Sagara's sons

King Sagara begins a horse sacrifice, sending his sons to guard the roaming horse across the earth. When the horse vanishes at the edge of a waterless ocean, his sons return empty-handed. Sagara, furious, commands them to search again — and not to return without the horse.

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.

Ganga has descended to earth but needs a guide. King Bhagiratha leads her to the ashes of his ancestors — the sixty thousand sons of Sagara who were burned to cinders by a sage's curse — and with the river's sacred waters, he fills the ocean itself.