And Ganaka spoke to them: 'Ye venerable Brahmanas, he who among you is the wisest, let him drive away these cows.' Then those Brahmanas durst not, but Yagnavalkya said to his pupil: 'Drive them away, my dear.' He replied: 'O glory of the Saman' and drove them away. The Brahmanas became angry and said: 'How could he call himself the wisest among us?' Now there was Asvala, the Hotri priest of Ganaka Vaideha. He asked him: 'Are you indeed the wisest among us, O Yagnavalkya?' He replied: 'I bow before the wisest (the best knower of Brahman), but I wish indeed to have these cows.' Then Asvala, the Hotri priest, undertook to question him.

In plain words: Janaka said the wisest Brahmin could take the cows, but no one dared, except the sage Yajnavalkya, who told his student to drive them home. The others got angry, and the priest Asvala asked if he truly thought himself the wisest. Yajnavalkya said he bowed to the wisest but simply wanted the cows, and so the questioning began.