power and learning and kindly disposed towards all creatures. At that
time, O Brahmana sage, Viswavasu, the King of the Gandharvas, it is said,
had intimacy with Menaka, the celestial dancing-girl. And the Apsara,
Menaka, O thou of the Bhrigu race, when her time was come, brought forth
an infant near the hermitage of Sthulakesa. And dropping the newborn
infant on the banks of the river, O Brahmana, Menaka, the Apsara, being
destitute of pity and shame, went away. And the Rishi, Sthulakesa, of
great ascetic power, discovered the infant lying forsaken in a lonely
part of the river-side. And he perceived that it was a female child,
bright as the offspring of an Immortal and blazing, as it were, with
beauty: And the great Brahmana, Sthulakesa, the first of Munis, seeing
that female child, and filled with compassion, took it up and reared it.
And the lovely child grew up in his holy habitation, the noble-minded and
blessed Rishi Sthulakesa performing in due succession all the ceremonies
beginning with that at birth as ordained by the divine law. And because
she surpassed all of her sex in goodness, beauty, and every quality, the
great Rishi called her by the name of Pramadvara. And the pious Ruru
having seen Pramadvara in the hermitage of Sthulakesa became one whose
heart was pierced by the god of love. And Ruru by means of his companions
made his father Pramati, the son of Bhrigu, acquainted with his passion.
And Pramati demanded her of the far-famed Sthulakesa for his son. And her
foster-father betrothed the virgin Pramadvara to Ruru, fixing the
nuptials for the day when the star Varga-Daivata (Purva-phalguni) would
be ascendant.

"Then within a few days of the time fixed for the nuptials, the beautiful
virgin while at play with companions of her own sex, her time having
come, impelled by fate, trod upon a serpent which she did not perceive as
it lay in coil. And the reptile, urged to execute the will of Fate,
violently darted its envenomed fangs into the body of the heedless