Verse 19

¹²Once, while he was making the water offering in the Krtamala, a little fish came into the water in the hollow of his joined hands. ¹³Satyavrata, lord of the Dravidas, let the little fish go, and the water with her, into the water of the river, Bharata. ¹⁴She spoke to that most kindly king, pitifully: You who are tender to the helpless, how can you let me go, helpless and frightened, into this river water, among water-creatures that kill their own kin, king? ¹⁵Not knowing that this one had taken a fish's body out of love, and for his own good, he set his mind on protecting the little fish. ¹⁶Hearing her words, more pitiful still, that lord of the earth was moved, and putting her in the water of his pot he carried her to his hermitage.

¹⁷But she, growing there in the water-pot in a single night and finding no room for herself, said this to the lord of the earth: ¹⁸I cannot bear to live here cramped in this water-pot. Make me a dwelling wide enough, where I may live in comfort. ¹⁹So he took her from there and put her in the water of a large jar. Thrown in there, in a moment she grew three cubits long.