Page:Hindu Feasts Fasts and Ceremonies.djvu/63

Rh assembly met to concert measures to put down Taraka. Brihaspati, Indra’s minister, rose up and said that the offspring of Siva and Parvati—Kumara—can destroy that powerful Titan. But Siva was a sage who was performing penance. How to make him court Parvati? The council sent for Cupid and he boastingly appeared before the lord of the celestials and said that he would bind any being, whether God or man, by the chain of woman’s love. Indra was greatly pleased. It was just what he wanted. So he sent Cupid to Siva, requesting him to dart his arrows rather cautiously, as Siva was no ordinary God. And Cupid too, when he was told the name of the deity that he had to conquer by his arrows, became terrified. He was unable to withdraw. So he went to the hermitage of Siva. At Cupid’s approach, the birds and beasts of the forest danced with joy at the sudden setting-in of the Spring season. The drone drank the honey which remained after the bee had first drunk to her fill. Parvati was helping Siva with flowers, fruits and other things which were required for that god’s penance. Cupid considered that everything was ex-