Markandeya said:—The people perform Srādha and even the Yogins do the same. So I shall describe to you its most excellent fruit (1). O descendant of Bharata, religious knowledge gradually evolved from what Brahmadatta had obtained in his seventh birth (2). O you of great intellect shorn of sins, hear what in the days of yore the Brāhmanas obtained by performing Srādhas to the neglect of religion (3). O my son, I saw with my celestial vision at the field of Kurukshetra the seven impious Brāhmanas engaged in performing religious rites for ancestral manes as pointed out by Sanatkumār (4). Vāgdustha, Krodhana, Hingsra, Pishuna, Kavi, Khasrima and Pitrivarti—these seven Brāhmanas, by name and action, were the sons of Koushika and the disciples of Garga. When after imprecating a curse their father left the house, they, taking the vow of celibacy, began to live in the house of Garga (5–6). Once on a time at the command of their preceptor they all went to the forest to tend the milch-cow Kapilā with its calf that had been obtained fairly (7). O descendant of Bharata, being stricken with hunger on the way they cherished the sinful desire of killing the cow (8). Kavi and Khasrima, however, did not wish it then and they two could not prevent the other Brāhmanas (9). Of these the Brāhmana Pitrivarti, who used to perform daily Srādha and other evening rites and abide by virtuous ways, said in anger to his brothers (10):—"If you are all bent upon slaying this cow then we all, with our minds controlled, dedicate it to the ancestral manes (11). By this, even this cow will acquire virtue no doubt. And if we perform a pious rite for our ancestral manes we shall not commit an iniquity (12)."