Puranic Encyclopaedia: A Comprehensive Dictionary with Special Reference to the Epic and Puranic Literature c4.73

c4.73

6) Birth of a son. Lopāmudrā became pregnant. Agastya told her, “A thousand ordinary sons, or hundred sons, each having the strength of ten ordinary sons, or ten sons, each having the strength of hundred ordinary sons, or a son, greater and nobler than one thousand sons—which of these do you prefer?” Lopāmudrā preferred one son. When she was with child Agastya again went to the forest to do penance. After seven years of pregnancy Lopāmudrā gave birth to a lustrous son. The hermit Dṛḍhasyu, who is also called Idhmavāha, is this son. This child is said to have chanted the Vedas (Holy Scriptures) immediately on his birth. He used to gather twigs for kindling the sacrificial fire of his father, and hence he got the name Idhmavāha.*