descended into the lower regions in order to ascertain its base; and for the purpose of discovering its top, Brahma in a lotos car ascended the heavens: but they returned from their search wearied and disappointed, and together approaching the lingam, with due reverence and praises, entreated Shiva to resume his lingam. Thus propitiated, that god appeared in his own form and said,—‘If gods and men will worship my lingam, I will resume it; but not otherwise. (In the Nagar Khand of the Skanda Puran, it is said that Shiva, afflicted for the loss of Sati, thus replied:—‘O gods! it was in consequence of the grief which I suffer in being separated from Sati that I cast away this lingam, apparently fallen through the curse of the sages; but, had I not willed it, who is there in the three worlds that could have deprived me of it? why then should I resume it?’) “To this proposal Vishnu, Brahma, and the gods assented; and Brahma divided its worshippers into four sects, the principal one of those, that which simply worships Shiva under the symbol of the lingam; the second, that of Pashupati; the third, of Mahakala; and the fourth, the Kapali; and revealed from his own mouth the ordinances by which this worship was to be regulated. Brahma and the gods then departed, and Shiva, having resumed the lingam, was also leaving the spot, when he beheld Kama at a distance; and, incensed with anger on remembering the pains which he had endured, looked at him with his world-consuming eye and reduced him to ashes.” _Chapter 6._ “The resumption of the lingam by Shiva,” remarks Vans Kennedy in his researches into Hindu Mythology, “is related differently in the Shiva Puran, which account explains the reason of the particular form, under which that symbol is represented.”