Surabhi

In heaven, Surabhi — the mother of all cows — weeps for a single son: a small, weak calf being beaten and overburdened by a peasant's plough. Indra asks why she grieves for this one when thousands are equally oppressed. Her answer surprises even the king of the gods.

Vyasa responds to Dhritarashtra's confession by stating plainly that a son is supreme — nothing is superior to a son. To prove it, he tells the story of Surabhi and Indra: how the mother of all cows wept for one oppressed calf, and how Indra himself was convinced that a son is dearer than life.

Vinata and the group of mothers come to Skanda, asking to be his mothers and to devour the offspring of other mothers. Skanda grants them motherhood but redirects their hunger: he allows them to afflict children up to sixteen years of age, and from his own body springs a being that becomes the graha Skandapasmara — the first of eighteen terrible seizers.