Kadru

After 500 years, Kadru's one thousand naga sons hatch, but Vinata's two eggs remain still. Impatient and ashamed, Vinata breaks one open, unleashing a curse and a prophecy that will bind her fate for centuries.

Pleased with his wives, the great ascetic Kashyapa offers each a boon. Kadru asks for one thousand splendid naga sons. Vinata asks for just two sons, but demands they be greater than Kadru's in every measure of power.

To win her wager and avoid slavery, Kadru orders her one thousand snake sons to disguise the white horse's tail as black. When they refuse to aid her deception, she curses them all to die in a future fire sacrifice. The god Brahma hears her and, for the welfare of all creatures, approves the curse.

The sisters Kadru and Vinata see the divine horse Ucchaihshrava emerge from the ocean. When Kadru asks its colour, Vinata says it is white, but Kadru claims its tail is black. They stake their freedom on it, agreeing to check the next day.

Kadru and Vinata go to see the divine horse Uchchaihshravas, whose tail colour was the subject of their fateful bet. Kadru points to the black hairs she secretly placed there, proving her claim and winning the wager.

With her sons, the snakes, being scorched unconscious by the sun's heat, their mother Kadru turns her face to the sky. She does not plead. She begins to recite a litany of praise, naming the god who is the only one who can save them: Indra, the lord of storms.

Having enslaved her sister Vinata, Kadru orders her to carry her to the serpent kingdom in the middle of the ocean. On his mother's desperate request, Garuda takes the snakes and Kadru on his back and flies toward the sun. The snakes are scorched unconscious by the heat, forcing their mother to beg for their salvation.

Garuda, the mighty eagle, carries the serpents to a paradise island, but they demand to be taken to another. Confused by his servitude, he asks his mother Vinata why he must obey them. She reveals she lost a deceitful wager to her sister Kadru and is now a slave, binding her son as well.

Jaratkaru narrates the origin of the snakes' doom: their mother Kadru, enraged after losing a wager, cursed them to be consumed by fire in a future king's sacrifice. The gods appealed to Brahma, who decreed that only a Brahmin named Astika, born of a woman also named Jaratkaru, could break the curse.