"Hearing these words, Siva faintly opened his eyes, bedewed with tears, and said: 'O form of splendour! who art thou? Who are these that accompany thee? Who am I, and where are my attendants? Where art thou and these going? Where am I, and where proceeding?' As Vishnu heard these words he wept, and his tears, uniting with those of Siva, formed a lake, which hence became a famous place of pilgrimage. Vishnu at length calmed Siva, who, delighted with his words, beheld Sati, seated before him in a gem-adorned car, accompanied by numerous attendants, arrayed in costly garments; resplendent with ornaments, her placid face being irradiated with a gentle smile. The anguish of separation ceased, and joy filled his soul as Sati thus addressed him: 'Be firm, O Mahadeva! lord of my soul! In whatever state of my being I may exist, I shall never be separated from my lord; and now have I been born the daughter of Himavat in order to become again thy wife; therefore no longer grieve on account of

our separation.' Having thus consoled Siva, Sati disappeared."

In another chapter of the same Purana we have an account of their reunion. [**] " Sati soon obtained another birth in the womb of Himavat's wife; and Siva, collecting the bones and ashes from her funeral pile, made a necklace of the bones and covered his body with the ashes, and thus preserved them as memorials of his

Click to enlarge
PARVATI WORSHIPPING THE LINGA.

beloved. Not long after this, Sati was born as the daughter of Mena, excelling in beauty and virtue all created beings, and she grew up in her mountain home like the young moon increasing to its full splendour. Whilst still a girl, she heard a voice from heaven saying, 'Perform a severe course of austerity, in order to obtain Siva for a husband, as he cannot otherwise be obtained.' Parvati, proud of her youth, smiling disdainfully at this