“The blessed Krishna said, ’Bowing my head with great joy unto that mass of energy and effulgence, I said these words unto the great Deity, with a heart filled with gladness,—­Firmness in virtue, the slaughter of foes in battle, the highest fame, the greatest might, devotion to Yoga, thy adjacence, and hundreds upon hundreds of children, these are the boons I solicit of thee,—­So be it,—­said Sankara repeating the words I had uttered.  After this, the mother of the universe, the upholders of all things, who cleanses, all things, viz., the spouse of Sarva, that vast receptacle of penances said with a restrained soul these words unto me,—­’The puissant Mahadeva has granted thee, O sinless one, a son who shall be named Samva.  Do thou take from me also eight boons which thou choosest.  I shall certainly grant them to thee.—­Bowing unto her with a bend of my head, I said unto her, O son of Pandu,—­I solicit from thee non-anger against the Brahmanas, grace of my father, a hundred sons, the highest enjoyments, love for my family, the grace of my mother, the attainment of tranquillity and peace, and cleverness in every act!’

“Uma said, ’It shall be even so, O thou that art possessed of prowess and puissance equal to that of a celestial.  I never say what is untrue.  Thou shalt have sixteen thousand wives.  Thy love for them and theirs also for thee shall be unlimited.  From all thy kinsmen also, thou shalt receive the highest affection.  Thy body too shall be most beautiful.  Seven thousand guests will daily feed at thy palace.’

“Vasudeva continued, ’Having thus granted me boons both the god and the goddess, O Bharata, disappeared there and then with their Ganas, O elder brother of Bhima.  All those wonderful facts I related fully, O best of kings, to that Brahmana of great energy, viz., Upamanyu (from whom I had obtained the Diksha before adoring Mahadeva).  Bowing down unto the great God, Upamanyu said these words to me.’

“Upamanyu said, ’There is no deity like Sarva.  There is no end or refuge like Sarva.  There is none that can give so many or such high boons.  There is none that equal him in battle.’”

SECTION XVI

“Upamanyu said, ’There was in the Krita age, O sire, a Rishi celebrated under the name of Tandi.  With great devotion of heart he adored, with the aid of Yoga-meditation, the great God for ten thousand years.  Listen to me as I tell thee fruit or reward he reaped of such extraordinary devotion.  He succeeded in beholding Mahadeva and praised him by uttering some hymns.  Thinking, with the aid of his penances, of Him who is the supreme Soul and who is immutable and undeteriorating, Tandi became filled with wonder, and said these words,—­I seek the protection of Him whom the Sankhyas describe and the Yogins think of as the Supreme, the Foremost, the Purusha, the pervader of all things, and the Master of all existent objects, of him who, the learned say,