An Index to the Names in the Mahabharata, with Short Explanations and a Concordance to the Bombay and Calcutta Editions and P. C. Roy's Translation c5.s1.126.1

c5.s1.126.1

[Agastyopākhyāna.] § 382 (Tīrthay.): In the city of Maṇimat there lived formerly a Daiteya Ilvala, whose younger brother was Vātāpi (Prāhrādi, v. 8645). Ilvala, inflamed with wrath against all brahmans, because a brahman had refused to grant him a son equal to Indra, used to transform Vātāpi into a ram and offer his flesh to brahmans as food, and then to recall him to life (whomsoever Ilvala summoned with his voice would come back even from the abode of Yama), and Vātāpi, ripping the flanks of the brahmans, would come out laughing. Thus they killed many brahmans. Meanwhile Agastya saw his ancestors hanging in a hole with the heads downwards, and was asked by them to procure offspring to them. As he did not see any wife worthy of himself, he selected the most beautiful parts from various creatures and created an excellent woman, whom he caused to be born as the daughter of the Vidarbha king, who was then undergoing ascetic penances for obtaining offspring. She was named Lopāmudrā, and was very beautiful. When she attained to puberty no one dared to ask for her hand (III, 96). When Agastya asked the Vidarbha king to bestow her upon him, the king and his queen became much afflicted, but at her own request Lopāmudrā was bestowed upon Agastya, who immediately asked her to discard her ornaments and dress herself in rags and barks and deer-skins and partake of his vows, and proceeding to Gaṅgādvara they practised the severest penances.