Kapila

Maharshi Lomasha travels to Indra's abode and sees Arjuna seated on half of Indra's throne. The sight puzzles him — how could a kshatriya, a mere warrior, attain such honor? Indra divines his thoughts and reveals the truth: Arjuna is Nara, the ancient rishi, and together with Narayana — Krishna — he has been born on earth to remove its burden and defeat the Nivatakavachas, asuras so powerful that even the gods cannot fight them.

Sagara's sons find a yawning hole in the earth and descend into it, digging with spades and axes. They tear apart Varuna's watery realm, killing countless beings — asuras, nagas, rakshasas — who scream in pain. After immense time and destruction, they finally see the horse — and beside it, the radiant sage Kapila, blazing like fire.

Sagara, tormented by the loss of his sixty thousand sons and the stalled sacrifice, commands his grandson Anshuman to retrieve the horse from hell. Anshuman descends through the torn earth, finds the sage Kapila and the horse, and bows before the ancient rishi — asking not just for the horse, but for water to purify his dead fathers.

For a thousand celestial years, King Bhagiratha lives on nothing but fruits, roots, and water, performing terrible austerities to bring the river Ganga down from heaven. When she finally appears in personified form and asks what he desires, he tells her the story of his grandfathers — the sixty thousand sons of Sagara, destroyed by the sage Kapila, whose ashes cannot reach heaven without being touched by her waters. Ganga agrees to descend, but warns him that no one in the three worlds can withstand her force except Nilakantha Maheshvara himself.

Markandeya begins to describe the sacred fires — their origins, their names, and the rites that correct them when they are defiled. What follows is a genealogy of fire itself, from the primal austerity of Tapas through the sons of Bhanu and Manu, down to the fires that dwell in breath, in anger, and in the bodies of all living beings.