‘O noble sage’, he said, ‘you know everything including the past, present and future, and also the shastras; reflect and tell me what is good and what bad about my daughter.’

The sage smilingly replied in gentle and significant tones: ‘Your daughter is a mine of all virtues; she is pretty, amiable and intelligent by nature, and her names are Uma, Ambika (lit. mother) and Bhavani.

Adorned with all the marks of character and fortune, the maiden shall win the unfailing love of her husband. Her conjugal happiness will be firm as a rock, and she will brig glory to her parents.

She shall command the respect of all the world, and he who serves her shall lack nothing. By the mere thought of her name women in this world shall tread the path of wifely fidelity, though it be narrow as the edge of a sword.

Your daughter, O Himalaya, is endowed with auspicious marks, but hear now the few drawbacks she has. One devoid of merit or dignity, without father or mother, an ascetic with no thought for anyone,

-an anchorite with matted hair and a heart devoid of all desire, stark naked and in inauspicious guise – such a one shall be her husband, as I can read from the lines on her hand.’

Hearing the words of the sage and believing them to be the true, Himalaya and his wife became said, but Parvati rejoiced. Not even Narada could guess the secret, for eve though their outer expression was the same, their feelings were so different.