SECTION CCLXXXIV

“Janamejaya said, ’How O Brahmana, was the Horse-sacrifice of the Prajapati Daksha, the son of Prachetas, destroyed during the age of Vaivaswata Manu?  Understanding that the goddess Uma had become filled with rage and grief, the puissant Mahadeva, who is the soul of all things, gave way to wrath.  How, again, through his grace, was Daksha enable to reunite the divided limbs of that Sacrifice?  I desire to know all this.  Tell me all this, O Brahmana, truly as it occurred.’

“Vaisampayana said, ’In days of yore Daksha made arrangements for performing a Sacrifice on the breast of Himavat in that sacred region inhabited by Rishis and Siddhas where the Ganges issues out of the mountains.  Overgrown with trees and creepers of diverse kinds that spot abounded with Gandharvas and Apsaras.  Surrounded by crowds of Rishis, Daksha, that foremost of virtuous men, that progenitor of creatures, was waited upon by the denizens of the earth, the firmament, and the heavens, with their hands joined together in reverence.  The gods, the Danavas, the Gandharvas, the Pisachas, the Snakes, the Rakshasas, the two Gandharvas named Haha and Huhu, Tumvuru and Narada, Viswavasu, Viswasena, the Gandharvas and the Apsaras, the Adityas, the Vasus, the Rudras, the Sadhyas, the Maruts, all came there with Indra for sharing in the Sacrifice.  The drinkers of Soma, the drinkers of smoke, the drinkers of Ajya, the Rishis, and the Pitris came there with the Brahmanas.  These, and many other living creatures belonging to the four orders, viz., viviparous and oviparous and filth-born and vegetable, were invited to that Sacrifice.  The gods also, with their spouses, respectfully invited thereto, came on their celestial cars and seated thereon shone like blazing fires.  Beholding them, the Rishi Dadhichi became filled with grief and wrath, and said, ’This is neither a Sacrifice nor a meritorious rite of religion, since Rudra is not adored in it.  Ye are certainly exposing yourselves to death and chains.  Alas, how untoward is the course of time.  Stupefied by error you do not behold that destruction awaits you.  A terrible calamity stands at your door in course of this great Sacrifice.  Ye are blind to it!’ Having said these words, that great Yogin saw into the future with eyes of (Yoga) contemplation.  He beheld Mahadeva, and his divine spouse, viz., that giver of excellent boons (seated on the summit of Kailasa) with the highsouled Narada sitting beside the goddess.  Conversant with Yoga, Dadhichi became highly gratified, having ascertained what was about to happen.  All the deities and others that had come there were of one mind with reference to the omission to invite the Lord of all creatures.  Dadhichi alone, desirous of leaving that spot, then said, ’By worshipping one who should not be worshipped, and by refusing to worship him who should be worshipped, a man incurs the sin of homicide for ever.  I have never before spoken an untruth, and an untruth I shall never speak.  Here in the midst of the gods and the Rishis I say the truth.  The Protector of all creatures, the Creator of the universe, the Lord of all, the Puissant master, the taker of sacrificial offerings, will soon come to this Sacrifice and you all shall see him.’