bow-string.  And he made the Grandsire Brahma his charioteer.  Applying all these, he pierced the triple city of the Asuras with that shaft of his, consisting of three Parvans and three Salyas.[617] Indeed, O Bharata, the Asuras with their cities, were all burnt by Rudra with that shaft of his whose complexion was like that of the sun and whose energy resembled that of the fire which appears at the end of the Yuga for consuming all things.  Beholding that Mahadeva changed into a child with five locks of hair lying on the lap of Parvati, the latter asked the deities as to who he was.  Seeing the child, Sakra became suddenly filled with jealousy and wrath and resolved to kill him with his thunder.  The child, however, paralysed the arm, looking like a mace of iron, of Indra with the thunderbolt in it.  The deities all became stupefied, and they could not understand that the child was the Lord of universe.  Verily, all of them along with the very Regents of the world, found their intellects stupefied in the matter of that child who was none else than the Supreme Being.  Then the illustrious Grandsire Brahma, reflecting with the aid of his penances, found out that that child was the foremost of all Beings, the lord of Uma, Mahadeva of immeasurable prowess.  He then praised the Lord.  The deities also began to hymn the praises of both Uma and Rudra.  The arm (which had been paralysed) of the slayer of Vala then became restored to its former state.  The Mahadeva, taking birth as the Brahmana Durvasa of great energy, resided for a long time at Dwaravati in my house.  While residing in my abode he did diverse acts of mischief.  Though difficult of being borne, I bore them yet from magnanimity of heart.  He is Rudra; he is Shiva; he is Agni; he is Sarva; he is the vanquisher of all; he is Indra, and Vayu, and the Aswins and the god of lightning.  He is Chandramas; he is Isana; he is Surya; he is Varuna; he is Time; he is the Destroyer; he is Death; he is the Day and the Night; he is the fortnight; he is the seasons; he is the two twilights; he is the year.  He is Dhatri and he is Vidhatri; and he is Viswakarma; and he is conversant with all things.  He is the cardinal points of the compass and the subsidiary points also.  Of universal form, he is of immeasurable soul.  The holy and illustrious Durvasa is of the complexion of the celestials.  He sometimes manifests himself singly; sometimes divides himself into two portions; and sometimes exhibits himself in many, a hundred thousand forms.  Even such is Mahadeva.  He is, again, that god who is unborn.  In even a hundred years one cannot exhaust his merits by reciting them.’”

SECTION CLXI