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Lord Brahma gave birth to nine sages: Atharva, Bhrigu, Kratu, Marichi, Atri, Vashishta, Pulaha, Pulastya, Kardama, and a beautiful woman named Ahilya. He also gave birth to a man and a woman named Swayambhuva Manu and Shatarupa, respectively. Manu and Shatarupa got married and had three daughters named Akuti, Devahuti, and Prasuti. Devahuti married Sage Kardama and had six daughters, who married six of the seven sages. Shanti married Atharva, Gati married Pulaha, Havirbhu married Pulastya, Kala married Marichi, Khyati married Bhrigu, Kriya married Kratu, Shraddha married Angira, and Anasuya married Atri.
Akuti married the sage Ruchi and they had a son and daughter named Yagna and Dakshina. Lord Yagna is an incarnation of Lord Vishnu and Dakshina is an incarnation of Goddess Lakshmi. They got married and gave birth to twelve demigods called Tushitas.
Atri prayed to Brahma, Shiva and Vishnu, who all appeared before him. The boon he asked for what was that the lord of the universe would be born as his son. But he didn't know which of the three was the lord of the universe. They said that all three of them were the lords of the universe. Hence all three of them would be born as his sons.
Lakshmi, Saraswathi, and Parvati wanted to learn pativratya from Anasuya. Pativratya is how a woman should treat her husband with love and respect. They sent their husbands to go and ask her. So Brahma, Vishnu, and Shiva appeared to Anasuya disguised as sages and asked Anasuya to teach their wives pativratya. But she had to be very loving to the three sages while doing so.
Thanks to her great yogic powers, Anasuya knew who the three sages actually were. So, she turned them into six-month old babies and lovingly fed them. The goddesses waited for days for their husbands to return until they decided to go to Anasuya's ashram. There they saw her lovingly feeding their husbands as babies. They asked her to turn their husbands back to normal, which she did. The three gods were pleased with Anasuya and offered her a boon. She asked that they should be born as her children, just like how her husband had asked.
Once, the king's soldiers caught some thieves who were hiding in the ashram of sage Mandavya. The soldiers also kidnapped Mandavya and impaled him. When he met Yamaraja, he asked him why he was punished and died in such a manner. Yamaraja said that it was because he had killed an ant in his childhood. Mandavya was furious that he was punished for such an innocent act. So, he cursed Yamaraja that he would be born as the son of a maidservant. Because of this curse, Yamaraja would eventually be born as Vidhura, a wise and important character of the Mahabharata.
Meanwhile, a sage named Kaushik was feeling very sick and his wife was helping him walk. On the way, he stepped on sage Mandavya's body, and was cursed by Mandavya's soul that he would die at sunset. But, his wife loved him so much that she made the sun stop moving. Because of this, Rahu was able to eclipse Surya for a long time. This caused tons of problems in heaven and the gods had to ask Brahma for help. Brahma went to Anasuya and Atri for help. Anasuya calmed Kaushik's wife and told her to allow the sun to move. The Atri pulled Surya away from Rahu and the sun peacefully set and Kaushik died as per his curse. But, Anasuya brought him back to life and cured him of his sickness. Brahma was very grateful and as a thank-you, he was born from Anasuya as Soma, the god of plants and vegetables.
After the incident with Brahma and the pillar, Shiva was still angry, that all the demigods, including his wife, avoided him out of fear. When Shiva saw how scared everyone had become, he took away his anger and sent it into his incarnation, Anasuya's son. Hence, Shiva was born as Durvasa, the sage who is known for his great temper. and Vishnu was born as Dattatreya, a powerful sage whose physical appearance is a combination of all three gods. Anasuya and Atri also had a daughter named Subhatreyi.
Shraddha and Angira had four daughters and two sons named Utathya and Brihaspati. Brihaspati married Tara, the daughter of Surya, and had a son named Kacha, who became a sage. Chandra, the moon god, kidnapped Tara, and she became pregnant. She gave birth to Budh, the god of the planet Mercury. Budh married Ila, a woman who used to be a king named Sudyumna. Budh and Ila had a son named Pururavas, who was the first king of the Chandravanshis (the moon dynasty).
Utathya had a wife named Mamata. They had a son named Dirghatamas, who was born blind, but still became a great sage. He married a woman named Pradweshi, and they had a son named Gautama, who also became a great sage. Brahma had a daughter named Ahilya and had set up a contest: Whoever went around the earth three times the fastest would marry her. Indra went around the earth three times and then demanded Ahilya's hand in marriage. But Narada Muni said that Gautama went around the earth three times the fastest. It turns out that Gautama had circumambulated the divine cow mother Surabhi, who was pregnant at the time. A cow represented the bountiful earth and so, Ahilya married Gautama, much to Indra's jealousy.
Gautama and Ahilya had three sons named Nodhas, Vamadeva, and Shatananda, who became a priest. They also had a daughter named Anjana, who would be the mother of Lord Hanuman.
Mamata had an affair with Brihaspati and they had a son named Bharadwaja, who also became a great sage. Bharadwaja had a son named Drona, who is an important character in the Mahabharata.
Kriya and Kratu gave birth to 60,000 sages known as Valakhilyas. Bhrigu and Khyati had two sons named Dhata and Vidhata. They also had a daughter named Bhargavi, who was an incarnation of Lakshmi, the goddess of wealth. Bhrigu also had another wife named Puloma. When she was pregnant, a demon named Puloman saw her and fell in love with her. Agni told him that she was the wife of Bhrigu. Hearing this, Puloman turned into a boar and abducted her. Her child fell on the grass and Puloma died. The baby was glowing so brightly that Puloman got burnt. The baby was named Chyavana, and he would become a great sage. Bhrigu was angry that Agni had given away Puloma's identity and so cursed Agni that he would be burn and consume everything.
Vidhata had a son named Mrukandu, and Mrukandu's son is Markandeya, who is a famous sage who became immortal. Markandeya had a son named Bhavana Rishi, who married Bhadra, the daughter of Surya. They had 101 children named the Padmashalis, who became the Telugu population of India. Bhrigu had a third wife named Kavyamata, or Usanas. She had a son named Shukracharya, the god of the planet Venus. He is also the guru of the asuras and always brings the demons back to life after battles with the demigod.
Once, Shukracharya was off praying to Shiva, the demigods attacked the demons, who ran to get help from Shukra's mother Kavyamata. She used her powers to put all the demigods to sleep. Vishnu realized that she had to die for the universe to progress. So, he used his chakra to chop off her head. Bhrigu was so angry that he cursed Vishnu to be born on the earth 10 times. Bhrigu then revived Kavyamata.
Shanti and Atharva had a son who was a great sage named Dadhichi. Dadhichi also had a son named Kunda. Kala and Marichi had a son named Kashyapa, who became a famous sage and the father of tons of creatures: humans, animals, gods, and demons. Pulastya and Havirbhu gave birth to the sages Agastya and Vishrava. Agastya married a woman named Lopamudra. Vishrava has two wives named Idavida and Keshini. Idavida was the daughter of Bharadwaja and gave birth to Kubera, and Keshini gave birth to Ravana, Kumbakarna, Khara, Dhushana, Vibhishana, and Shurpanakha, all of whom are famous demons in the Ramayana.
Prasuti married the Chief Prajapati Daksha and had sixteen daughters. One of their daughters went to the underworld, and thirteen of them married the sage Dharma. Dharma, and one of his wives, Murti, gave birth to the twin-brothers incarnation of Lord Vishnu called Nara-Narayana. They performed lots of penance in Badrinath and became very powerful sages. Shiva wanted to show the world how powerful they were by throwing his Pashupatastra weapon at them. They were so powerful that the astra lost its power before it hit them.
Once, Indra became very nervous because of Nara-Narayana's power that he sent Kama (love, desire), Vasant (spring), and beautiful nymphs to them to disturb them and stop their meditation. Narayana took a flower and placed it on his thigh. From his thigh came a beautiful nymph named Urvashi. She was the most beautiful nymph of all time and the other nymphs couldn't make themselves more beautiful. So they all went back to heaven along with Urvashi and Nara-Narayana continued meditating. Nara and Narayana eventually were reborn as Arjuna and Krishna from Mahabharata, respectively.
One of Daksha's daughters, Swaha, married the fire god Agni and they had a daughter named Agneya, who married Uru, a descendant of Angira. Agni and Swaha also had three sons who carried offerings to and from heaven and yagnas on earth. They each had 15 sons, so there are 49 fire gods in total. The youngest daughter of Daksha, Sati, later married Shiva, but burned herself before she had any children.
