of all beings, and is invoked together with the sky. In the form of a cow, Prit'hivi was milked by Swayambhuva, grand ancestor of Prit'hu, who so employed him. Prit'hivi, as a personification of the earth, also represents patience ; the Hindus refer to the earth, or Prit'hivi, proverbially, as an example of patience or forbearance, permitting her bowels to be ripped open, her surface lacerated, and suffer ing every indignity without resentment or mur muring. She is quoted also as an example of
correctness, as returning good for evil. Prit'hivi Pati, i.e. lord of the earth, is a title conferred on terrestrial or real, as well as mythological sovereigns. In the latter sense he is deemed the architect of the universe, and chief engineer of the gods. He revealed the fourth Upaveda in various treatises on sixty-four mechanical arts, for the improvement of such as exercise them ; and he is the inspector of all manual labours and mechanical arts. The goddess Prit'hivi is also called Bhu-Devi, also 13huma Devi, names of the earth. Bhu-Devi, in Hindu mythology, is the terrestrial name of Parvati, as goddess of the earth. As the names of Diana were varied to suit her various forms, she being Luna in heaven, Proserpine or Hecate in hell, so her- archetype, the Hindu Parvati, is the heavenly Bhavani, on earth Bhu-Devi, and Patala-Devi as consort of the regent of the infernal regions. Bhu-Deva, as spouse of the earthly goddess, is a name of Siva.
—As. Res. vi. p. 502 ; Hindu .htfantieide, p. 28 ; Coleman, p. 102 ; Moor, p, 113.