histories ascribe to Govinda.  He is said to be the Soul of all creatures, the high-souled one, and the foremost of all beings.  He created (by his will) the five-fold elements, viz., Wind, Light, Water, Space, and Earth.  That puissant Lord of all things, that high-souled one, that foremost of all beings, having created the earth, laid himself down on the surface of the waters.  While thus floating upon the waters, that foremost of all beings, that refuge of every kind of energy and splendour, created Consciousness, the first-born of beings in the universe.  We have heard that He created Consciousness along with the Mind,—­Consciousness which is the refuge of all created things.  That Consciousness upholds all creatures and both the past and the future.  After that great Being, O mighty-armed one, viz., Consciousness, had sprung, an exceedingly beautiful lotus, possessed of effulgence like the Sun’s, grew out of the navel of the Supreme Being (floating on the waters).  Then, O son, the illustrious and divine Brahman, the Grandsire of all creatures, sprang into existence from that lotus, irradiating all the points of the horizon with his effulgence.  After the high-souled Grandsire had, O mighty-armed one, thus sprung from the primeval lotus, a great Asura of the name of Madhu, having no beginning, started into birth, springing from the attribute or Darkness (Tamas).  The foremost of all Beings, (viz., the Supreme Divinity), for benefiting Brahman, slew that fierce Asura of fierce deeds, engaged even then in the fierce act (of slaying the Grand-sire).  From this slaughter, O son, (of the Asura named Madhu), all the gods and the Danavas and men came to call that foremost of all righteous persons by the name of Madhusudana (slayer of Madhu).[704] After this, Brahman created, by a flat of his will, seven sons with Daksha completing the tale.  They were Marichi, Atri, Angiras, Pulastya, Pulaha, Kratu, (and the already mentioned Daksha).  The eldest born, viz., Marichi, begat, by a fiat of his will, a son named Kasyapa, full of energy and the foremost of all persons conversant with Brahma.  From his toe, Brahman had, even before the birth of Marichi, created a son.  That son, O chief of Bharata’s race, was Daksha, the progenitor of creatures.[705] Unto Daksha were first born three and ten daughters, O Bharata, the eldest of whom was called Diti.  Marichi’s son Kasyapa, O sire, who was conversant with all duties and their distinctions, who was of righteous deeds and great fame, became the husband of those thirteen daughters.  The highly-blessed Daksha (besides the three and ten already spoken of) next begat ten other daughters.  The progenitor of creatures, viz., the righteous Daksha, bestowed these upon Dharma.  Dharma became father of the Vasus, the Rudras of immeasurable energy, the Viswedevas, the Sadhyas, and the Maruts, O Bharata.  Daksha next begat seven and twenty other younger daughters.  The highly-blessed Soma became the husband of them