a jar on her loins that was
filled with the waters of every Tirtha, and was accompanied by the
presiding deities (of her own sex) of all the mountain streams. Those
auspicious ladies walked in her train. The goddess approached raining
flowers on every side and diverse kinds of sweet perfumes. She who loved
to reside on the breast of Himavat advanced in this guise towards her
great lord. The beautiful Uma, with smiling lips and desirous of playing
a jest, covered from behind, with her two beautiful hands, the eyes of
Mahadeva. As soon as Mahadeva's eyes were thus covered, all the regions
became dark and life seemed to be extinct everywhere in the universe. The
Homa rites ceased. The universe became suddenly deprived of the sacred
Vashat also. All living creatures became cheerless and filled with fear.
Indeed, when the eyes of the lord of all creatures were thus closed, the
universe seemed to become sunless. Soon, however, that overspreading
darkness disappeared. A mighty and blazing flame of fire emanated from
Mahadeva's forehead. A third eye, resembling another sun, appeared (on
it). That eye began to blaze forth like the Yuga-fire and began to
consume that mountain. The large-eyed daughter of Himavat, beholding what
occurred, bowed her head unto Mahadeva endued with that third eye which
resembled a blazing fire. She stood there with gaze fixed on her lord.
When the mountain forests burned on every side, with their Was and other
trees of straight trunks, and their delightful sandals and diverse
excellent medicinal herbs, herds of deer and other animals, filled with
fright, came with great speed to the place where Hara sat and sought his
protection. With those creatures almost filling it, the retreat of the
great deity blazed forth with a kind of peculiar beauty. Meanwhile, that
fire, swelling wildly, soared up to the very heavens and endued with the
splendour and unsteadiness of lightning and looking like a dozen suns in
might and effulgence, covered every side like the all-destroying
Yuga-fire. In a moment, the Himavat mountains were consumed, with their
minerals and summits and blazing herbs. Beholding Himavat crushed and
consumed, the daughter of that prince of mountains sought the protection
of the great deity and stood before him her hands joined in reverence.
Then Sarva, seeing Uma overcome by an accession of womanly mildness and
finding that she was unwilling to behold her father Himavat reduced to
that pitiable p