Sexual Life in Ancient India: A Study in the Comparative History of Indian Culture v1.c8.30

v1.c8.30

³ Somadeva gives a still more drastic turn to the legend (Kathās., 20.60 ff.). According to MBh., xiii, 84.60 ff., where no mention is made of the love joys of the heavenly pair lasting so long, the gods come to them and get Çiva to promise to beget no offspring, for they are anxious lest it should be too powerful and terrible. Umā’s mother-urge is thus scornfully cheated of its rights, and “since she is a woman, to the gods she utters the hot, raw words of the curse : Now ye, too, shall all be childless!”