The gods were bewildered at these catastrophic events. Those who could not run away, either died or begged for mercy.

The yajna came to an end. But the yajna adopted the form of a divine deer and started to flee. Shiva pursued it with a pashupata arrow attached to his bow. In fact, Shiva’s body split into two. One part had matted hair (jata) and was left at the place where the ceremony was being held. This is the reason why Shiva is referred to as Jatadhara. The remaining half pursued the deer into the sky and became the constellation of kalapurusha (Orion) the hunter.

The head of the constellation is near the sign of mesha (Aries), the face near the sign of Vrisha (Taurus), the arms near the sign of mithuna (Gemini), the heart near the sign of simha (Leo), the sides near the sign of karkata (Cancer), the stomach near the sign of kanya (Virgo), the navel near the sign of tula (Libra), the waist near the sign of vrishchika (Scorpio), the thighs near the sign of dhanu (Sagittarius), the legs near the sign of makara (Capricorn), the ankles near the sign of kumbha (Aquarius), and the feet near the sign of mina (Pisces). This is the origin of the twelve signs (rashi) of the Zodiac.

The Burning Of The God Of Love

Many years ago, there used to be a brahmana named Vahvricha who was very righteous. His wife was called Ahimsa (non-violence). Vahvricha and Ahimsa had four sons named Hari, Krishna, Nara and Narayana. Hari and Krishna devoted themselves to the practice of Yoga a technique of meditation that seeks to bring about union between the human soul (atman) and the divine soul (parmatman).

Nara and Narayana became sages and concentrated on tapasya (meditation). They went to the Himalayas and there set up a hermitage named vadrikashrama.

(In some Puranas it is state that these two twin sages were the incarnations of Vishnu.)

Indra was worried on account of Nara and Narayana’s meditation. He was not at all sure what the sages wanted. They might obtain a boon as a result of this meditation and try to dislodge him from heaven. Indra therefore sent the apsara (dancer of heaven) Rambha to try and distract the sages. Madana, the god of love, also accompanied Rambha.

As soon as these two reached the hermitage, the weather there changed. A perpetual spring descended. Leaves sprouted and flowers bloomed. Creepers grew along the banks of the rivers.

Narayana was surprised at all this and looked up from his meditation. His eyes fell upon Ananga.

“Who is Ananga?” asked Narada. “You have not mentioned him before.”

“Ananga is the god of love,” replied Pulastya. “He is the son of Harsha and his other names are Madana, Kandarpa and Kama. He is known as Ananga because Shiva burnt him to ashes.”

“Why did Shiva burn him to ashes?” asked Narada.

Pulastya related the story.

After Sati died, Shiva was very unhappy. He roamed around the world, but nowhere could he find peace. There was a river named Kalindi and Shiva went and bathed there. But this did not cool him down. All that happened was that the waters of the river Kalindi became dark in colour. Ever since that day, Kalindi has been a famous tirtha.

Shiva visited many places of pilgrimage, but peace continued to elude him. Sometimes he sang and danced, at other times he cried. He was coming pretty close to losing his sanity. He dreamt of Sati and thought the image of his dreams to be real.

Shiva used to suffer a lot from bouts of belching. In one of these fits, he ran into Kubera’s son, Panchalika. Shiva told Panchalika, “Please take away this fit of belching from me. I will bless you.”

This Panchalika agreed to do. Shiva blessed Panchalika that he would henceforth be worshipped as the god Panchaleshvara. People would pray to him particularly in the month of Chaitra. Panchalika was worshipped everywhere, but he finally set up residence on Mount Kalanjara, slightly south of the Himalayas.