For the benefit of those, however, who may not have The Theosophist of that date to hand, a passage or two may now be quoted from it:
Who was Manu, the son of Svâyambhuva? The Secret Doctrine tells us that this Manu was no man, but the representation of the first human races, evolved with the help of the Dhyân Chohans (Devas), at the beginning of the First Round. But we are told in his Laws (i. 80) that there are fourteen Manus for every Kalpa, or “interval from creation to creation”—read rather interval from one minorPralaya to another[687]—and that “in the present divine age, there have been as yet seven Manus.” Those who know that there are seven Rounds, of which we have passed three, and are now in the Fourth; and who are taught that there are seven [pg 322]Dawns and seven Twilights, or fourteen Manvantaras; that at the beginning of every Round and at the end, and on, and between, the planets [Globes] there is an “awakening to illusive life,” and an “awakening to real life”; and that, moreover, there are Root-Manus, and what we have to clumsily translate as Seed-Manus—the seeds for the human races of the forthcoming Round (or the Shishtas—the surviving fittest[688]; a mystery divulged only to those who have passed their third degree in Initiation)—those who have learned all this will be better prepared to understand the meaning of the following. We are told in the Hindû Sacred Scriptures that, “The first Manu produced six other Manus [seven primary Manus in all], and these produced in their turn each seven other Manus”[689] (Bhrigu, i. 61-63)—the production of the latter standing in the Occult treatises as 7 x 7. Thus it becomes clear that Manu—the last one, the Progenitor of our Fourth-Round Humanity—must be the seventh, since we are on our Fourth Round,[690] and there is a Root-Manu at Globe A, and a Seed-Manu at Globe G. Just as each planetary Round commences with the appearance of a Root-Manu (Dhyân Chohan) and closes with a Seed-Manu, so a Root- and a Seed-Manu appear respectively at the beginning and the termination of the human period on any particular planet [Globe].[691] It will be easily seen from the foregoing statement that a Manvantaric period (Manu-antara) means, as the term implies, the time between the appearance of two Manus or Dhyân Chohans; and hence a Minor Manvantara is the duration of the seven Races on any particular planet [Globe], and a Major Manvantara is the period of one human Round along the Planetary Chain. Moreover, as it is said that each of the seven Manus creates 7 x 7 Manus, and that there are 49 Root-Races on the seven planets [Globes] during each Round, then every Root-Race has its Manu. The present seventh Manu is called “Vaivasvata” and stands in the exoteric texts for that Manu who in India represents the Babylonian Xisuthrus and the Jewish Noah.
But in the Esoteric books we are told that Manu Vaivasvata, the progenitor of our Fifth Race—who saved it from the flood that nearly exterminated the Fourth or Atlantean—is not the seventh Manu, mentioned in the nomenclature of the Root or Primitive Manus, but one of the 49 Manus emanated from this Root-Manu.
For clearer comprehension we here give the names of the 14 Manus in their respective order and in their relation to each Round:
1st Round, 1st (Root) Manu on Planet A—Svâyambhuva.
1st Round, 1st (Seed) Manu on Planet G—Svârochi, or Svârochisha.
2nd Round, 2nd (Root) Manu on Planet A—Auttami.
2nd Round, 2nd (Seed) Manu on Planet G—Tâmasa.
3rd Round, 3rd (Root) Manu on Planet A—Raivata.
3rd Round, 3rd (Seed) Manu on Planet G—Châkshusha.