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Deva yani
and
Sarmishta
HE Sun God had the worst rebuff that afternoon when he tried to take his revenge on the demons (asuras). When he shone on the dense forest skirting their capital, he became meanly aggressive. Even the tallest and thickest trees gave way, and his rude rays fell on a bevy of asura princesses who were amusing themselves with antelopes. Naturally, feeling limp and listless, they took off their clothes and jumped into a lotus-filled lake for a brisk swim. As the Sun was about to gloat over his success, an enormous monster of a cloud whisked him off, as it were, thus preserving the privacy of the girls.
Not all of them, however, were the daughters of the demons. For thrown among those magnificent, monolithic maidens was the slender, self-willed brahman girl, Devayani, who could take care of herself. They indulged themselves in pranks and pleasantries of all sorts. "Who is a god? I wish to meet him," said one of them, "just to see whether he can survive a slap from me." "I would not mind even marrying him," generously confessed another. "Shame on you,” rebuked a third. "Perhaps,
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