Professor Weber [*+] says: "As in Siva, first of all two gods, Agni and Rudra are combined, so too his wife is to be regarded as a compound of several divine forms; and this becomes quite evident as we look over the mass of her epithets. While one set of these as Uma, Ambika, Parvati, Haimavati, belong to the wife of Rudra, others

as Kali carry us back to the wife of Agni; while Gauri and others perhaps refer to Nirriti the goddess of all evil." And he adds: "The most remarkable instance of this is to be found in the Mahabharata in the hymn of Yudhishthira to Durga, where he calls her Yasoda Krishna, 'born in the cowherd family of Nanda,' 'sister of Vasudeva,' 'enemy of Kansa,' and as 'having the same features as Sankarshana.' Some such explanation is certainly necessary when we see that Kali is said to be the same with Uma, the embodiment of 'heavenly wisdom.'"

In the following passage from the Ramayana, [**] Uma is said to be the daughter of Himavat and Mena; the two forms of lima and Parvati being confounded in the writer's mind. "To Himavat, the chief of mountains, the great mine of metal, two daughters were born in beauty unequalled upon earth. The daughter of Meru, Mend by name, the pleasing and beloved wife of Himavat, was their slender-waisted mother. Of her was born Ganga, the eldest daughter of Himavat, and his second daughter was Uma, who, rich in austere observances, having undertaken an arduous rite, fulfilled a course of severe austerity. This daughter lima, distinguished by severe austerity, adored by the worlds, the chief of the mountains gave to the matchless Rudra. These were the two daughters of the King of the Mountains: Ganga, the most eminent of rivers, and Uma the most excellent of goddesses."

"The Harivansa [*+] mentions three daughters of Himavat and Mena, but Ganga is not amongst them. "Their (the Pitris) mental daughter was Mena, the eminent wife of the great mountain Himavat. The King of the Mountains begat three daughters upon