"'Meanwhile, the illustrious Agastya beheld his deceased ancestors hanging in a pit with heads downwards. And he asked those personages thus suspended in that hole, saying, "_What is the matter with you?_" Thus questioned those utterers of _Brahma_ replied, "It is even for offspring." And they also told him, "We are your ancestors. It is even for offspring that we stay suspended in this pit. If, O Agastya, thou canst beget us a good son, we may then be saved from this hell and thou also wilt obtain thy blessed state of those having offspring." Endued with great energy and observant of truth and morality Agastya replied, saying, "Ye Pitris, I will accomplish your desire. Let this anxiety of yours be dispelled." And the illustrious Rishi then began to think of perpetuating his race. But he saw not a wife worthy of him on whom he himself could take his birth in the form of a son. The Rishi accordingly, taking those parts that were regarded as highly beautiful, from creatures possessing them, created therewith an excellent woman. And the Muni, endued with great ascetic merit, thereupon gave that girl created for himself to the king of the Vidharbhas who was then undergoing ascetic penances for obtaining offspring. And that blessed girl of sweet face (thus disposed of) then took her birth (in Vidarbha's royal line) and, beautiful as the effulgent lightning, her limbs began to grow day by day. And as soon as that lord of earth--the ruler of the Vidarbhas--saw her ushered into life, he joyfully communicated the intelligence, O Bharata, unto the Brahmanas. And the Brahmanas thereupon, O lord of earth, blessed the girl and they bestowed upon her the name Lopamudra. And possessed of great beauty, she began, O monarch, to grow quickly like unto a lotus in the midst of water or the effulgent flame of a fire. And when the girl grew and attained to puberty, a hundred virgins decked in ornaments and a hundred maids waited in obedience upon her blessed self. And surrounded by those hundred maids and virgins, she shone in their midst, endued as she was with bright effulgence, like Rohini in the firmament amid an inferior multitude of stars. And possessed as she was of good behaviour and excellent manners, none dared ask for her hand even when she attained to puberty, through fear of her father, the king of the Vidharbhas. And Lopamudra, devoted to truth, surpassing the Apsaras even in beauty, gratified her father and relatives by means of her conduct. And her father, beholding his daughter--the princess of Vidharbha--attain to puberty, began to reflect in his mind, saying, "To whom should I give this daughter of mine?"'" SECTION XCVII