Uttara, the Legend of the Turquoise

Illustrations and Text by CARLO DE FORNARO
Published by MARCUS & CO. Jewelers 544 Fifth Avenue New York
Copyright, 1902, by Carlo de Fornaro
To Mrs. M. B. Train
Surya

When the Immortals created the two eyes of heaven, they placed fair splendor in Him. —Rig Veda
GREAT commotion reigned among the Immortals, as a most unprecedented event had convulsed and shaken the inhabitants of the city of Swarga in the heaven of Indra.
Three of the most powerful and most beautiful of all the gods, Indra, Surya and Soma, had fallen foolishly, hopelessly in love with a mortal woman. She was the daughter of a Brahmin priest, a twice-born man, and so fair was she that the King of Benares described her as a morsel fit for the gods.

The court poet had sung her beauty in a song which ran thus:
“Thou canst behold her beauty but once and nevermore, for like the splendor of Surya it blinds thee for thy daring.