Shaunaka said: "What is the offense and what is the negligence of great Indra, O son of Suta? How did Garuda arise through the power of the Valakhilyas' austerity? How did the twice-born Kashyapa come to have a son who is king of birds? How did he become unassailable and unkillable by all beings, and how did he come to roam and act by his own will? This I wish to hear, if it is told in the Purana." Suta said: "This is indeed the subject of the Purana that you ask me about; listen to all of it in brief, O brahmin. When Kashyapa Prajapati was performing a sacrifice for the sake of a son, the sages, gods, and gandharvas gave him their help. Shakra (Indra) was appointed by Kashyapa to bring firewood, as were the sage Valakhilyas and the other hosts of gods. And Shakra brought a load of firewood worthy of his strength, huge as a mountain, doing so almost without effort, as befits a lord. Then he saw tiny sages, the size of a thumb joint, carrying together a single stalk of a palasha leaf — exhausted, powerless ascetics, fasting, drowning in a hoofprint filled with water. Indra, intoxicated with his own strength, laughed at all of them and hurried past, stepping over them and treating them with contempt. Then they, seized with wrath, greatly enraged, began a great undertaking, dreadful to Indra: these ascetic brahmins duly made an offering into the fire with exalted mantras — with what intent, listen."