Bharadvaja

Tormented by envy that his ascetic father receives no honour while a rival sage and his sons are celebrated, Yavakrita resolves to obtain the Vedas through sheer austerity rather than study. He burns his body in a great fire, disturbing Indra himself — who tries twice to dissuade him, first with advice, then with a parable of a sand bridge across the Ganga.

Yavakrita has obtained every boon he desired, and his father Bharadvaja sees the danger. To warn his son against arrogance, Bharadvaja tells him the ancient story of Medhavi — a sage's son who believed himself untouchable, insulted the wrong man, and died when the mountains that held his life were shattered by buffaloes.

Bharadvaja finds his son dead and hears a shudra's taunt about the killing. In his grief, he curses his dearest friend Raibhya — that Raibhya's own eldest son will kill him, though he is innocent — then cremates his son and walks into the fire himself.

Markandeya begins a systematic enumeration of the fires descended from Brihaspati and Chandramasi — their births, marriages, children, and ritual roles. From Shamyu, the first recipient of oblations at chaturmasya, to Uktha, praised by the three uktha hymns, the entire genealogy of the sacred fires is recited, establishing their names, attributes, and places in sacrificial rites.

Dyumatsena, his eyesight miraculously restored, finds his hermitage empty — Satyavan and Savitri have not returned. He and his wife Shaibya run through the forest, wounded and bleeding, crying out their children's names, until the forest sages bring them back and offer reasons why Satyavan must still be alive.