०५

(1.) Parvati, bathed in her hopes by the Trident-holde: burning, in that manner, the mind-born deity in her presence, cursed her beauty in her heart. for beauty has for its guerdon good fortune as regards (the being liked by) one’s beloved. (2.) She wished to make her beauty fruitful by austeritles, having recourse to concentration; how else, could she secure the two things such love and a husband of that kind. 3 Mená, hearing that her daughter, who had set her heart on Girisá, was resolved to practise penance, clasped her to her bosom, and spoke dissuading ber from the difficult practice of asceticism (4.) In the house are deities such as the heart would desire what a wide difference is there between austerities and thy body The delicate S’irisha flower can bear the tread of a bee but not that of a bird (5.) Menâ, though thus exhorting her daughter, whose desire was Inflexible, could not dissuade her from her resolve: who can make a mind firm in its resolution to achieve a desired object or turn back water (rushing) towards a low ground. On one occasion that steady-minded girl, begged of her father, who knew her desire, a residence (permission to dwell) in the forest to perform religious austerities till their fruition, through a friend who was her confidante. (7.) Being granted permission by her great father, delighted in a persistence worthy of her, she repaired to a peak, full of peacocks, which came to be known by her na ne ever afterwards among the people. She, of never-to-be shaken disposition, having given u; her necklace, which rubbed away the sandal paste (or her breast) by its threads, wore a bark garment, tawny like the morning sun, the close union of which with the buds was 1 revented by the elevated breasts.(29) (9.) As her face looked pretty by her decorated tresses so it did by the matted hair also; a lotus does not look beautiful only by the swarms of bees but even by its union with moss. (10.) By that string of Munja grass having three threads, which she wore for her penance and which (by its harsh touch) caused her hair to stand erect every moment, was the place of the waistband made red, being fastened there for the first time on that occasion. …