Ashvapati

King Ashvapati of Madra, childless and aging, undertakes a grueling eighteen-year penance — eating sparingly, observing brahmacharya, offering a hundred thousand oblations to the goddess Savitri. When the goddess finally appears and offers him a boon, she tells him something unexpected: he will not have sons. He will have a daughter. And that daughter will be extraordinary.

Savitri returns from her pilgrimage to her father Ashvapati's court, where the sage Narada is visiting. When asked why she has not been given in marriage, Savitri declares she has already chosen her husband: Satyavan, a prince living in exile in the forest. Narada reveals that Satyavan has only one blemish — he will die within a year. Despite this, Savitri refuses to choose another.

King Ashvapati, having chosen Satyavan as his daughter's husband despite knowing the prophecy of his early death, travels to the forest hermitage of the blind king Dyumatsena to propose the alliance. Dyumatsena hesitates — his daughter does not deserve the hardship of forest life — but Ashvapati will not be refused, and the wedding is performed with all rites.

Markandeya continues his narration to the Pandavas, describing the morning after Savitri's trials. The subjects of Shalva arrive to recall Dyumatsena — their enemy has been slain by his own minister, and they want him back as king. Dyumatsena, now with sight restored, departs for the city with his family, and Savitri later bears a hundred sons and has a hundred brothers.