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and after that in the mire?" When the king of the gods heard him indulging in these lamentations, he came to him, and questioned him, 'and that son of a god told him the cause of his grief. Then Indra said to him, " Listen, there is a way out of this difficulty open to you. Have recourse to Śiva as a protector, exclaiming ' Om ! Honour to Śiva !' If you resort to him as a protector, you shall escape from your guilt and obtain merit, so that you shall not be born in the body of a pig nor fall from heaven." When the king of the gods said this to Suprabha, he followed his advice, and exclaiming " Om ! Honour to Śiva !" he fled to Śiva as an asylum. After remaining wholly intent on him for six days, he not only by his favour escaped being sent into the body of a pig, but went to an abode of bliss higher than Svarga. And on the seventh day, when Indra, not seeing him in heaven, looked about, he found he had gone to another and a superior world.
"As Suprabha lamented, beholding pollution impending, so I lament, beholding the impending death of the king." When Earth said this, Víravara answered her:— " If there is any expedient for rescuing this king, as there was an expedient for rescuing Suprabha in accordance with the advice of Indra, pray tell it me." When Earth was thus addressed by Víravara, she answered him: " There is an expedient in this case, and it is in your hands." When the Bráhman Víravara heard this, he said joyfully—*[1]
" Then tell me, goddess, quickly; if my lord can be benefited by the sacrifice of my life, or of my son or wife, my birth is not wasted." When Víravara said this, Earth answered him— " There is here an image of Durgá near the palace; if you offer to that image your son Sattvavara, then the king will live, but there is no other expedient for saving his life." When the resolute Víravara heard this speech of the goddess Earth, he said— " I will go, lady, and do it immediately." And Earth said " What other man is so devoted to his lord? Go, and prosper." And the king, who followed him, heard all.
Then Víravara went quickly to his house that night, and the king followed him unobserved. There he woke up his wife Dharmavatí and told her, that, by the counsel of the goddess Earth, he must offer up his son for the sake of the king. She, when she heard it, said— " We must certainly do what is for the advantage of the king; so wake up our son and tell him." Then Víravara woke up his son, and told him all that the goddess Earth had told him, as being for the interest of the king, down to the necessity of his own sacrifice When the child Sattvavara heard this, he, being rightly named, said to his father, †[2] " Am I not fortunate, my
