Lopamudra

The sage Agastya discovers his ancestors hanging upside down in a cave, condemned to suffer for lack of descendants. They beg him to father a child to free them from hell — and Agastya, bound by truth, promises he will. But when he searches for a worthy woman to bear his son, he finds none, and so he does something no one has done before: he builds one.

Agastya obtains Lopamudra as his wife and immediately commands her to discard her fine garments and ornaments. She obeys without hesitation, donning bark and skins, and together they go to Gangadvara to undertake severe austerities — she serving him with devotion, he growing affectionate toward her. After much time passes, Agastya sees her radiant after a bath and summons her for intercourse.

When Agastya summons Lopamudra for intercourse, she joins her hands in salutation and speaks — not in refusal, but in request. She asks him to come to her on a bed like the one in her father's palace, garlanded and adorned in ornaments. Agastya protests that he has no such riches, but Lopamudra reminds him that his austerities could summon any wealth in an instant.

Having fulfilled every desire his wife Lopamudra expressed, the sage Agastya offers her a choice: a thousand sons, or a hundred, or ten, or one equal to a thousand. She chooses the one. Agastya promises it, unites with her at the appointed time, and then leaves for the forest — leaving the embryo to develop for seven autumns before a blazingly wise son is born.