Page:Katha sarit sagara, vol2.djvu/538

 When the gods said this to Vishnu, he answered them, " Why, do I not know that my regulations are broken by that Asura? But what the great lord, the slayer of Tripura has done, he alone can undo: I cannot. And from him must proceed the overthrow of that wicked Daitya. You must make haste, provided I tell you an expedient; and I will tell you one; listen ! There is a heavenly abode of Śiva, named Siddhíśvara. There the god Śiva is found ever manifest. And long ago that very god manifested to me and Prajápati* his form as the flamelinga, and told me this secret. So come, let us go there and entreat him with asceticism: he will put an end to this affliction of the worlds." When the god Vishnu had uttered this behest, they all went to Siddhísvara by means of two convevinces, the bird Garuda and the chariot of swans. That place is untouched by the calamities of old age, death, and sickness, and it is the home of unalloyed happiness, and in it beasts, birds, and trees are all of gold. There they worshipped the linga of Śiva, that exhibits in succession all his forms, † and is in succession of various jewels; and then Vishnu, Brahmá, Indra, and Bŗihaspati, all four, with their minds devoted to Śiva, proceeded to perform a severe course of asceticism in order to propitiate him. And in the meanwhile Śiva, propitiated by the severe asceticism of Chandraketu, bestowed a boon on that prince of the Vidyádharas, " Rise up, king, a son shall be born to thee, who shall be a great hero, and shall slay in fight thy enemy Vidyuddhvaja; he shall become incarnate among the human race by a curse, and shall render a service to the gods, and shall recover his position by virtue of the asceticism of Padmavati, the daughter of the king of the Gandharvas: and with her for a wife he shall be emperor over all the Vidyádharas for ten kalpas."‡ When the god had granted this boon, he disappeared, and Chandraketu went back to the world of the "Wind-god with his wife.

In the meanwhile Śiva was pleased with the severe asceticism of Vishnu and his companions in Siddhíśvara, and he appeared to them in the linga and delighted them by the following speech, " Rise up, afflict yourselves no longer; I have been fully propitiated with self-torture by your partizan Chandraketu, the prince of the Vidyádharas. And be shall have a heroic son, sprung from a part of me, who shall soon slay in fight that Daitya Vidyuddhvaja. Then, in order that he may perform another service to the gods, he shall fall § by a curse into the world of men, and the daughter of the Gandharva Padmaśekhara shall deliver him from that