According to the Linga Purana, the god Vishnu divides the world into the good and the bad. He creates Lakshmi (Sri) and Jyestha, both born from the churning of the cosmic ocean. While Lakshmi marries Vishnu, Jyestha is married to the sage Dussaha. The sage soon discovers that his ugly wife can not bear the sound or sight of any auspicious things and complains to Vishnu or the sage Markendeya (in some versions). Vishnu/Markendeya recommends Dussaha to take Jyestha only to inauspicious places. Jyestha is described to stay away from religious people. Jyestha then earns the epithet Alakshmi, one who is inauspicious. She dwells in places where family members quarrel and elders eat food while disregarding the hunger of their children. She is described to comfortable in company of false mendicants, naked Jain monks and Buddhists, who were considered as heretics by Hindus. Eventually tired of her anti-social nature, Dussaha abandons Jyestha in a place where non-Vedic (heretical) rituals are performed. She then approaches Vishnu for relief. Vishnu decreed that Jyestha would be sustained by offerings of women.