A Classical Dictionary of Hindu Mythology and Religion, Geography, History, and Literature c5.23

c5.23

The Mahā-bhārata relates a legend respecting the creation of his wife. It says that Agastya saw his ancestors suspended by their heels in a pit, and was told by them that they could be rescued only by his begetting a son. Thereupon he formed a girl out of the most graceful parts of different animals and passed her secretly into the palace of the king of Vidarbha. There the child grew up as a daughter of the king, and was demanded in marriage by Agastya. Much against his will the king was constrained to consent, and she became the wife of the sage. She was named Lopā-mudrā, because the animals had been subjected to loss (lopa) by her engrossing their distinctive beauties, as the eyes of the deer, &c. She was also called Kausītakī and Vara-pradā. The same poem also tells a story exhibiting his superhuman power, by which he turned King Nahusha into a serpent and afterwards restored him to his proper form. See Nahusha.