from that deity.’  Hearing these words of the high-souled Parvata, Srinjaya began to beseech that saint for ordaining otherwise, saying, ’Let my son be long-lived, O Muni, through thy ascetic merit.’  Parvata, however, said nothing, through partiality for Indra.  Beholding the king very cheerless, I said unto him, ’Think of me, O king, (in thy distress), and I shall promise to come when thought of by thee.  Do not grieve, O lord of earth!  I will give thee back thy beloved child, even if he be dead, in his living form.’  Having said so unto that monarch, both of us left his presence for coming to where we wished, and Srinjaya returned to his abode as he pleased.  After some time had elapsed, the royal sage Srinjaya had born unto him a son of great prowess and blazing forth with energy.  The child grew up like a large lotus in a lake, and became Suvarnashthivin in reality as in name.  This extraordinary fact, O best of the Kurus, soon became widely known over the world.  The Chief of the gods also came to know it as the result of Parvata’s boon.  Fearing humiliation (at the hands of the child when he would grow up), the slayer of Vala and Vritra began to watch for the laches of the prince.  He commanded his celestial weapon Thunder, standing before him in embodied shape, saying, ’Go, O puissant one, and assuming the form of a tiger slay this prince.  When grown up, this child of Srinjaya may, by his achievements, humiliate me, O Thunder, as Parvata said.’  Thus addressed by Sakra, the celestial weapon Thunder, that subjugator of hostile towns, began from that day to continually watch for the laches of the prince.  Srinjaya, meanwhile, having obtained that child whose splendour resembled that of Indra himself, became filled with joy.  The king, accompanied by his wives, and the other ladies of his household, took up his residence in the midst of a forest.  One day, on the shores of the Bhagirathi, the boy, accompanied by his nurse, ran hither and thither in play.  Though only five years of age, his prowess, even then, resembled that of a mighty elephant.  While thus employed, the child met a powerful tiger that came upon him suddenly.  The infant prince trembled violently as he was being crushed by the tiger and soon fell down lifeless on the earth.  At this sight the nurse uttered loud cries of grief.  Having slain the prince, the tiger, through Indra’s powers of delusion, vanished there and then.  Hearing the voice of the crying nurse, the king, in great anxiety, ran to the spot.  He beheld his son there, his blood quaffed off, and lying lifeless on the ground like the moon dropped from the firmament.  Taking up on his lap the boy covered with blood, the king, with heart stricken by grief, began to lament piteously.  The royal ladies then, afflicted with grief and crying, quickly ran to the spot where king Srinjaya was.  In that situation the king thought of me with concentrated attention.  Knowing that the king was thinking of me I appeared before him.  Stricken with grief