Indradyumna

In the Dvaitavana forest, where Vedic chants mingle with the twang of Pandava bowstrings, the rishi Baka Dalbhya addresses Yudhishthira with a pointed counsel: a kshatriya without brahmanas is like an unrestrained elephant in battle. He urges the king to seek a wise, disciplined brahmana to acquire what he lacks and secure his future — citing the examples of Bali and Virochana's son to show what happens when that alliance is honored or broken.

The rishis and Pandavas ask Markandeya if anyone has lived longer than he has. The sage tells them of King Indradyumna, who fell from heaven when his merits were exhausted and wandered the earth asking every ancient creature if it remembered him — until he found a tortoise who did.

King Indradyumna, his merits exhausted, plummets from heaven crying that his deeds have been lost. He approaches the ancient sage Markandeya, who cannot remember him — and so begins a strange pilgrimage through the oldest living beings on earth, each one pointing to another even older, until Indradyumna finds the one creature who still holds his name.