Ganga, Satyavati & Shantanu - Is there something fishy, fragrant OR camouflage ?

Ganga, Satyavati & Shantanu  -  Is there something fishy, fragrant OR camouflage ?

As per the  Indian mythological story from the Hindu epic “Mahabharata”,  King Mahabhisha for his lifetime achievements was merited an award, an entry ticket to Swarga.  He enjoyed the dance of Apsaras and music of Gandharva’s in the company of Devas in Indralok.  He was given to drink ‘Sura’ , the drink which fills one with joy.  He was given access to the tree called ‘Kalpataru’, to the cow called ‘Kamadhenu’ and to the gem called ‘Chintamani’, each of which had the power to fulfill any wish  and grant every desire.

One day, a river-nymph called Ganga visited the Indra’s Sabha.  While among the gods a gentle breeze caused Ganga’s upper garment displaced as a wardrobe malfunction exposing her breasts.  The assembled Devas lowered their eyes as a mark of respect but Mahabisha spellbound by her stunning beauty stared at her unabashedly which was enjoyed by Ganga too.  This display of unbridled passion so angered Indra, he cursed both of them to become like mortals  on the earth.  Mahabisha’s voyeuristic behavior cost him a berth in Devalok and resulted his return trip to the material world of sufferings on the earth.   In the Indralok or Devalok there is only happiness, contentment and ever youth in that heaven.

However, Ganga  was instructed to leave ‘Amravati’ the heaven and allowed to return only after breaking Mahabisha’s heart.

The Indian mythology is full of boons and banes.

Mahabisha was reborn as Pratipa’s son Shantanu in the city of Hastina-puri. Pratipa from Puru dynasty renounced the world after considering his children were able to take the mantle from him to rule the kingdom.  The crown as per practice would have gone to his eldest son Devapi but he had a skin disease.  As per the prevalent law a person with any kind of disability was never considered to be worthy of  the  royal throne.

One day, while  Pratipa was meditating on a river bank, Ganga came and sat on his right lap. Pratipa asked Gnaga, had you sat on my left lap it would have meant you want to become my wife, now being seated on my right you wish to be my daughter.  Beautiful woman, what is it that you desire ?

Ganga replied, ‘I want to marry your son, Shantanu.’

‘So it will be’,  said Pratipa.

One day Shantanu visited his father Pratipa on the river bank and was told by him that  a beautiful woman called Ganga will approach you and wish to be your wife. Fulfill her desire and that is my wish.

Shortly, thereafter Shantanu saw Ganga gliding on a Dolphin.  He has instantly fallen head over heels for her and  asked her to marry him.  Ganga agreed with a condition that Shantanu  should never question her actions.  Driven by both lust and his promise to his father, Shantanu agreed and Ganga followed him home.

Soon, Ganga gave birth to Shantanu’s first son.  There was nothing left for celebration for Shantanu, as Ganga drowned the newborn in the river.  Though, horrified by her action Shantanu did not want to lose his  beautiful wife.

A year later she delivered another son and Ganga continued the action of drowning him too.  Even this time Shantanu did not protest his voice.  This action continued till the birth of seventh son.  Each time Shantanu said nothing.

But when Ganga was about to drown his eighth child  Shantanu cried, ‘Stop, you pitiless woman. Let him live.’

  

Ganga stopped and smiled.  ‘Husband you have broken your word,’ she said,  So it is time for me to leave you like once Urvashi left Pururava.   The children I killed were seven of the eight gods known as vasus who were cursed to be reborn as mortals for the crime of stealing Vasishta’s cow.  Vasishta was a sage who owned a cow called Nandini.  She was capable of feeding an entire battalion of king’s army.  It was a wonder cow. Prtibha and his brothers stole his cow while they were enjoying Vasishta’s hospitality. On their request I became their mother and tried to keep their stay on earth as brief as possible to spare them the misery of earthly existence.  But alas, I could not save the last one.  This eighth vasu, who you have saved Shantanu, will live.  But a terrible life it shall be.  Though man, he will neither marry nor inherit your throne.  He will have no family, yet will be obliged to live as a householder.  And finally, he will die a death of shame at the hands of a man who will actually be a woman.

It will not be so, I will not allow that Shantanu argued passionately.

I shall take your son and raise him as a perfect warrior.  He shall be trained by the martial Sage, Parashurama.  I shall send him to you when he is ready to marry and be king.  Then we shall see, so saying Ganga disappeared with her son leaving Shantanu all alone.

Ganga kept her promise.   Her son Devavrata grew up as a handsome warrior prince.  When Ganga sent him to his father the people of Hastina-puri (city of elephants) loved him and awaited his coronation as the King of Hastinapuri.  But this never happened.

Shantanu had fallen in love for a second time.  This time to a fisher woman called ‘Matsyagandha’.

Before continuing with  the future of Shantanu, let us examine the work of Karma depicted by Vyasa in Hindu epic ‘Mahabharata’.

·         Mahabaratha gives great importance to the law of Karma.   According to this law, nothing in this world is spontaneous.  Everything is a reaction to the past.  Shantanu falls in love with Ganga and has his heart broken because of events in their past life.  Ganga kills her own children because of events in their past life.  By interfering the course of Karma, as Shantanu does when he stops Ganga from killing his eight son one ends up causing more harm than good.  The epic constantly reminds us that what is apparently a good deed need not really  be a good deed, for every moment is governed by factors that are often beyond human comprehension. 

·        The eight Vasus are ancient Vedic deities associated with the elements.  For the paap (sin)  of stealing Vasishtha’s cow they have to be born as mortals.  The leader of the eighth Prabhas, who stole the cow for his wife suffered more than the other seven and lives a longer and more miserable life as Devavrata.

·         Vyasa draw attention to the dangers of lust and blind obedience to the father when Shantanu agrees to the conditions laid down by Ganga .  At the root of all human tragedy is human folly.

Shantanu’s second object of desire was Satyavati, a fisher woman, who ferried people across the river Ganga.  Shantanu longed to make her his wife.  Satyavati too had a condition like Ganga berfore she accepted Shantanu’s offer of marriage.  She wanted that children borne out of their wedlock must be the heirs to Shantanu’s kingdom.  Shantanu was in a dilemma as how to satisfies this condition for Devavrata was already the crown prince of Hastina-puri.

When Devavrata came to know about the misery of his father, he went to Satyavati and said, ‘So that my father can  marry you , I  renounce my claim to the throne.’

Satyavati’s foster father who was the chief of fisher-folks was not satisfied by the act of Devavrata.  He said to Devavrata, what is the guarantee that your progeny will not fight with Satyavati’s children for the throne.  How will you ensure to avoid that.

Devavrata took a vow saying that I will not marry and I shall never be with a woman.  I shall never father children.

Devarata’s vow was like a thunderbolt and gods in Indralok was stunned by that.  So impressed were the Devas they descended from the skies and showered him with flowers.  They renamed him as “Bhishma” the one who took most terrible of vows.  Since Devavrata  would father no children due to this terrible vow,  there would be no one left on earth after his death to facilitate his rebirth.    He would be doomed to live for ever in the land of the dead across the river Vaitarni.  The Devas in fact felt so sorry for Devavrata that they decreed Bhishma would have the power to choose the time of his own death.

With Devavrata taking the vow of celibacy, there was nothing to stop Shantanu from marrying Satyavati.

Satyavati was not an ordinary fisher-woman.  Her father was a King called Uparichara who during the course of a hunt had rested under a tree in the forest, thought of his wife and ejected a joyful spurt of semen.  With the intention of not wasting this semen he wrapped it in a leaf and gave it to a parrot and requested  it to carry it to his wife so that she could  bear a child with it. 

On its way, the parrot was attacked by a falcon  and the packet containing the semen fell into a river where it was eaten by a fish.  This fish was once an Apsara called Girika, cursed by Brahma to be a fish until she gave birth to human children.

A few days later, some fishermen caught this fish and found in its belly twin children, a boy and a girl.  The fishermen gifted these children to King Uparichara who accepted the male child but let the female child to be fostered by the fisher-folks.  The chief of the fisher-folk adopted the girl and raised her as his own daughter.  She was called Satyavati but teased as Matsya-gandha for she smelt dreadfully of fish.

Matsya-gandha ferried people across the Ganga.  One day she found herself ferrying a sage called Parashara.  Midstream, near a river island, the sage expressed his desire to make love to Matsya-gandha  and have a child by her.   ‘No one will marry me if you do this’,  she said with concern.

‘Don’t worry ‘ said the sage drawing a curtain of mist          -  a camouflage -  over the ferry.  “With my magical powers, I will ensure that you will bear a child instantly and regain your virginity”, said Parashara. And you will never ever smell of fish anymore.  Your body will give out a fragrance that men will find irresistible.

Before the ferry reached the other shore, Matsya-gandha had become a lover then a mother, then a virgin and finally a fragrant woman.  The child borne of this union was raised by Parashara.  He was named Krishna Dwaipaina the dark child delivered on a river island.  Eventually he became known as Vyasa, he who compiled the sacred scriptures.

This reminds me of  a song and its lyrics by mallu poet and lyricist Vayalar Rama Varma who had greatly influenced me since my teens -

“Kaamashastramezhuthiya muniyude

Kanaka thoolike – nee

Maanavahridayamam thoonirathile

Mantrasaramaayi  enthinu malleesaramayi ?…(Kaamashastra..)

Dhyanadhanyamam manushyatmavine

Thapasil ninnunarthuvaano

Jananavum maranavum mayangumbol vannu

Janmavaasanagal unarthuvaano

Thaalam thakarkkuvaano……..(Kaamashastra…….)

Mayamoodiya yuga saundaryangal

Naayadippidikkuvaano?

Madhuravum divyavumamanuragathine

Maamsadhaahamai mattuvaano?

Raagam pizhakkuvaano?.....(Kaamashastra……) “

I am not giving a word by word translation of the song.  However, I would like to  make an attempt to give the summary of the song for non-mallus.

The sage who has written the “Kaamashastra” (the science of lust) with his golden feather (the sage in question is Vatsyayan),  are you the arrow of Kaamdev (the cupid) who lodged  the cupid’s flower tipped arrow of the quiver.  Are you trying to disrupt the mind with the highest degrees of penance ?  Or, are you trying to trigger the inner instincts when birth and death taking a slumber and spoil the cake walk.  Are you trying to hunt the beautiful mystical era ?  Are you trying to change the abstract sophisticated love into a lust for flesh and spoil the anuraag (the tender love)?  I may not have  been able to do justice in capturing the poet’s  true feelings.  The poet Vayalar’s lyrics and singer  Dasettan’s (Yesudas) song rendition are considered as a divine experience by mallus.  The music has no language and it will attract even  non-Keralites.

The relevance of the song here is Parashara’s sexual exploitation of Satyavati aka Matsyagandha and the writer of ‘Kaamashastra’  the sage Vatsyayan.  The sages of yester-years were no novices to sex and lust and considered sex as an integral part of human life.

Matsya-gandha’s new fragrant body got her the attention of Shantanu and made her the queen of Hastina-puri.

Let us analyse the logic of the story.

·         The story of Uparichara’s ‘joyful spurt of semen’ in the forest and its consumption by a fish is perhaps an elaborate tale to cover a king’s indiscretion with a fisher-woman.

·         One wonder’s if Satyavati’s insistence that her children be kings stems from her resentment at being rejected by her loyal father Uparichara who chose only her brother and let her be raised by fisher-folk.  As the story continues, Vyasa draws attention to the desperate and sometimes brutal steps taken by Satyavati to change her destiny.

·         The tale of Parashara and Matsya-gandha can be seen as a tale of sexual exploitation of a young girl by a powerful elderly sage , or it can be seen as a tale of sex hospitality that was prevalent in the epic age when fathers and husbands offered their daughters and wives to guests, sages and kings.  Or it can be seen as an  attempt by Matsya-gandha to manipulate a sage by offering him sexual favors. 

 

                    

                                                                                                                                                                                                            Devdutt  Pattanaik

This Blog post has courtesy or bibliography to Devdutt Pattanaik’, the Indian mythology’s  latest  protagonist.  The mythical modern Guru has become world renowned after the publications of  “JAYA”  an illustrated retelling of the Mahabharata and “SITA” an illustrated retelling of the Ramayana published by Penguin Books.  He had also written “Shikhandi”, The Pregnant King  and other books based on Indian mythology.  He also administer the Mythological Management fundaes.  Devdutt Pattanaik is a medical doctor by education, a leadership consultant by profession and a mythologist by passion.  Devdutt Pattanaik seamlessly weaves into a single narrative plots from the Sanskrit classics in his illustrated retelling of the myths.

The illustrations in the books of retelling of  ‘JAYA’ and ‘SITA’  were done by him with the help of his Chauffeur who assisted him to draw and shade the illustrations.

Mahabharata gives prime importance to the law of Karma.

I always found great joy in reciting the shloka “Karmanye Ma Phaleshu.”

"Karmanye Vadhikaraste Ma Phaleshu Kadachana,
Ma Karma Phala Hetur Bhurma Tey Sangostva Akarmani"

Meaning: Do your duty and be detached from its outcome, do not be driven by the end product, enjoy the process of getting there.

- SHRIMAD BHAGVAD GITA

Let me end this Blog post with the mantra ‘Satyameva Jayate’ …   Truth Alone Triumphs.