Agastya Drinks the Ocean to Destroy Kaleyas

The gods had a problem they could not solve. The Kaleyas — a race of asuras (demons) who were their enemies — had taken refuge in the ocean. As long as the waters covered them, the gods could not reach them. They needed the ocean gone. So the thirty gods went to Agastya. Agastya was the son of Mitra and Varuna, born from a celestial jar, a sage of such accumulated austerity that the gods themselves came to him when their own power fell short. When the gods arrived at his hermitage, he asked them directly: "Why have you come? What boon do you wish from me?" The gods told him everything. The Kaleyas, hiding in the deep. The war that could not be finished. The one thing that would make it possible: "O great-souled one! O maharshi! We desire that you should act so as to drink up the great ocean. We will then be able to kill those enemies of the gods, the Kaleyas, with all their relatives." Agastya did not hesitate. "For the sake of the great happiness of the worlds, I will do what you desire." He was rigid in his vows — a man who said what he meant and meant what he said. He went to the ocean, the lord of the rivers, and the entire celestial world followed him. The gods came. The rishis who had succeeded in their austerities came. Men, nagas (serpent beings), gandharvas (celestial musicians), yakshas (nature spirits), and kimpurushas (mythical beings) all followed the great-souled sage, driven by a desire to witness the extraordinary feat. They approached the ocean together. It was thunderous in its roar, seeming to dance with waves that leapt up at the wind. It seemed to laugh with its foam as it dashed against the caverns. It was infested with many crocodiles and frequented by masses of diverse birds. Agastya stood before it. The gods, the gandharvas, the great nagas, and the immensely fortunate rishis stood with him as he prepared to do what no one else could.