A sage who once lived in Kurukshetra. His sons Swasripa, Krodhana, Himsra, Pishuna, Kavi, Vagadushta, Pitrvritti went to Garga for their education. Kaushika died soon after and the sons fell into poverty. A famine struck and once, when Garga had sent them to graze his cow, the brothers decided to kill and eat it. The youngest – Pitrvritti -said that if they used the meat for shraadh, then they wouldn’t be sinning. He killed the cow and began his shraadh. He also sent two of his brothers for devapuja and three for the pitr rites. Thus they began the shraadh and consumed the meat. They informed Garga that the cow had been eaten by a tiger.

Later, they died and were reborn in Dashapura as butchers (vyadhas), but because of their pitr rites, also had the knowledge of their past life. They were repentant and after conducting upavasas in holy places, gave up their lives in public and were reborn as animals in Kalanjaragira. Since they were repentant and had fallen from the mountains, they were then born as birds in Manasarovar. They were named Sumanas, Kusuma, Vasu, Chitradarshi, Sudarshi, Jnata, Jnanaparaga. They were devoted to each other and because of their actions, became pure. Three of them lost their spiritual ability due to distractions. When they saw the king of Panchala, who had accumulated a lot of wealth and was frolicking with women, one among them Pitrvritti desired to become a king. Two others desired to become powerful ministers.

Thus Pitrvritti was born as Brahmadatta, the prince of Vaibhraga and the two others were born as Pundarika and Subalaka, sons of ministers. Brahmadatta was anointed king of Panchala at Kambilya. He was devoted to his father, brave, spiritual and compassionate. He married Sannati, the daughter of Sudeva. She was the incarnation of the cow that had belonged to Garga. Since she was used for a pitr rite, she was born with the wisdom of a brahmin.

Once, when Brahmadatta and Sannati were in the garden, they saw two ants. They were husband and wife and fighting with each other and as the king and queen watched, the fight eased and their love resumed. The king watched them, smiling. He knew the language of all living beings on account of his past lives’ deeds. Sannati asked him why he was smiling. He answered her but she didn’t believe him and felt he was teasing her. She asked him how he knew it and he said that it was difficult for him to answer that.

The other four birds had been reborn as the sons of a poor brahmin. They had knowledge of their previous lives and were known as Dhritiman, Sarvadarshi, Vidyachandra and Tapodhika. They wanted to go away to meditate but their father was reluctant, so they told him the story of their previous lives as a shlok and asked him to tell this to the king to get rewarded. Brahmadatta meanwhile, had still not answered Sannati and was one day preparing to go out with his ministers. The old brahmin reached there then and told him the shlok. Brahmadatta fainted on hearing it, and so did the two ministers, and on regaining their consciousness lamented the loss of their spiritual powers. Brahmadatta rewarded the old brahmin handsomely and after making his son Vishwaksena king went away to Manasarovar to meditate. All three of them attained salvation as per Padmapurana Part 3 Chapter 10.