In the ancient times, beneath the gentle movement of the powerless and beautiful moon in the winter sky—a moon adorned with three aspects and graced by the Triśaṅku constellation—there lived a noble king. His wife was Satyaratā, a virtuous woman of the Kekaya lineage, who gave birth to a son named Hariścandra, pure and sinless. Hariścandra, famed as the son of Triśaṅku, became renowned throughout the world as a performer of the grand Rājasūya sacrifice and as a universal sovereign. His son was the mighty Rohita, from whom was born Harita, and then Caṃcu Hārīta, a descendant celebrated in the royal lineage. Caṃcu had two sons, Vijaya and Sudeva. Vijaya, who subdued all the warrior clans, earned his name through his victories. From this line came Ruruka, a king skilled in righteousness and wealth, followed by his son Hṛtaka, and then Bāhu. King Bāhu, however, faced great hardship. The Haihayas and Tāla-jaṅghas, along with the Śakas, Yavanas, Kāmbojas, Pāradas, and Pahlavas, joined forces against him. Overpowered by these mighty Kṣatriya tribes, Bāhu lost his kingdom. Even during the righteous Satya Yuga, Bāhu was not exceedingly virtuous. Yet from him was born Sagara, a child who would become celebrated, though his birth was marked by poison. After being driven out, Bāhu retreated to the forest with his devoted wife, a Yādava woman, where he practiced austerity with a righteous heart. In time, weakened by age and sorrow, Bāhu died while fetching water. His pregnant wife, following behind him, became the target of her co-wife’s jealousy and was given poison intended to destroy her unborn child. With a heavy heart, she prepared her husband’s funeral pyre and was about to immolate herself when the sage Aurva, a descendant of Bhṛgu, intervened out of compassion. Under his protection, she gave birth in his hermitage to a powerful and righteous son, Sagara, who was born together with the poison. Aurva performed the birth rites for the great-souled Sagara, teaching him the Vedas and the sacred scriptures, and bestowed upon him a mighty weapon. Sagara received the fire weapon from Jāmadagnya (Paraśurāma), a weapon so potent that even demons could not withstand it. Empowered by this gift and his own strength, Sagara, in his anger, vanquished the Haihayas, much as Rudra would lay waste to herds of beasts. His wrath did not end there. Sagara resolved to destroy the Śakas, Yavanas, Kāmbojas, Pāradas, and Pahlavas completely. As he struck down these tribes, those seeking refuge turned to the sage Vasiṣṭha for protection. Vasiṣṭha, moved by their plea, restrained Sagara and granted them assurance. Respecting his teacher’s promise, Sagara acted according to dharma and altered their customs and appearances. He shaved half the heads of the Śakas and sent them away; the Yavanas and Kāmbojas had their entire heads shaved. The Pāradas were made to keep their hair unbound and loose, while the Pahlavas were ordered to wear beards. All these groups were deprived of the right to recite the Vedas and perform ritual utterances. Thus, the Śakas, Yavanas, Kāmbojas, Pahlavas, Pāradas, and other tribes—such as the Kelisparśas, Māhiṣikas, Dārvās, Colas, and Khasas—were set apart from the dharma of Kṣatriyas, as instructed by Vasiṣṭha. Having established order and righteousness, the victorious King Sagara initiated the Aśvamedha sacrifice and let the consecrated horse roam the earth. As the horse wandered, it reached the shores of the eastern and southern oceans and mysteriously disappeared into the earth. Determined to recover the horse, Sagara and all his sons began to dig the earth in that region, eventually reaching the very depths of the great ocean. There, they beheld the primordial deity—Hari, Kṛṣṇa, Prajāpati, Viṣṇu in the form of Kapila, Haṃsa, and Nārāyaṇa, the Supreme Lord. When Sagara’s sons approached Kapila’s divine radiance, they were consumed by his brilliance, and all but four were burned to ashes. The four who survived—Barhiketu, Saketu, Śūra, and Pañcavana—became the progenitors of Sagara’s lineage. The blessed Hari, Nārāyaṇa, then granted Sagara boons: an undiminished lineage, the completion of a hundred Aśvamedha sacrifices, a mighty son, the ocean itself, and eternal residence in heaven. The ocean, having taken the horse, paid homage to Sagara, the lord of rivers, and from that time the ocean came to be called "Sāgara." Retrieving the horse from the ocean, Sagara performed the Aśvamedha sacrifice a hundred times. Yet, the sixty thousand sons who had followed the horse were burned, and their radiance entered Nārāyaṇa. The sages, curious about this tale, asked: "How were the mighty sixty thousand sons of Sagara born? By what means did such a multitude of valiant sons come to be?" The Sūta replied: Sagara had two wives, both purified by austerity. The elder was the daughter of the Vidarbha king, named Keśinī. Thus began the story of Sagara’s extraordinary lineage.