Aug28<\/b> <\/a> by commentarymahabharat<\/a><\/div>\n
\n![\"Satyavati\"](\"http:\/\/commentarymahabharat.files.wordpress.com\/2013\/08\/satyavati.jpg?w=300&h=158\")
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Although we get to meet many fascinating characters and several\u00a0 important incidents related to the main story happen much earlier than\u00a0 even the first mention of Satyavati, but I would like to start the\u00a0 analytical part of this blog by first introducing and analyzing the\u00a0 character of Satyavati. Also it makes sense to start with her for the\u00a0 simple fact that the element of drama is introduced only when she comes\u00a0 into the picture. Before she arrives on the scene everything is\u00a0 happening pretty much the way it was supposed to happen. Ganga descends\u00a0 on earth and marries Shantanu, she drowns the first seven of her eight\u00a0 children because it was pre-ordained that they would be relieved from a\u00a0 miserable life on earth with Ganga\u2019s assistance. But things start to\u00a0 change the moment Satyavati makes an appearance.<\/div>\n
<\/a>Although we get to meet many fascinating characters and several\u00a0 important incidents related to the main story happen much earlier than\u00a0 even the first mention of Satyavati, but I would like to start the\u00a0 analytical part of this blog by first introducing and analyzing the\u00a0 character of Satyavati. Also it makes sense to start with her for the\u00a0 simple fact that the element of drama is introduced only when she comes\u00a0 into the picture. Before she arrives on the scene everything is\u00a0 happening pretty much the way it was supposed to happen. Ganga descends\u00a0 on earth and marries Shantanu, she drowns the first seven of her eight\u00a0 children because it was pre-ordained that they would be relieved from a\u00a0 miserable life on earth with Ganga\u2019s assistance. But things start to\u00a0 change the moment Satyavati makes an appearance.<\/div>\n
Satyavati is also very important for another reason. Contrary to the\u00a0 popular perception, Mahabharat is not the story of a war between the\u00a0 descendents of the great Kuru king Bharat, the Kuru bloodline ended with Bhishma. The generation after Bhishma which is Dhritrashtra and Pandu\u00a0 are the sons of Sage Vyas who was the son of Satyavati and Sage\u00a0 Parashar. Hence from the moment Satyavati enters the Kuru household, the Chandravanshi dynasty becomes Satyavati\u2019s dynasty even though the\u00a0 following generations of the family are called Kurus (see the story of\u00a0 Chandrama and Tara) but they are not of the Kuru blood and hence\u00a0 Satyavati is the grand matriarch of this new dynasty that she started.\u00a0 She was also the mother of Ved Vyas, the author of Mahabharat.<\/div>\n
Even though Satyavati is the progenitor of the race of Kurus who are\u00a0 the primary players as the story progresses but in the epic itself we\u00a0 don\u2019t get a lot of time with her. The following is her story in brief:<\/div>\n
A fisherman called Dashraj came upon a boy and a girl born of a fish\u00a0 and took them to the king. The king adopted the boy but gave the girl\u00a0 back to Dashraj who raised her as his own daughter. Satyavati grew to be a beautiful maiden and during a chance encounter with a wandering sage, Satyavati exchanges sexual favors for eternal youth, a fragrance all\u00a0 her own, unimpaired virginity and an illustrious son all the while\u00a0 making sure that this encounter remains a secret. Once the act is\u00a0 consummated both Parashar and Satyavati part ways never to meet again.\u00a0 Satyavati gives birth immediately and the baby grows to a fully grown\u00a0 man almost immediately. This man was Ved Vyas, the author of Mahabharat. Before he leaves, he tells his mother that should she ever need him,\u00a0 all she has to do is to think of him and he would come to her to help\u00a0 her with whatever she needed.<\/div>\n
Years pass and one day Satyavati meets King Shantanu who falls in\u00a0 love with her and her enchanting fragrance immediately. He goes to talk\u00a0 to her father Dashraj for her hand in marriage. Dashraj tells him that\u00a0 he had been waiting for Shantanu as his daughter\u2019s horoscope indicated\u00a0 that she would marry a king. However there was a condition, Dashraj\u00a0 would only give Shantanu his daughter if she would be his primary queen\u00a0 and if her children ascended the throne after him. This proved to be\u00a0 very problematic for Shantanu because he had already announced Devavrat, his demi god son borne to him by Goddess Ganga, as his heir apparent.\u00a0 Devavrat was by all means the perfect prince and people looked forward\u00a0 to the time he would be crowned king. When Shantanu heard Dashraj\u2019s\u00a0 condition he was heartbroken. Not only could he not dispossess Devavrat\u00a0 of his rights, in preparation of which he had spent all his life, but he could not deprive his people of a very capable future king. So Shantanu went back home dejected, choosing duty over love.
Devavrat noticed that his father had been very depressed of late and\u00a0 asked Shantanu\u2019s charioteer about it. On knowing what had happened,\u00a0 Devavrat without losing any time went to meet with Dashraj where Dashraj reiterates his conditions. Devavrat could not understand why something\u00a0 as trivial as this had troubled his father so. The dutiful and loving\u00a0 son that Devavrat was he immediately promised to Dashraj that he was\u00a0 voluntarily abdicating the throne of Hastinapur in favor of Satyavati\u2019s\u00a0 as yet unborn children. But there was one problem, Dashraj pointed out,\u00a0 just like Shantanu was in no position to give up the rights of his son,\u00a0 Devavrata could not could not give up the rights of his unborn children\u00a0 on their behalf. What if they wanted to claim the throne after Devavrat? To resolve this matter, Devavrat took the terrible vow of celibacy,\u00a0 committing himself to the lifelong pledge of forsaking a woman\u2019s love\u00a0 and his own family. And thus Satyavati was brought into the Kuru\u00a0 household.<\/div>\n
Devavrat noticed that his father had been very depressed of late and\u00a0 asked Shantanu\u2019s charioteer about it. On knowing what had happened,\u00a0 Devavrat without losing any time went to meet with Dashraj where Dashraj reiterates his conditions. Devavrat could not understand why something\u00a0 as trivial as this had troubled his father so. The dutiful and loving\u00a0 son that Devavrat was he immediately promised to Dashraj that he was\u00a0 voluntarily abdicating the throne of Hastinapur in favor of Satyavati\u2019s\u00a0 as yet unborn children. But there was one problem, Dashraj pointed out,\u00a0 just like Shantanu was in no position to give up the rights of his son,\u00a0 Devavrata could not could not give up the rights of his unborn children\u00a0 on their behalf. What if they wanted to claim the throne after Devavrat? To resolve this matter, Devavrat took the terrible vow of celibacy,\u00a0 committing himself to the lifelong pledge of forsaking a woman\u2019s love\u00a0 and his own family. And thus Satyavati was brought into the Kuru\u00a0 household.<\/div>\n
As I have mentioned before, pretty much every character in MB is an\u00a0 embodiment of either an emotion or an issue and the same holds true for\u00a0 Satyavati as well. Of the many things that Satyavati personifies,\u00a0 ambition would have to be her defining characteristic. Her life was\u00a0 spent in the single minded pursuit of being the mother of emperors. But\u00a0 to understand what fueled Satyavati\u2019s ambition it is crucial to\u00a0 understand her true origin.<\/div>\n
Vyas ascribes a very strange birth to Satyavati, she was found in the belly of a fish by Dashraj. It\u2019s said that once on a hunting trip, the\u00a0 King Uparicara Vasu fell asleep and had a nocturnal emission when he\u00a0 dreamed of his wife. He collected this emission on a leaf and sent it to his wife through an eagle. The eagle was attacked by another eagle and\u00a0 the package dropped in a river where a fish called Adrika swallowed it.\u00a0 Adrika was a celestial nymph who had been cursed by a sage to become a\u00a0 fish. A few months later the head of a fisherman tribe called Dashraj\u00a0 caught this fish and when he cut open her belly he found 2 human babies\u00a0 inside, a boy and girl. He took both the children to the king and while\u00a0 the king kept the boy he gave the girl back to Dashraj. This girl grew\u00a0 up to be Satyavati. The second king to whom Dashraj goes, although not\u00a0 named, was possibly Uparicara Vasu, the king whose semen had made the\u00a0 fish pregnant and thus Satyavati, although she grew up amongst\u00a0 fisherfolks was actually of a celestial and royal birth, a princess\u00a0 disowned by her father.<\/div>\n
Although the MB states the above as the story of Satyavati\u2019s birth\u00a0 but a far simpler, believable and more sensible explanation is also\u00a0 available. The reader should bear in mind that Vyas \/ MB hints at what\u00a0 might have happened but the truth maybe a little embellished. It is not\u00a0 uncommon in Hindu mythology to use animals to refer to human conditions\u00a0 and our own instincts. It is likely that Adrika was not a nymph turned\u00a0 fish but a fisherwoman who caught king Vasu\u2019s fancy while he was out\u00a0 hunting and was missing his wife (a possibility hinted to us by Vyas\u00a0 when he tells us how Shantanu fell for Satyavati). He may have spent\u00a0 some time with this fisherwoman but did not marry her. The fisherwoman\u00a0 got pregnant and the cutting open of the fish to find the children was\u00a0 probably a sad reference to the girl dying in childbirth. So the \u201cnymph\u00a0 turned to fish\u201d was Vyas\u2019s own way of turning a girl into a fish in the\u00a0 story he wrote and he makes a very explicit hint to us for that too, the same thing is done towards beginning of the epic when The Earth takes\u00a0 up the form of a cow to plead with Vishnu to come to her rescue and\u00a0 towards the end of the epic when Dharmraj takes up the form of a dog to\u00a0 test Yuddhishthir\u2019s sense of righteousness.<\/div>\n
This fisherwoman may have been related to Dashraj as a sister, a\u00a0 niece or a daughter or maybe just a girl from his tribe. A second\u00a0 possibility is that Adrika was a woman who Vasu had an affair with and\u00a0 then abandoned. She may have tried to commit suicide by drowning but was saved by Dashraj, while on the deathbed she may have revealed to\u00a0 Dashraj who the father of her children was. And like the fish in the\u00a0 original story, maybe he had to cut her open in order to save the babies in her womb. At any rate Dashraj knew about the parentage of the\u00a0 children and when they were born he took them to the king and reminded\u00a0 him of his responsibility towards the children. As a kshatriya, the king had use for a son but a daughter was of no value to him and hence\u00a0 Satyavati while of a royal birth is denied her rights to a royal life\u00a0 and thrown at the mercy of an uncertain fate. This explains why Dashraj\u00a0 puts up the difficult conditions of marriage for Shantanu when he asked\u00a0 for Satyavati\u2019s hand in marriage. Dashraj did not want history to repeat itself with Satyavati again, he did not want her to be used and then\u00a0 discarded again like her mother had been. Similarly he wanted to protect the rights of the children born to Satyavati, he did not want them to\u00a0 be abandoned again the way Satyavati had been.<\/div>\n
Even though she did not grow up in palaces but it is possible that\u00a0 she knew about her origins. And it\u2019s this knowledge of what was denied\u00a0 to her that motivates her actions to the end of her story. She was born a princess and was determined to die an empress. She had made up her mind that she would be the mother to kings and emperors and nothing would\u00a0 come in her way of getting back what was rightfully hers and she was\u00a0 cruelly denied. No means would be too low, no method too despicable. Why should she owe anything to the society and conform to its hollow moral\u00a0 standards when these hypocritical morals did not defend her and her\u00a0 mother. And it is from here that we find her making dubious choices in\u00a0 what seems to be a futile attempt at fighting her destiny.<\/div>\n
It is said that Satyavati, while bewitchingly beautiful, had an awful fish smell about her. Due to this one of her names was Matsya-gandha\u00a0 (she who smells of fish, Matsya means fish). The fish stench marred any\u00a0 prospects of her finding a husband outside of her fishermen\u2019s tribe and a king was completely out of the question. But as we would see later fate bends before the iron willed Satyavati and provides her a solution,\u00a0 walking this path however was not going to be easy at all.<\/div>\n
Once when Satyavati was sitting by the bank of the river Kalindi,\u00a0 waiting for passengers to ferry across the river, she met with sage\u00a0 Parashar. Parashar asked her to ferry him to the other bank. While they\u00a0 were midstream, Parashar overcome with lust for Satyavati, expressed his desire to make love to her. At first Satyavati is scared and tries to\u00a0 refuse the sage. Using arguments like it did not suit a sage like him\u00a0 give in to this base desire and that he should not covet a lowly\u00a0 fishergirl. But Parashar could not be persuaded. Next she tries\u00a0 deception and logic, telling him that if they were to make love mid\u00a0 stream there was the danger of the boat capsizing and requested Parashar to be patient till they reach the other shore. She hoped that once they reach the other bank Parashar would come to his senses and not hassle\u00a0 her anymore. However when they touched a small river island, Parashar\u00a0 seized her hand again. Once again Satyavati tried to dissuade Parashar\u00a0 by telling him that her father or other people from her tribe could see\u00a0 her from the other bank, they did not have any privacy. To her surprise, Parashar drew a thick cover of fog around the island. Satyavati still\u00a0 tries to get out of this by saying that it does not befit a sage like\u00a0 him to give in to this animal lust in the middle of the day, maybe they\u00a0 should wait for the night, again she tries to buy time, hoping that\u00a0 Parashar would heed to his own better judgment as the hours passed and\u00a0 maybe he would let her go without putting a curse on her. Again to her\u00a0 surprise, Parashar made it as dark as night to fulfill the condition she had laid before him. In this moment a change came over Satyavati. She\u00a0 was not afraid of the sage anymore or what he had proposed for them to\u00a0 do. She displays an exceptional presence of mind in turning a horrific\u00a0 situation into an opportunity for herself. Her mother may have been a\u00a0 victim, but she wouldn\u2019t be. What lay before her was an opportunity to\u00a0 get what she wanted and man who could make it happen. She now started\u00a0 putting forth demands of increasingly ambitious nature. With shocking\u00a0 frankness she tells Parashar that intercourse ought to be enjoyable for\u00a0 both parties and since she smelt like a fish this could not possibly be a pleasant experience for Parashar and she would feel very inhibited too. Instantly Parashar transformed her fish smell to a sweet flowery-musky\u00a0 smell that could be felt for a Yojan (8-9 miles). Matsyagandha had now\u00a0 transformed into Yojanagandha (she whose fragrance can be felt for a\u00a0 Yojan).\u00a0 She also asked for eternal youth and unwithering beauty.<\/div>\n
As Parashar tried reaching out to her again she put forth yet another demand \u201cWhat will happen to me o mighty sage after you have left? How\u00a0 could I hope to find a husband for myself having known a man before\u00a0 marriage?\u201d To this Parashar promised she would regain her virginity\u00a0 after they were done. Did she have any other apprehensions, he asked.\u00a0 Yes, said Satyavati. What would happen to her child, in case she gets\u00a0 pregnant. (And as anyone who has seen the Hindi movies, mistakes like\u00a0 this always result in pregnancy) Her fears were genuine, Parashar agreed and once again told her that a son would be born to her through this\u00a0 union but she need not fear the future of this child or her own. The boy would grow up to be a very famous sage and would bring her great glory. This boy we later find out was Krishna-Dwaipayan (the dark child born\u00a0 on an island) also known to the world as Ved Vyas. He compiled the Vedas and is the author of Mahabharat. So through this single rendezvous,\u00a0 Satyavati managed to turn her entire life around. She got rid of the\u00a0 burden that the fish stench was, which greatly improved her prospects\u00a0 for marriage, no one knew about what had happened, and also just in case the newly acquired sweet fragrance did not help her find a royal\u00a0 husband she had an insurance policy in the form of a son who the world\u00a0 would come to revere as a great sage. But more importantly Satyavati\u00a0 learned that perhaps life had not short changed her so much. That she\u00a0 could wield her own special kind of power and get what she wanted. Sure\u00a0 it seems unpalatable to use sex to get what you want but was it worse\u00a0 than being a victim like her mother was? If men can get from women what\u00a0 they want shouldn\u2019t a woman also hope to get atleast something out of\u00a0 this? Or could she use it to her advantage. From where she was, sex was\u00a0 probably just that, a means to an end. We see that Satyavati would later continue to have this attitude about sex when we come to Ambika and\u00a0 Ambalika.<\/div>\n
When Vichitravirya passed away without leaving any heirs, the Kuru\u00a0 family faced the terrible prospect of extinction and this would\u00a0 seriously jeopardize the state of security of Hastinapur and its people. At first Satyavati implored Bhishma to do what was right and marry his\u00a0 widowed sisters in law. Bhishma refused this staunchly and repeatedly,\u00a0 he had after all taken a vow and the man was his word. Under no\u00a0 circumstances would he revoke his oath. At this point Satyavati reveals\u00a0 to Bhishma a secret she had held in her bosom all her life, she had a\u00a0 third son. A very renowned son whom everyone respected. Satyavati,\u00a0 without a trace of shame or guilt and once again with shocking frankness tells Bhishma of her pre marital encounter with Rishi Parashar. Maybe\u00a0 Vyas could be called upon to do that which Bhishma could not be\u00a0 persuaded for.<\/div>\n
At this point it is important to note that Satyavati is in a similar\u00a0 position that Kunti finds herself in later in the epic. But unlike\u00a0 Kunti, she displays a rare courage to own up to a mistake that she had\u00a0 made before marriage that could salvage their situation now and secure\u00a0 the future of Hastinapur for atleast one more generation. Without any\u00a0 hesitation she accepts the son she had abandoned many years ago. Kunti\u00a0 on the other hand can not find this courage within herself even when her husband assures her his complete support. When they had started living\u00a0 in the forest, Pandu, desperate for sons and unable to have them\u00a0 requested Kunti to produce heirs for him through levirate. Kunti refuses this offer completely, in desperation, Pandu requests her with folded\u00a0 hands to tell him if she had had any children at all even the ones born\u00a0 to her before they got married would be acceptable to him as long as he\u00a0 could call them their own but Kunti does not acknowledge the existence\u00a0 of Karna even when her husbands blood line is coming to an end. Karna\u00a0 could have been a solution to their problem but Kunti would much rather\u00a0 live with the guilt of turning down her husband\u2019s earnest request and\u00a0 the fate of the child she had abandoned rather than live with the shame\u00a0 of people knowing her pre marital dalliance.
Satyavati\u2019s is a story of hope and ambition. While her actions cannot be condoned or admired but we can definitely understand her aspirations.\u00a0 She is a pre cursor to many other well loved characters of Mahabharat\u00a0 who will not only dare to dream but will have the fire in their belly to actually do something to change their fate in life. Like Karna she knew that the circumstances that she had grown in were not the once she\u00a0 should have been in. Like Draupadi she would not take lying down the\u00a0 injustice heaped upon her by a society that rarely takes cognizance of\u00a0 the helpless. Like Duryodhan she would not give up what was hers without a fight.<\/div>\n
Satyavati\u2019s is a story of hope and ambition. While her actions cannot be condoned or admired but we can definitely understand her aspirations.\u00a0 She is a pre cursor to many other well loved characters of Mahabharat\u00a0 who will not only dare to dream but will have the fire in their belly to actually do something to change their fate in life. Like Karna she knew that the circumstances that she had grown in were not the once she\u00a0 should have been in. Like Draupadi she would not take lying down the\u00a0 injustice heaped upon her by a society that rarely takes cognizance of\u00a0 the helpless. Like Duryodhan she would not give up what was hers without a fight.<\/div>\n
So what happened with Satyavati\u2019s ambition in the end? Was it all a\u00a0 futile attempt like trying to capture sun\u2019s rays within the palms of\u00a0 one\u2019s hand? Did she become the matriarch of emperors like she wanted to? After all, all of her descendants died. Only the 5 Pandavs and\u00a0 Parikshit, the unborn child of Uttara and Abhimanyu, survived the war\u00a0 and the Pandavs were not her descendants, they were the children of\u00a0 Kunti and various Gods. Ironically Bhishma, whom she had displaced to\u00a0 make her own son the king, outlived 4 generations of her progeny. So did all her actions go in vain?<\/div>\n
The core message of Mahabharat and Gita is mindful actions. This core idea is visited again and again as we analyze the actions and inactions of various characters. The idea that we must act towards what we want\u00a0 and leave the result to a higher power forms the very foundations of the Gita (I will elaborate on this theme later when I narrate the story of\u00a0 Krishna and Sudama). If we keep on the path of action we will eventually see the fruit of our actions. So did the higher power or Krishna decide to not heed to the dispossessed princess\u2019s actions? Did her bloodline\u00a0 extinguish?<\/div>\n
Perhaps not.<\/div>\n
Maybe God did not give Satyavati what she wanted the way she wanted\u00a0 it but Vyas gives us the hint that her efforts did not go in vain. At\u00a0 the beginning of Satyavati\u2019s story we are told that she had a twin\u00a0 brother. This brother went on to establish his own very successful\u00a0 dynasty. Many generations later a princess from this dynasty gave birth\u00a0 to the sole surviving heir of the Kuru throne called Parikshit, and\u00a0 Satyavati\u2019s blood came back into the Kuru\/Pandav dynasty again through\u00a0 this princess. This Princess was Uttara and the name of the kingdom she\u00a0 belonged to: Matsya, the Kingdom of the Fish!<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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