Savitri and Satyavan

For eighteen years, King Aśvapati of Madra lived under strict vows and offered a hundred thousand oblations in the Sāvitrī sacrifice. He had no child, and he longed for sons to carry on his line. At last the Goddess Sāvitrī appeared after pleased with his devotion. She told him that, by the favour of Brahmā, a daughter of great radiance would be born to him instead. In time his queen, Mālavī, gave birth to a lotus-eyed girl. Aśvapati named her Sāvitrī in honour of the goddess. She grew into a woman of such brilliance that she seemed a goddess in human form, and no king dared ask for her hand. Recognising her nature, and seeing that the time for her marriage had come, her father sent her out with his counsellors to travel across the land to choose a suitor worthy of her spirit.