The Son of Mṛkaṇḍa

Bhṛgu the sage had two sons, Dhātṛ and Vidhātṛ, and Meru, the great mountain, gave them his daughters Āyati and Niyati as wives. From them were born Mṛkaṇḍa and Prāṇa, and Mārkaṇḍeya was the son of Mṛkaṇḍa.

Mārkaṇḍeya received from his father, in due order, the rite that makes a man twice-born, and studied the Veda, the ancient sacred knowledge, as dharma, the sacred law, asks, and gave himself to austerity and the recitation of the Veda. He kept the great vow of the student. He was quiet, his hair matted, and he wore bark. He carried a water pot and a staff, wore the sacred thread and the girdle, a black deerskin and a string of beads, and held kuśa grass. At dawn and dusk he worshipped Hari, the Lord Viṣṇu, who is also called Nārāyaṇa, in the fire, in the sun, in his teacher, in the brahmins and in himself. Morning and evening he brought the food he had begged to his teacher and kept silent. He ate once a day, when his teacher allowed it, and if his teacher did not allow it, he fasted.

So, given to austerity and recitation for ten thousand times ten thousand years, worshipping Viṣṇu, the lord of the senses, he overcame death, which is so hard to overcome. Brahmā and Bhṛgu and Śiva and Dakṣa and the other sons of Brahmā, men and gods and ancestors and spirits, all wondered at him. And while he held his mind still in yoga, a great stretch of time went by, six whole eras of the world.