In an instance in the Mahabharata after raising the earth, Vishnu as Varaha, shakes his tusk and three balls of mud fall in the South, which he declares as the three pindas (riceballs) to be given to the Pitrs (ancestors). Varaha's association with the three pindas is reiterated in later texts like the epic's appendix Harivamsa, the Vishnudharmottara Purana and the Brahma Purana. This tale constitutes the mythology of Pitr-yajna or Shraddha, sacrifice to the ancestors.