By Nirooshitha Sethuram

Reaching the Yamuna river, the fishermen village, Devavrata met Satyavati and her father Dashraj, the tribal fishermen chief.  Devavrata spoke to them about his father’s desire and the refusal due to the condition imposed by Dashraj.  Dashraj emphasized again the importance of his daughter becoming the queen, saying that he didn’t have any doubt that she would fit into that role beautifully.  Also, he reiterated that her children should be the ones who would rule Hastinapura after King Shantanu. 

Devavrata promised that he would give up the right to the Hastinapura throne, so that his father could marry Satyavati.  Satyavati’s father thought for a minute.  Then he said that he was happy to see a son who is willing to give up the throne for his father’s happiness, which had never been heard of in any kingdom.  But he said that he was not sure that Devavrata’s sons will give up the right to the throne as easily as their father.  They may be as valiant as their father and therefore become a threat to his daughter and her children. 

Hearing this, Devavrata, determined to fulfill his father’s desires, unexpectedly took his knife out and cut his palm.  He said, “I, Devavrata, with my blood, make a vow in my mother Ganga’s name, that I will remain a brahmachari (celibate) for the rest of my life, and not produce any heir.” 

All the devas appeared in the sky and showered flowers on Devavrata for the unbelievable vow he had taken.  Satyavati’s father was speechless.  After a while, he then said, “Devavrata, I truly admire your love towards your father.  Taking a vow not to marry for the happiness of your father, I am flabbergasted.  It has never been done before and I am certain it will never be done in the future too.  I give my daughter in marriage to your father with honor.  Please take her to your father at once.”  Devavrata was so happy.  He set off to the palace with Satyavati in the chariot.

When King Shantanu saw Satyavati coming to the palace in Devavrata’s chariot, he was overwhelmed with happiness.  He praised his son for bringing his love to him.  He hugged him with affection and blessed him with all his heart.  Then he held Satyavati’s arm and took her into the palace.  Devavrata bowed down to his father and returned to his chambers with heart filled with joy that he could see his father happy again.

King Shantanu was anxious to know how Satyavati’s father had agreed for their marriage.  So, at the first chance he got, he asked from Satyavati, what transpired between her father and Devavrata.  Satyavati told him the complete story, and when she finished it, the king was shocked beyond his limits.  Understanding the extreme severe vow his son had taken to make him happy, he felt giddy.  He passed out, in such grief that he had never felt in his life before, uttering the words, “Ek Bhishma Pratigya!” meaning, a most dreadful pledge. 

All the Devas appeared in the sky and called out, “Bhishma! Bhishma! Bhishma! Blessed Devavrata,” and said that going forward Devavrata will be known as Bhishma.  They also gave him a boon that he could decide the time and place of his death.  From that day onwards, Devavrata was called Bhishma!  Only then did Satyavati come to understand the seriousness of the situation that her father and she had created for the throne of Hastinapura . 

As everyone knows, time is the great healer.  So, in time, Shantanu and Satyavati were reconciled to what happened.  In due course, Satyavati had two boys.  The elder was named Chitrangada and the younger was named Vichitravirya.  Years passed and after Shantanu’s death, Chitrangada was crowned as the king of Hastinapura, but he didn’t last long.  Though he was a great warrior, he fell in a battle a short time later.  The king of the Gandharvas, for his name’s sake, came to challenge Chitrangada.  A fierce battle took place between the two warriors which lasted a long time, but in the end the king of the Gandharvas defeated Chitrangada and killed him.  This made the Hastinapura throne vacant.  Though Vichitravirya was a minor, he was crowned to be the ruler of Hastinapura.  As Bhishma promised to Satyavati, that he would protect the throne of Hastinapura and treat whoever sits on it as his father’s image, he served the king faithfully.  Bhishma became the Guru and guardian of Vichitravirya.  Unfortunately, Vichitravirya grew up to be a person who was not physically strong and lacked qualities to be a true king.

When Vichitravirya came to age, Bhishma and Satyavati were looking for a suitable bride for him.  At the same time, the king of Kashi organized a Swayamvara, a groom selection event, for his three daughters, Amba, Ambika and Ambalika.  He had invited all the eligible kings and princes from around his kingdom, but excluded Vichitravirya and Hastinapura due to an old grudge.  This was considered an insult to Hastinapura. 

Satyavati took this seriously and wanted Bhishma to go to Kashi to bring the princesses back to be wedded to Vichitravirya, as she thought they were the best fit for Vichitravirya.  Bhishma argued against abducting the princesses during a Swayamvara, by using strength, even though it’s a common practice among big kingdoms.  He finally agreed to do what Satyavati wanted, as he also considered the Kashi princesses to be good matches for Vichitravirya.  Also, disobeying the Queen Mother was unacceptable for Bhishma, as he had vowed to protect Hastinapura as its servant. 

On the day of the Swayamvara, Bhishma stormed into Kashi and challenged all the participants for a fight.  At the end, he seized the three princesses.  Some of the eligible kings and princes in attendance didn’t even think of crossing Bhishma’s path, nor did the king of Kashi.  They knew the power and valor of Bhishma.  Bhishma was so daunting, none of them or their armies could mount a challenge to him.  The only king who stood against him was King Shalva.  But he was defeated badly. Therefore Bhishma forcefully brought all three princesses to Hastinapura without any major issues. 

In Hastinapura, Satyavati and Bhishma ordered the formal wedding ceremonies, to wed the princesses to Vichitravirya.  While the second and third princesses, Ambika and Ambalika, were agreeable and cooperating, the eldest, Amba, was not.  She had already accepted the proposal from King Shalva of the Saubala kingdom and was in love with him.  Amba was furious with the way things turned out, as she was sure the King of the Saubala kingdom would have been her choice in the Swayamvara.  She brought this up with Satyavati and Bhishma, requesting them to send her to King Shalva.  Advised by Satyavati, Bhishma immediately accepted her request and sent her to the Saubala kingdom with all honors and respects. 

While Amba was on her way to the Saubala kingdom, her sisters were married to king Vichitravirya in an exuberant way.  The whole of Hastinapura was in celebration mode; the singing and dancing went on for days.

Amba reached the Saubala kingdom and announced that she was sent back by Satyavati and Bhishma to marry King Shalva.  King Shalva rejected her saying that he no longer desired her, as she was to be wed to another man.  He also said that she was rightfully won by Bhishma, who insulted him and the other kings and princes who were at the Swayamvara.  Amba pleaded with Shalva, whom she considered as her true love, to accept her, but Shalva refused to accept her.  Rejected and heart-broken Amba left the Saubala kingdom and went to the forest, not knowing what to do.  She felt enraged and humiliated.  She thought for some time, then headed towards Hastinapura . 

Seeing Amba returning, Bhishma knew that the King Shalva had refused her hand.  Seeing tragedy written all over Amba’s face, his eyes emitting sparks, Bhishma, took his bow and quiver, asking her to come with him to the Saubala kingdom so he could teach the King a lesson and make him honor his love.  Amba refused, saying that she could not go to the coward lover and that she could not go through that type of humiliation all over again. 

So Bhishma went to Vichitravirya, asking him to marry Amba.  He too refused, saying he was not willing to marry her because she had someone else in her heart.  Amba was getting angrier by the minute due to what she was going through.  Bhishma then asked Amba to go back to her parents in the Kashi kingdom.  Amba refused, saying she was abducted, a humiliation to her father, thus she was sure that he would not accept her back.  Bhishma tried to persuade her otherwise, but it didn’t work. 

Her anger towards Bhishma flared up, burning like wildfire in her heart, as she had concluded that Bhishma was the reason her life was in a mess.  She turned to Bhishma and said, “You are the person who came to my Swayamvara, and brought me here, therefore it is you who needs to marry me!”  Bhishma refused immediately, saying he cannot do so due to his Vow!  Driven to extreme desperation, Amba flew into a rage.  With her eyes raging fire, she Vowed, “Bhishma!  You are the cause for this utter hopeless state of mine.  I will not rest until I take revenge on you!”

Amba decided to do severe penance dedicated to Lord Kartikeya, seeking his help to avenge Bhishma.  Lord Kartikeya, delighted with her devotion, appeared in front of her and gave her an ever-fresh flower garland.  He said that whoever wears this garland would become the arch enemy of Bhishma and be the cause of Bhishma’s death. 

Receiving the garland with satisfaction, Amba went to every single kingdom around, asking the kings to wear the garland to help her out.  None of them were willing to do this, as they were too afraid to go against Bhishma.  At last she went to the King of Panchala, Drupada, hoping he might agree, as he was not on good terms with Bhishma anyway.  He too refused to wear the garland.  Amba with a broken heart, frustrated, tired and exhausted, hung the garland on the palace door of King Drupada and went into the forest. 

Amba marched into the forest and sought shelter that night with a group of ascetics along the riverbank.  The next day, upon listening to Amba’s ordeal, the sages advised her to approach the great Parashurama, Bhishma’s Guru.  Taking their advice Amba went to Parashurama at once.  Amba conveyed her predicament to Parashurama and prayed to him for help.  Parashurama gave his word to Amba that he would make Bhishma marry her or else would destroy him. 

Parashurama went to the vicinity of Hastinapura and sent word to Bhishma to meet him.  Parashurama tried to convince Bhishma to marry Amba, but Bhishma refused due to his vow.  Parashurama called him out for a battle, but Bhishma said he would not battle his Guru.  Parashurama said that if Bhishma refused the battle, it would be disobeying his Guru.  Hearing this, Bhishma agreed to fight.

Thus, the battle between the teacher and the taught began.  The battle was fierce, lasting for days without anyone emerging as the winner.  With no way out, Bhishma took hold of the celestial weapon that Indra had bestowed on him, and Parashurama readied his great Parashu for the fight.  Seeing this from far away, Mother Ganga prayed to Lord Shiva to stop the fight, as she knew that, if these weapons clash, it will lead to universal destruction.  When both Parashurama and Bhishma used their weapons on each other, Lord Shiva appeared and absorbed both the weapons within him, answering Ganga’s prayers. 

Seeing Lord Shiva, both Parashurama and Bhishma dropped everything and worshipped the Lord.  Lord Shiva returned the weapons to each of them and told them to stop their fighting. 

Watching this, Amba worshipped Lord Shiva and requested a resolution to her ordeal.  Lord Shiva asked what she wanted.  She replied that she wants to end Bhishma’s life.  Lord Shiva granted her wish, saying that she will be the cause of Bhishma’s death, but it will only be possible in her next birth.  Amba accepted the Lord’s words and walked away to end her life, so that she can be born again to fulfill her ambition of killing Bhishma.  Bhishma assures Amba, that he will one day, when the time comes, make her wish come true.  Her story will be followed in a later chapter.  Bhishma fell on Parashurama’s feet, asking for forgiveness for taking up arms against him.  Parashurama blessed his disciple and returned to continue his meditation.

More to come…

By Nirooshitha Sethuram

When Ganga took their eighth son to Indra’s heaven with her, King Shantanu was very disappointed.  He returned to the palace deeply saddened, missing his sons and, most of all, he missed his beloved Ganga.  Hastinapur went into a gloomy period, as the king lost interest in everything and didn’t pay much attention to the welfare of the country.  The ministers managed the affairs to the best of their ability but, as everyone knows, it was not the same as having a king managing the nation.

Almost every day, King Shantanu returned to the banks of the river Ganga, anticipating the return of Ganga and his eighth son.  A number of long years passed, with his grief growing worse each and every single day of those years.  One day, on his daily trip to the river, he saw a young, handsome adolescent boy playing, shooting arrows.  Shantanu was fascinated by the talent this young lad had with his bow and arrows.  He had built a dam across the river by shooting arrows into the river, blocking the flow of the water. Who could have such a great talent to be able to block the flow of Ganga?

As Shantanu was watching the young man with awe, Ganga emerged from the river, saying that the young lad was his eighth son, Devavrata.  She had taken Devavrata to different realms where he was brought up and learned all the Vedas, arts of war and statecraft.  From Brihaspati, the guru for all the devas, he learned the duties of kings.  From Vasishta, one of the Sapta (seven) Rishis, he learned the Vedas.  From Shukracharya, the guru for all the asuras, he learned politics.  From Sanatkumara, one of the sons of Lord Brahma, he learned the mental and spiritual sciences.  From Markandeya, one of the immortals who had acquired the everlasting youth from Lord Shiva himself, he learned the duties of a man.  From Parashurama, one of the immortals and the sixth Avatar of Vishnu, he learned the art of warfare.  Finally, Indra, the king of the devas, bestowed celestial weapons on him.

King Shantanu was delighted to have Devavrata, his eighth son, back home.  He tried to convince Ganga to stay with him, though he knew it was not going to happen.  But in the end, he had a suitable successor to his throne.  He returned to the palace, accompanied by Devavrata.  At getting his son back, Shantanu’s joy knew no bounds.

Within a day of Devavrata’s arrival, King Shantanu ordered his ministers to arrange a grand celebration welcoming his son.  The day after the celebrations, King Shantanu called his court for a meeting and declared Devavrata as the Crown Prince of Hastinapura.  The whole of Hastinapura was thrilled and jubilant.

Devavrata was a very courageous and valiant young prince.  He had no fear about anything.  One day when he was training a new horse, he rode the horse a fair distance, from Hastinapura to one of the kingdom’s borders.  There he saw the neighboring Salva king and his army marching to invade Hastinapura.

Devavrata challenged him single-handedly and put Salva’s army to a decisive defeat.  Devavrata captured Salva king and brought him to his father, King Shantanu.  King Shantanu was very happy and proud of his son.  Yet his thoughts were still with Ganga.  He missed her very much.  It made him sad.  On most days,  he went out on his own, riding in the countryside in hopes of seeing her again.

A few years passed. Hastinapura was back to its glory days, flourishing because Crown Prince Devavrata stepped in for the king most of the time.  One day, when King Shantanu was riding in his chariot along the river Yamuna, he smelled a heavenly fragrance unlike anything he’d ever smelled before.  He searched for the source and found it to be an extremely beautiful young lady.  He asked who she was.  She replied that she was Satyavati, the daughter of the tribal fishermen chief, Dashraj.

Who is Satyavati?  There once lived a King named Vasu, a very pious and truthful King who was married to Queen Girika, a devoted wife.  By his intense penance towards Lord Indra, Vasu gained Indra’s eternal friendship, and the gift of an evergreen garland and an aircraft to travel to the heavens.  Thus, he received the name Uparichara Vasu (Upward-Going One).

On one of his hunting trips, while he was resting under an ashoka tree, the cool fragrant breeze from the leaves and the sound of singing birds provoked his lust and a longing for his wife.  A wave of passion heated him, and he couldn’t restrain his physical response.  The thought of wasting his semen bothered him, so he collected it in a leaf and called upon a hawk to carry it quickly to his beloved queen.  While carrying the leaf with the semen, the hawk was seen by another hawk who misunderstood the leaf to be food, so he attacked for it.  The fight between these two hawks made the leaf fall into the river Yamuna, landing in the mouth of a fish.

Actually the fish was a celestial nymph named Adrika, who was born as a fish due to a sage’s curse.  Catching the leaf full of semen, Adrika (as a fish) conceived twins: a boy and a girl.  Some fishermen belonged to Uparichara Vasu’s kingdom caught the fish.  When they cut the fish open and found the babies, they took the babies to their king, Uparichara Vasu.  The King chose the boy to be raised in his palace, naming him Matsya because he was born out of a fish; Vasu returned the girl to the fishermen.

The tribal chief brought her up as his daughter, naming her Kali, the dark one, which was later changed to Satyavati.  However, she was commonly called Matsyagandha, meaning one who smells like fish.  Indeed, she smelled like fish.

The tribal chief also was a ferryman on the river Yamuna, taking people across the river.  Satyavati helped her father with ferrying people.  One day, Satyavati was ferrying the sage Parashara across the river.  Through his meditative powers, he felt that the time was right for a great sage to be born.  This inner knowing would become manifest in the world if he had coitus within a short period of time.  Therefore, he wanted Satyavati agree to his wish.

She tried to dissuade him, but Parashara was persistent, desperate not to miss the opportunity to have a great sage as his heir.  Satyavati said that, with her fish-like smell, it will be hard for sage Parashara to be with her.  With a touch, sage Parashara, turned her fish-like smell into yojan-gandha, the fragrance of musk.  Satyavati was taken by this, but then she pleaded that it was not appropriate to have sex in broad daylight, such that her father and the others will be able to see them.  Sage Parashara used his powers to shroud the entire area in thick fog.  Still she protested that he would to rob her virginity and leave her shamed in society.  He blessed Satyavati that it would be a secret and her virginity would remain intact.  Unable to dissuade him, also scared that he would get angry and curse her, she agreed.

After the act, the sage had a bath in the river and left, never to meet her again.  In accordance with the sage’s blessings, Satyavati gave birth to her baby in secrecy on an island in the river Yamuna. It was a boy, who grew up in a short period of time to be a youth.  He was less handsome, but he had a blissful radiance, definitely indicating that he would become a great sage.  His name was Krishna (dark) Dvaipayana (born on an island).  He later became known as the great sage Vyasa, compiler of the Vedas, author of the Puranas and the Mahabharata, this great epic.

Krishna Dvaipayana promised his mother that he would come to her aid every time she called on him, which she could do by a mere thought.  He then left to do penance in the forest.  After this, Satyavati returned home and continued to help her father.  No one knew what had happened.  Her virginity was intact and she now had an everlasting sweet fragrance.

Let’s return to King Shantanu.  On the banks of the river, seeing and smelling her, he became love-struck.  For the second time in his life, he requested a maiden, who he saw only moments before, to marry him.  Satyavati said she had no right to answer that question, that he must ask her father, the tribal chief, for her hand.  Immediately, King Shantanu went to her father, explained who he was and requested Satyavati’s hand.

Her father said he had to marry Satyavati to someone soon, that he had no objection and it would be a great honor to give her in marriage to King Shantanu.  However, he had one condition, that a son born to Satyavati should be the successor to the Hastinapura throne.  But King Shantanu had gotten burnt due to the conditions from Ganga and had already named Devavrata to be Crown Prince.  How could he go back on his word to his son?  Rejecting this condition, disappointed and unhappy, and with a very heavy heart, King Shantanu returned to the palace.

A few days passed.  Devavrata noticed that his father was more dejected than usual.  He understood that his father missed his mother and therefore was sad all the time, but this was different.  Devavrata wanted to find out about it.  King Shantanu would not disclose anything to his son.  Determined to find out what happened, Devavrata inquired from all of the workers and others close to the king if anything happened in the past few days that would make his father unhappy.  From his father’s charioteer, he found out about the whole ordeal which had transpired at the banks of Yamuna.  Devavrata wanted to do something to make his father happy, so had the charioteer take him to Satyavati and her father at once.

More to come…