Puranic Encyclopaedia: A Comprehensive Dictionary with Special Reference to the Epic and Puranic Literature c9.1715

c9.1715

Samādā, Nalinī, Puṣyati, Citrā, Viśālā, Haritā and Alinilā, all of them wives of munis saw the semen in the sky and when it fell into the water they thought it was amṛta, which conferred eternal youth, and with the permission of their husbands swallowed it. As soon as they swallowed it their divine effulgence was diminished and their husbands, therefore, abandoned them. Those women delivered seven children, who cried fiercely and that sound filled the entire universe. Then Brahmā appeared and asked the children not to cry and also told them that they would come to be called Maruts. Brahmā himself called them Maruts. They were the Maruts of the first Svāyambhuva Manvantara.