Page:History of Bengali Language and Literature.djvu/95

II.] or gained by the other gods. But at a second churning of the ocean from which the gods had expected yet more prizes, streams of deadly poison issued from it in overwhelming quantities, with clouds of smoke that looked like curling snakes. This threatened to flood the universe and destroy it. The gods were awe-struck. They knew not how to protect the world from the destruction which seemed to be impending. In their despair, they called on Çiva to save creation. The Great God's heart was moved with compassion. He gathered the floods of poison in his out-stretched hands and drank it all up, in the presence of the wondering gods. But the poison he drank left a blue mark on his throat, and he is called Nīlakanṭha or the Blue-throated. This episode is narrated in such a manner in the Purāṅas, that it seems to me to be analogous to the story of pain and sacrifice undergone by Buddha, who suffered for the sake of suffering humanity.

Let us picture to ourselves the image of the great Çiva. He is like a mountain of white marble, tranquilly seated in the posture of Samādhi. On his forehead is the crescent moon. From his matted locks flows the pure stream of the Ganges, that goddess whom his mercy melts into an unceasing fountain of white waters. In this attitude he may be compared very aptly to some mountains of the Himalayas, with the young moon shining above its cloudy height, and the perennial flow of the Ganges pouring over its steep regions. The heads of venomous snakes peep out of the locks of Çiva, as they do from the recesses of the great mountains.