The Goddess of Universe (Adi Shakti) was born to King Daksha and Prasuni. She was named Sati and also derived the name Dakshyani after her father's name.
Sati fell in loved with Shiva and married him against her father's wishes. Dhaksha organized a grand Yagna (sacrifical fire ceremony) to please Gods of Heaven. However he did not invited Sati and Shiva. Sati's elder sister Vijaya persuaded her to attend the ceremony.
Sati went to attend the ceremony against Shiva's will. She was insulted in mass gathering. Enraged by her father, Sari surrendered herself to fire. When Shiva came to know about Sati's destruction, he beheaded
Dhaksha. Shiva was deeply moved by lose of Sati and he renounced the world. He
he legend has it that when Lord Shiva's consort Sati
committed herself to fire due to disgrace shown by her father Daksha to Shiva,
Lord Shiva became extremely sad. He renounced his worldly duties and went into
deep meditation.
Soon after Shiva renounced the world, the king of demons Taraka attacked the Kingdom of Heaven. He defeated the king of heaven Indra and expelled the Gods from heaven. The demons misused their powers and engaged in various evil acts. They destroyed yanjanas, killed sages and innocent mortals of the Earth. Seeing this, Brahma persuaded Adi Shakti to persuae Shiva to come back. The Gods knew that Tarkasur was a powerful demon, who could be defeated only by union of Shiva and Shakti.
The King of Mountains Himavat and his wife, Mena were childless. They performed deep penance to please Brahma. One day Brahma pleased with their penance, appeared and blessed them with child. He granted them a boon of which Himavat fathered two daughters - Gangs and Parvati. Thus, Adi Shakti was reborn as Parvati (meaning the daughter of Parvati, the Hindi word for mountain).
Years passed by. Parvati grew up mediating and serving Shivalinga, the manifestation of Shiva. In the prime of her youth, Parvati sought Shiva for reunion. However, Shiva was detached from world and emmersed in very deep meditation.
The Gods of Heaven and Brahma ployed to bring wake Shiva from meditaionand rekindle his desire in worldly matters. So they asked Kamdev, the God of love and lust to bring back Shiva to his original self. Kamadeva feared Shiva's anger and hesitated in disturbing him. But on persuasion by Gods, he decided to use this powers and shot an arrow of love on Shiva.
Shiva who was in deep meditation was infuriated. His third eye opened as he woke up from years of meditation and ashened Kamadeva in no time. It is said that this happened on the day of Holi.
After Shiva was pacified, Kamdeva's wife Rati pleaded Shiva to revive him. Shiva accepted her wish and infused life in Kamdeva. Further, influenced by the arrow of love Shiva started developed liking for Parvati. He married Parvati. Their son Kartika destroyed Tarkasur and the Gods got their kingdom of heaven back.
People worship Kaamadeva in praise of his sacrifice on the day of Holi. Due to Kamadeva's association, Holi is also known by the names - Kamavilas, Kaman Pandigai and Kama Dahanam.
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