The Promise at Bindusaras

At the command of Brahmā, the creator, to bring forth beings, the sage Kardama did austerity on the river Sarasvatī for ten thousand years, worshipping Hari. Then the Lord appeared to him in the sky, standing on Garuḍa, his great bird, bright as the sun, wearing a garland of white lotuses, with a crown and earrings, holding the conch and the discus and the mace. Kardama fell to the ground before him and praised him, and asked for a wife who would share his nature.

The Lord said to him: I arranged long ago the very thing for which you worshipped me. The emperor Manu will come here the day after tomorrow with his queen Śatarūpā, and he will give you his daughter, who is looking for a husband to match her. She will bear you nine children. And with a portion of myself I will be born of Devahūti, your wife, and set out the principles of what is real. Then he went away from Bindusaras, the lake where his tears of pity for Kardama had fallen.

It all came to pass. Manu came and gave Kardama his daughter Devahūti, and she served him until he gave her a palace that flew through the sky, and they lived together a hundred years, and she bore him nine daughters.