Markandeya was a sage.

According to an Indian mythological story, he will continue to live till the end of this Kalp. Won over by his austerities and devotion Bhagavan Narayan appeared in person before him and offered to grant him a boon. The sage, however, requested that he might be allowed to witness the glory of His Maya. The Lord disappeared, assuring the sage that his prayer would be granted.

One evening, while the sage was engaged in his devotion on the bank of the Pushpabhadra river, it began to rain in torrents. The oceans out-stepped their limits and deluged the earth as well as the heavens. Even though he was an enlightened soul, the sage was much confused and alarmed, and tossed about by the furious waves and blasing wind he drifted along like a blind man for a long time. At last he espied a small island on which stood a young banyan tree. On the tree itself he saw, lying in a cup of leaves, a most charming babe of dark hue, holding in both of his tiny hands one of the great toes and sucking it. The sage was enraptured to behold this extraordinary babe and at its very sight all his fatigue and pain disappeared. As the sage tried to approach the babe he was drawn by the breath of its nostrils into its stomach and saw the whole universe contained therein. After wandering there for a long time he was expelled from the stomach with the breath and found himself once more in the endless ocean with the banyan tree and the beautiful babe still before his eyes. The sage made one more attempt to approach the babe, but the babe disappeared and the great deluge also vanished out of sight.