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Ramatsariar - texts and commentaries on the Vedas

"Adima then turned towards his young wife . . . who stood before him, erect and smiling in her virgin candor.  Clasping her in his arms, he gave her the first kiss of love in softly murmuring the name of Héva.
Adima ! softly whispered the woman, as she received the kiss.
Night was come. The birds were silent in the trees. The Lord was satisfied, for the birth of love had preceded the union of the sexes.
Thus had Brahma willed it, to teach his creatures that the union of the man and the woman without love would be but an immorality, contrary to nature and to his law.

Adima and Héva lived for some time in perfect happiness - no suffering came to disturb their quietude ; they had but to stretch forth the hand and pluck from surrounding trees the most delicious fruits, but to stoop and gather rice of the finest quality.

But one day a vague disquietude began to creep upon them ;  --jealous of their felicity and of the work of Brahma, the Prince of the Rakchasos, the Spirit of Evil, inspired them with disturbing desires. 'Let us wander through the island,' said Adima to his companion, 'and see if we may not find some place even more beautiful than this.'

Héva followed her husband ; they wandered for days and for months, resting beside clear fountains, under gigantic Banyans that protected them from the sun's rays. But as they advanced the woman was seized with strange fears, inexplicable terrors : 'Adima,' said she, 'let us go no farther ; it seems to me that we are disobeying the Lord. Have we not already quitted the place which he assigned us as a dwelling ?'

'Fear not,' said Adima, 'this is not that fearful unhabitable country of which he spoke to us.'

And they journeyed on.

Arriving at last at the extremity of the island they beheld a smooth and narrow arm of the sea, and beyond it a vast and apparently boundless country, connected with their island by a narrow and rocky pathway arising from the bosom of the waters.

The two wanderers stood amazed; the country before them was covered with stately trees, birds of a thousand colours flitting midst their foliage.

' Behold, what beautiful things !' cried Adima, ' and what good fruits such trees must produce ! Let us go and taste them, and if that country is better than this, we will dwell there.'

Héva, trembling, besought Adima to do nothing that might irritate the Lord against them. 'Are we not well here ? Have we not pure water and delicious fruits ? Wherefore seek other things ?'

'True,' replied Adima, 'but we will come back ; what harm can it be to have visited this unknown country, that presents itself to our view ?'

And approaching the rocks, Héva, trembling, followed.

Then, placing his wife upon his shoulders, he proceeded to cross the space that separated him from the object of his desires.

But no sooner did they touch the shore, than trees, flowers, fruit, birds, all that they had seen from the opposite side, vanished in an instant midst terrific clamour ; the rocks by which they had crossed sunk beneath the waters, a few sharp peaks alone remaining above the surface to indicate the place of the bridge, which had been destroyed by Divine displeasure.

Those rocks which rise in the Indian Ocean between the eastern point of India and Ceylon, are still known in the country under the name of Palam Adima – the Bridge of Adam.