Note 16 — Chapter CXV

In the meanwhile Śiva was pleased with the severe asceticism of Vishṇu and his companions in Siddhíśvara, and he appeared to them in the linga and delighted them by the following speech, “Rise up, afflict yourselves no longer; I have been fully propitiated with self-torture by your partizan Chandraketu, the prince of the Vidyádharas. And he shall have a heroic son, sprung from a part of me, who shall soon slay in fight that Daitya Vidyuddhvaja. Then, in order that he may perform another service to the gods, he shall fall16 by a curse into the world of men, and the daughter of the Gandharva Padmaśekhara shall deliver him from that condition. And he shall rule the Vidyádharas with that lady, who shall be an incarnation of a portion of Gaurí, and shall be named Padmávatí, for his consort, and at last he shall come to me. So bear up for a little: this desire of yours is already as good as accomplished.” “When Śiva had said this to Vishṇu and his companions, he disappeared; then Vishṇu, Brahmá, Indra and Bṛihaspati went, in high delight, back to the places from which they came.