Agastya said: 'Listen, O Indra, to a pleasant tale of how the wicked and evil Nahusha, intoxicated with pride in his strength, was cast down from heaven. Pure-souled brahmins and celestial sages, bearing him upon their shoulders and worn out with hard labor, questioned that wicked man, O best of conquerors, saying: "O Indra, there are certain hymns in the Vedas that prescribe how cows are to be sprinkled. Are they genuine or not?" Nahusha, his reason destroyed by the working of Tamas, told them they were not genuine. Then the sages said: "You are inclining toward untruth; you are not walking the righteous path. The greatest sages once declared these hymns genuine, O Indra." And, driven on by Untruth, he touched my head with his foot. By this act, O lord of Shachi, he lost his power and his splendor. Then, when he was agitated and seized with fear, I said to him: "Since you have called false the flawless hymns of the Veda spoken by the Brahmarshis (sage-brahmins), and since you touched my head with your foot, and since you, O ignorant wretch, turned these unassailable sages, equal to Brahma, into beasts of burden to carry you — O wretched one, lose your splendor, and, cast down headlong, you shall fall from heaven, since the merit of all your good deeds will be exhausted."'