[1] According to The Jingde Record of the Transmission of the Lamp, Punyamitra was the eldest son of a king of southern India known as Virtuous Conqueror.
After the robe of Bahsyashita, the 25th Patriarch, was miraculously unburned despite being thrown into a fire, the king relented and ordered Punyamitra's release.
[2] After Bashyashita's death, Punyamitra traveled to eastern India, where a group of Brahmins who practiced black magic attempted to oppose him.
Punyamitra defeated them by banishing an illusion of a magical mountain and became advisor to the king who had previously patronized the Brahmins.
Punyamitra declared that a sage lived in the king's country who would succeed him, and later encountered the orphan Prajnatara in the streets.