Bits of life

J-28 Words-2000

experiencing some kind of loneliness and longing for womanly company.

Once during his stroll on the bank of the river Ganges, he saw a woman rowing a boat and singing a melodious song. Shantanu was excited by the sight of the woman and soon he saw the boat approaching the river bank. He fell in love with her at first sight and wanted to marry her.

“O maiden! With your beautiful eyes you have mesmerized me. Your fragrance has reached me even before you approached me. O, what a delicious perfume! What is your name? Who is your father?”

The king’s questions were a surprise to the girl. She stood there waiting for the king to continue with his conversation.

She introduced herself in the following manner. On being asked again she replied,

“O King! My name is Satyavati. I am the daughter of Dasaraja the chieftain of fishermen community.

Satyavati’s story:

Now the maiden had her own story unknown to many. Satyavati in her previous life was the daughter of the king of Chedi and a celestial beauty named Adrika. After the birth of twins Adrika saw to it that the female baby went to the house of the fisherman Dasaraja and the male baby was brought up by a fish.

Satyavati grew up to be a lovely maiden. She helped her father in earning money for their keep. She picked up the skill of rowing a boat across the river Ganges and plied people from one bank of the river to the other bank.

On one such trip across the river she came met a sage named Parashar. The sage fell in love with her and wanted her to sleep with him. Satyavati was not willing. Yet she feared the rishi because they had the power to curse as and when they wish. So she tried put up an excuse that they cannot have sex because it was broad day light. After reaching the other shore, the sage brought on a veil of grayness so they could be hidden from the world while sleeping with each other. She told him that she smelt of fish and that would be repelling to him. Sage Parashar blessed her body to get rid of the smell of fish and replace it with the fragrance of the musk. Since then she came to be known as yojanagandhi (the one smelt who deliciously for a yojana, approximately 4 to 5 kilometers). Now she had no excuse to avoid the attentions of the sage. After the union between the two she expressed the question of her virginity. The sage blessed her so as to retain it despite the union between them.

Satyavati gave birth to a male child soon afterwards. His name was Vyasa, the writer of the Maha Bharata. He turned into a youth immediately and said that he would go to the celestials for his education that included learning the Vedas, martial arts, statecraft and many other skills unattainable to ordinary mortals.

Vyasa also told his mother, Satyavati that he would return to her whenever she called him and do the service she needed. After that he went away and Satyavati returned to her home and her life as usual.
Coming back to the present, when Shantanu wanted to marry her, she asked him to meet her father and talk to him about his wedding proposal.

Without making any delay Shantanu took off to Dasaraja’s hut and met him. After the polite formalities, Shantanu put his proposal of marriage to Satyavati before Dasaraja. He went inside and consulted Satyavati and told her his plan of introducing a condition to her marriage with the royal. Satyavati was unwilling yet could not fight against her father’s wish. Dasaraja went out and mentioned the condition to the marriage thus.

“O King! It is an honor for me that the king of the country comes to my humble hut to ask for the hand of my daughter in marriage. I am most proud and honored. I also have wish or a condition to express before the wedding takes place.”

“What is it Dasaraja?”

“Sir, I want the child of my daughter come to throne after you.”

Shantanu was incensed with anger at the fisherman’s condition. He got up in a huff saying that the throne was already promised to his son, Devavrata. Under no circumstances he was going to change that, he said. Just because he was hit by desire, it did not mean that he should follow the dictates of the girl’s father.
When Dasaraja did not change his stand, Shantanu left the hut to return to his camp on the banks of river Ganga.

In the meanwhile, Devavrata was searching for his father, king Shantanu, who did not return from his evening out on the shores of the river Ganges. As he was leaving to look out for him, he saw Shantanu returning to his camp by the chariot. Son and father met and went inside the camp to talk.

He however, couldn’t raise the topic of his newfound love to his grown son, Devavrata. His mood was dull and he moved about as though other things weighed on his mind. Devavrata noticed the change in his father’s attitude and asked him directly what the matter was.

Shantanu opened up his mind and told him of his wish to marry the fisherman’s daughter and the condition put forward by Dasaraja. Immediately, Devavrata went to the hut of the chieftain of fishermen and asked him about the marriage proposal to his daughter by his father king Shantanu. Dasaraja once again expressed his joy at this stroke of good fortune in his daughter’s life.

He said to Devavrata,

“O prince! I am a proud father today for a king asks for my daughter’s hand in marriage. I cannot believe my ears. Yet, after thinking about it I have a question and a condition for you to consider. I had already mentioned this to your father, king Shantanu.”

Devavrata was quick to reply in the positive. Then the chieftain of the fishermen repeated the condition thus:

“Prince Devavrata, my condition is that the son of my daughter should become the king of Hastinapur after your father king Shantanu.”

The prince agreed to the condition without haste. “So be it. I have no desire to become the king.”

Once again Dasaraja came up with another condition.

“O Prince! You are a righteous man. You have your discipline in following the promises you make. I know you are a man of integrity. I have faith in you. But the same cannot be said about your children. They will like to become kings after the father’s demise. They might claim the right to be the next king. How can we safeguard ourselves against such a situation?”

Devavrata understood what Dasaraja meant by this condition.

Without hesitation Devavrata took an oath to remain celibate throughout his life, so the question of his having children would not rise. Due to his celibate pledge he became famous by the title “Bhishma.”

His vow was known as Bhishma pratigya, meaning the most intense and tough pledge or oath. When he vowed with the elements and his own conscience as witnesses, the earth trembled and there was thunder and strong winds in the atmosphere. The deities in heaven praised Devavrata’s determination and valor in taking vow against marriage.

Dasaraja finally gave a nod to the wedding of Satyavati and Shantanu. They were married with pomp and splendor and lived happily in the palace of Shantanu.

Eventually, Satyavati gave birth to two sons and named them Chitrangada and Vichitraveerya. As days passed into years both Shantanu and Satyavati too aged and wanted the sons to become the heads of the state. They were greatly disappointed with the fact that Chitrangada had turned out to be a useless man. He was seen spending his time in carnal pleasures and nothing useful to the state or himself. Gradually, his health suffered and he died while still young.

Vichitraveerya was the surviving son of Shantanu. He too was not of a worthy nature. His health too was in doldrums. Shantanu died a bitter man. He repented for the wrong he did to Devavrata by lusting over a woman in his mature age. His feeling was that as a punishment to his base nature, he suffered by having good for nothing sons and there was the risk of the state falling into inefficient hands. His only hope was Devavrata who was now known as Bhishma.

After the death of Shantanu, Satyavati called Devavrata and asked him to get a bride for Vichitraveerya. Bhishma engaged himself in the task of searching for brides for his stepbrother.

Bhishma heard of the beautiful daughters of the king of Kasi. He went to the court of the king of Kasi and sought his daughters for his brother. There were three daughters whose names were, Amba, Ambika and Ambalika. The eldest one Amba was in love with the king of Salva. The king too wanted Amba as his queen. Not knowing about the love affair of Amba, Bhishma brought all the three maidens to Hastinapur.

Amba was aghast at the way things were happening. The grave mistake committed by Bhishma was that he brought the maidens forcefully and not with their consent. He conquered the kings of Kashi and Salva and drove the princesses on his chariot to the kingdom of Hastinapur. He conquered and wounded Salva sparing his life.
After reaching Hastinapur, Amba told Bhishma about her love for the king of Salva. Bhishma felt sorry for what had happened and sent her away to Kasi. From there she went to Salva in readiness to marry him. But the king of Salva refused to marry her because another royal had taken her away defeating him in the war. It was a matter of pride and self respect as far as Salva was concerned. He asked her to go back to Bhishma.
Amba followed that advice and went back to Bhishma. She asked him to marry her because she was abducted by him and was rejected by Salva. But Bhishma pledged not to marry. He told her about his helplessness in marrying her.

Amba raged with the whole episode. She felt she was done injustice by both sides, by Bhishma as well as Salva. She vowed to take vengeance and left for penance in the forest. She did penance for a long time and finally obtained the blessed vision of Shiva to whom she prayed and observed penance. Shiva asked her to choose anything she wanted. Amba who was quite clear about her motives of meditation asked Shiva that she would like to kill Bhishma. Shiva said she would be born as a son of the king of Panchala named Drupada. While performing the austerities, Amba came upon Ganga and requested to help her in killing Bhishma. Ganga being the mother of Bhishma was angry with Amba at her request. She naturally did not help Amba.

After a hard penance in the forest, Shiva appeared to Amba and grated her wish saying that she would slay Bhishma in her next life. Amba set herself on fire to die. She took a rebirth as the daughter of Drupada, the king of Panchala. Her father Drupada wanted a boy child. So to fulfill his wish he kept the fact that he had a daughter, he brought her up as a boy and later a man. She was named Shikhandini.

The story of shikhandini has several versions. Two of them are more popular than the rest. The first story was that when Shikhandini’s sex was discovered her father in law wanted to check the fact of her sex. Fearing that truth about her might be revealed, shikhandini escaped to forest and there she met a Yaksha who was willing to exchange his gender. So shikhandini becomes shikhandi and returns to the palace.

The second version was that Drupada