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2
 
LALITA-SAHASRANAMA
 
II
 
The story of Lalită to which the Lalitasahasra-
nama thus refers is briefly as follows:--
 
When Manmatha, the god of love, was reduced to
ashes by Siva opening his third eye, the ashes were
collected by Chitrakarman, one of Siva's attendants,
and used for drawing the figure of a man Siva glanced
at the figure and at once it leaped into life and became
a living person The artist now advised the person he
thus created to pray to Siva and repeat the Sata-
Rudriy The person did so and Siva was pleased and
blessed him with the overlordship of the world for
sixty thousand years On hearing this, Brahma cried in
dismay, "Bhand, Bhand," and so the person came to
have the name Bhanda When Bhanda grew up, he
became a great Asura and established his capital in
Sonitapura. He oppressed the gods and made life intoler-
able for them Thereupon Närada advised Indra, the
king of the gods, to do penance and seek the help of
Para caktı. Indra, accordingly, performed a great
sacrifice, and out of the sacrificial fire there arose a
great chakra and, in the midst of it, was the lovely
figure of the Devi who embodied the spirit of the
Trimu 1 The gods praised her and she promised to
vanquish their enemy Bhandasura But Brahmä said
 
that
 
ve-
to
 
the
 
proposal and assured her that her independence would in
 
1 Brahma-Visnu Sivatmıl am