One day Satyakama Jabala said to his mother Jabala: “Mother, I want to become a vedic student. So tell me what my lineage is.” She replied: “Son, I don’t know what your lineage is. I was young when I had you. I was a maid then and had a lot of relationships. As such, it is impossible for me to say what your lineage is. But my name is Jabala, and your name is Satyakama. So you should simply say that you are Satyakama Jabala.”

He went to Haridrumata Gautama then and said: “Sir, I want to live under you as a vedic student. I come to you, sir, as your student.” Haridrumata asked him: “Son, what is your lineage?” And he replied: “Sir, I don’t know what my lineage is. When I asked my mother, she replied: ‘I was young when I had you. I was a maid then and had a lot of relationships. As such, it is impossible for me to say what your lineage is. But my name is Jabala, and your name is Satyakama.’ So I am Satyakama Jabala, sir.”

Haridrumata then told him: “Who but a Brahmin could speak like that! Fetch some firewood, son. I will perform your initiation. You have not strayed from the truth.” So he initiated the boy and, picking out four-hundred of the most skinny and feeble cows, told him: “Son, look after these.” As he was driving them away, Satyakama answered back: “I will not return without a thousand!”

From the Chandogya Upanishad, Upanishads, translated by Patrick Olivelle, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1996, p. 130.