Agastya has a son¹⁴

Once Agastya saw in a vision that his ancestors were being held suspended by their heels over a deep chasm. They begged him to help them. He was told that they could be saved only by his son. But he didn’t have a son. He was not even married.

So he said, “I shall listen to their request, but I have to get married. I don’t want to marry just anybody. I want to marry only the world’s most beautiful girl. I will collect the most beautiful, most soulful and most fulfilling attributes from everything that I can see in God’s creation — from birds, animals, flowers and everything. Then I will know what qualities I want my wife to have.”

So he looked for a girl and finally found one. Her name was Lopamudra. She was the daughter of King Bidarbha. Although King Bidarbha did not like Agastya because he was not handsome, he was afraid of the sage’s power, so he gave his daughter to him.

The girl was full of vital desires, so they soon had a son. The son became great in every way, spiritually and otherwise, and eventually he did free Agastya’s ancestors. Agastya was very happy that he could save his ancestors by having a son.