Aditi

Vinata and the group of mothers come to Skanda, asking to be his mothers and to devour the offspring of other mothers. Skanda grants them motherhood but redirects their hunger: he allows them to afflict children up to sixteen years of age, and from his own body springs a being that becomes the graha Skandapasmara — the first of eighteen terrible seizers.

Surya approaches Kunti and tells her that no one can bestow her — a free woman may desire anyone. He proposes union. Kunti negotiates: her son must be born with divine armour and earrings made of amrita, and she must remain a virgin. Surya agrees to every condition.

Yudhishthira is weighed down by the calamity that has befallen him. Dhoumya, his priest, speaks to him — not with empty consolation, but with a catalogue of gods who once hid in the most unlikely places: Indra in a hermitage, Vishnu in a womb, Agni in water. If the great-souled ones concealed themselves to conquer their enemies, Dhoumya asks, why should a king not do the same?