Bhrigu

As Yudhishthira journeys through the wilderness, the sage Lomasha begins describing the sacred sites that lie ahead — places where gods performed austerities, rivers served a rishi, and the Ganga herself splintered a mountain. Each spot carries its own history, and together they form a path that might lead the anxious king to peace.

After the marriage, the sage Bhrigu visits his son Richika and daughter-in-law Satyavati. Delighted, he offers her a boon. She asks for sons for herself and her mother. Bhrigu instructs them to embrace separate trees at their seasons — but they mix up the trees, and the consequences ripple through generations.

King Yuvanashva, desperate for an heir, drinks the consecrated water meant for his queen — and the sage Bhargava declares that the king himself will give birth. A hundred years later, a son emerges from Yuvanashva's side, and the god Indra himself names the child Mandhata.

Markandeya narrates the entire genealogy of fire — from Mudita and Saha Apa, through Apamgarbha, Bharata, and Niyata, to Agni's flight, his discarding of his body, and his restoration by Atharva. The account reveals that all fires are ultimately one, issuing from Angiras's body in many forms.

When the sage Niyata arrives, Agni is so frightened he abandons his cosmic duty and hides in the ocean. The gods cannot find him. He asks Atharva to carry oblations in his place, then discards his body entirely — creating minerals, gems, and metals from his flesh — before being restored to his sacrificial role through Atharva's churning.

Emerging from a sacrifice, Agni sees the wives of the seven great rishis bathing and is overcome with desire. Unable to act on his feelings, he retreats to the forest to give up his body — but Svaha, who has long desired Agni, sees his weakness and resolves to assume the forms of those very wives to seduce him.

With Skanda instated as general of the gods, Rudra departs for Bhadravata in a chariot yoked to a thousand lions, followed by a vast celestial procession — gods, yakshas, rishis, weapons, rivers, and the very branches of knowledge — establishing the new cosmic order.