Adhyaya 39

This chapter, narrated by Sūta in dialogue form, begins with Añjanā grieving over childlessness when the sage Matanga approaches and asks her purpose. She recalls an earlier boon Śiva granted her father Keśarī: though limited in his present birth, he would have a renowned daughter, and her son would bring him joy. Añjanā then recounts the many devotional and ethical observances she has performed for progeny—seasonal and monthly vratas, ritual bathing and charity, circumambulation and salutations, śālagrāma-related offerings, and varied forms of dāna—yet without obtaining a son, she turns to tapas. Matanga gives a precise sacred itinerary: south to Ghānācala and Brahmatīrtha, east to the Suvarṇamukharī, north toward Vṛṣabhācala and Svāmipuṣkariṇī; she must bathe, honor Varāha and Veṅkaṭeśa, proceed to the tīrtha Viyadgaṅgā amid auspicious trees, and perform directed austerity to Vāyu. Añjanā follows, intensifying her ascetic discipline from fruit and water to harsher restraint; after a thousand years Vāyu manifests at an astrologically marked auspicious time, offers a boon, and—when she asks for a son—declares himself her son and promises fame. The chapter closes with gods, sages, and divine consorts gathering to witness her extraordinary tapas, affirming that disciplined practice at rightly indicated tīrthas draws forth transformative divine response.