Disobeying the king’s order, Śakaṭālana secretly hid me in his house; he had someone else killed and informed the king that I had been executed. It would not have been possible for them to kill me in any case because I had befriended a rākṣasa. [1]
Vararuci's narration continues...
Manmatha continues to boast of his own skills in the pretext of praising his master:
तव प्रसादात्कुसुमायुधोऽपि सहायमेकं मधुमेव लब्ध्वा।
कुर्यां हरस्यापि पिनाकपाणेर्धैर्यच्युतिं के मम धन्विनोऽन्ये ॥ 3.10
There is a sacred tīrtha called Kanakhala near Gaṅgādvāra. In the past, a divine elephant called Kāñcanapāta broke open a mountain and let the Gaṅgā flow into the plains from there. In the region to the south of this town, a brāhmaṇa lived with his wife and performed tapas. He had three sons. After his death, his sons went to a place called Rājagṛha and acquired a lot of knowledge there. Though they became well educated, they were in immense pain, considering themselves as orphans. They headed towards Dakṣiṇāpatha seeking the darśana of Kumāra-svāmī.
Indra, who cannot think beyond the obvious and who knows only material luxuries and pleasures of the flesh, jumps to the conclusion that it is only the embodied deity of love, Manmatha who can do the job of uniting Śiva and Pārvatī. He immediately decides to instruct commands to Manmatha and communicates to him through his mind, his thought accelerated by his eagerness to achieve his purpose. (मनसा कार्यसंसिद्धौ त्वराद्विगुणरंहसा 2.63).
As the devatas had even lost their voice to give words to their trouble, Indra, their leader gets into action; and his action is merely to reverentially pass on the responsibility to his Guru Bṛhaspati. He does so only with a gentle and slow movement of all his hundred eyes towards the Guru. He does not have words to speak to Brahmā or to the Guru. Bṛhaspati, who is known to have mastered language can at least attempt to express their unified wish to Brahmā – the master of speech, speaking to the Creator of Speech!.
ततो मन्दानिलोद्धूतकमलाकरशोभिना ।