The snakes pleaded with Brahma that they might be assigned a specific place to live in, so that they did not come into conflict with humans. The underworld is divided into seven regions and three of these are known as patala, vitala and sutala. (Apart from being a region of the underworld, patala is also a generic name for all the regions of the underworld taken together.) Brahma decreed that the snakes could populate these three regions of the underworld.

(In the Puranas, there is always an element of contradiction about the process of creation. Who created gods, humans, demons and other living beings? There is a strand that suggests that they were directly created by Brahma. There is another strand that suggests that all these beings were the offspring of the sage Kashyapa and his various wives. All of these wives were Daksha’s daughters. This element of contradiction is responsible for what follows.)

Brahma told the snakes that in another kalpa, they would be born as the offspring of the sage Kashyapa and his wife Kadru. Kadru and Vinata were Daksha’s daughters and both of them were married to Kashyapa. (Daksha’s other daughters were also married to Kashyapa.)