2.3.10.10-19
495
10-11 T h e y performed for a h u n d r e d thousand years a •evere p e n a n c e t h a t could not be performed by even the Devas a n d the Dānavas. E k a p a r n ā took only a single leaf as her food. E k a p ā t a l ā h a d her food with a single P ā t a l a ( ? flower). T h e y took in this food only once in a thousand years. 12. O n e of them ( h a d performed penance) without taking food. H e r m o t h e r who was pained on account of h e r motherly love forbade her (from performing penance) saying ' U m ā ' ( O d a u g h t e r d o n o t ) . 1 13. T h e gentle lady A p a r n ā who performed a p e n a n c e very difficult to be performed ( b y others) on being addressed in t h a t m a n n e r , became well known in the three worlds as U m ā : She was extremely fortunate. 14. She became well known by t h a t n a m e on account of h e r activity expressed in the words of such a derivation. This world with its mobile a n d immobile living beings h a d such (splendid) triad of virgins. 15. W h a t h a d been created by the power of p e n a n c e of these three virgins will hold good as long as t h e e a r t h exists. All those three (virgins) were equipped with Yogic power. Penance sustained their physical bodies. 16. All of them h a d excellent a n d great fortune. All of t h e m possessed p e r m a n e n t y o u t h . All of them were expounders of the B r a h m a n . All of them h a d sublimated their sexual urge and potentiality. 17-19. U m ā was the greatest (eldest) a n d the most excellent a m o n g t h e m . She h a d an excellent complexion a n d was endowed with great yogic power. She a p p r o a c h e d (and dedicated herself) to M a h ā d e v a . Uśanas the son of Bhrgu be c a m e her a d o p t e d son. E k a p a r n ā the chaste lady of good conduct became t h e wife of Asita. She was given in m a r r i a g e to t h a t intelligent preceptor of t h e Yogic cult. Endowed with the perfect know ledge she gave birth to Devala who was B r a h m i s t h a (one w h o was engrossed in m e d i t a t i o n on B r a h m a n ) . . nislddhi
1.
Kālidāsa
paścād
echoes this in Kuir āra-Sambhava 1.26
Umākhyām
sumukhi jagāma
/
Umeti mitri tapaso